ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Cat Genius won his stakes debut and remained unbeaten in three starts with a front-running win in Friday's $100,000 Gilded Time Stakes at Arlington Park.

Never threatened, Cat Genius ($4) completed seven furlongs in 1:23.01. He took the lead a few strides out of the gate, angled over to the rail on the backstretch, and was always in command through fractions of 22.62 and 45.33 seconds.

"When I saw the first sixteenth of a mile, I thought, shame on them," trainer Tom Amoss said. "That gave him a huge advantage."

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - In the end, the connections of Allspice could not say no to the $100,000 Eliza, one of two stakes on Sunday, Arlington's closing day. And while the 2-year-old filly runs in the shadow of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, continued progress would propel her toward the head of her class.

PORTLAND, Ore. - In Search of Fame, who has dominated Quarter Horse racing at Portland Meadows like no runner since Destiny Drummer two decades ago, will have a new distinction when he makes his yearly debut in Sunday's $6,000-added Autumn Handicap at 350 yards.

In Search of Fame, 6, will enter the race with a six-figure bankroll, having inched over the barrier in his last start of 2001 with a second in a stakes at Boise. He now boasts $100,570 in earnings from 19 wins in 34 starts.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - There have been a lot of horses with outstanding records at both Stampede and Northlands Park who have shipped over the mountains to the West Coast, but not many of them have been successful.

Of course there have been exceptions. It was only last year that the Alberta prodigy Fancy As earned horse of the year honors in British Columbia with his impressive wins in the B.C. Derby and Premier's.

Penn National Gaming Inc., the owner of two racetracks and several casinos, had net income of $9.9 million in the third quarter of 2002, or 25 cents a share, on record revenues of $175 million.

Revenues in the quarter from Charles Town Races and Slots in West Virginia were $69 million, dwarfing Penn's other properties. Charles Town recently installed 500 additional slot machines.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Daily average total handle rose at the recently concluded 33-day Belmont Park fall meet, while daily average on track wagering was down.

Daily average total handle on Belmont races increased by 4.2 percent to $10,686,231 from $10,253,952 during the 31-day meet in 2001. Total handle, including simulcast imports, rose by 4.3 percent.

Figures from Breeders' Cup Day 2001 were not included in the calculations. Daily average ontrack handle dipped 4.5 percent from $1,352,046 to $1,291,008.

Rapid Proof, who made it into the race off the also-eligible list, surged to victory Friday in the $115,000 Hopemont Stakes at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Ky.

Ridden by Calvin Borel, Rapid Proof swept to the lead with less than a quarter-mile remaining in the Hopemont, a 1 1/16-mile turf race for 2-year-old colts and geldings. He proceeded to win by a length over Zydeco Affair, the 9-2 second choice in a field of 10, while Collateral Damage was third, another neck behind. Lismore Knight, the 3-5 favorite under Pat Day, prompted the pace before fading to fourth.

The racing industry in Oklahoma has been in distress for the past several years, but it seems its struggles have reached a boiling point. During a dates hearing earlier this month, significant changes were made to the traditional racing calendar, with Oklahoma's biggest track, the Magna Entertainment-owned Remington Park, set to run only 70 days in 2003.

That's fewer than half of the 147 live dates that made up Remington's season in 1997.

It will take a little bit of work to handicap the $75,000 Magna Entertainment Classic at Remington Park in Oklahoma City on Sunday.

For the past three years, a win by Mr Ross has been a foregone conclusion in the 1 1/16-mile race that highlights the Oklahoma Classics Day program. But this year he's absent, and that makes the Classic more playable from a wagering standpoint than it has been since he started running roughshod over the division in 1999.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Trainer Richard Violette already knew he had a good grass filly in 2-year-old One and Twenty, so he took a shot and ran her on the dirt in the Grade 1 Frizette.

Violette's filly, a longshot, finished a non-threatening fourth.

"She showed us that she is a turf horse," Violette said. "She spun her wheels for a mile and a sixteenth, but she deserved a shot."

That effort shouldn't be held against One and Twenty when she returns to the grass on Sunday at Aqueduct as the likely favorite in the $75,000-added Miss Grillo.