ARCADIA, Calif. - Citing displeasure with the 125-pound weight assignment for Kona Gold's first start of the year, trainer Bruce Headley said he is only "50-50" to return Sunday in the Grade 3 Los Angeles Handicap at Hollywood Park. Kona Gold, 12 for 23 overall, won four straight races carrying at least 125 pounds from late 2000 through summer 2001, but his form tailed off last fall when he finished seventh in the Breeders' Cup Sprint and followed with a dull fourth in the De Francis Memorial Dash at Laurel.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Trainer Brent Sumja will send out a live horse in the two best races Friday night at Bay Meadows.

Stakes-winning 3-year-old Lethal Grande will run for a $62,500 claiming price in a 4 1/2-furlong turf race, which opens the card. In the seventh race, 3-year-old Federal Highway will make his first start for Sumja in a six-furlong $40,000 optional claiming race, in which none of the six entrants is entered to be claimed.

While neither of Sumja's horses is likely to be favored, both are serious contenders.

With his physical ailments and mental fragility seemingly behind him, Macho Uno may finally be ready to realize the promise so many held for him following his championship campaign of 2000.

Since holding off Point Given by a nose to win the 2000 Breeders' Cup Juvenile, Macho Uno has run only five times with a victory in the Grade 3 Pennsylvania Derby last Labor Day being his greatest achievement.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - It has been quite a while since Duckhorn raced on a weekday. That's because stakes races are typically run on weekends, and Duckhorn established long ago that he is stakes-class.

Just two starts back, Duckhorn splashed to what may have been the easiest victory of his prodigious career, in the Grade 3 Ben Ali Stakes at Keeneland. So when a handful of other older horses line up to face him in the allowance feature Friday at Churchill Downs, they will have their work cut out for them.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Last year, when the Sheepshead Bay was rained off the turf, Critical Eye used the surface switch to her advantage and flew home a 7 1/2-length winner under a hand ride in the mud. Critical Eye will be entered in Saturday's Sheepshead Bay at Belmont Park, and might even run if the race remains on the grass.

Wednesday, Critical Eye's trainer, Scott Schwartz, said his mare will definitely start if rain forces the Grade 2 Sheepshead Bay to the main track - scattered storms are in Friday's forecast - and is 80 percent to run on grass.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Next week at Belmont Park, nine stakes will be run over three days, highlighted by the $1 million Belmont Stakes on June 8. But on Friday, a rather ordinary card awaits handicappers.

The eighth-race feature, a 1 1/16-mile first-level allowance, brings together eight fillies and mares, three of whom are coming off easy maiden wins.

STICKNEY, Ill. - For an $8,000 Illinois-bred, Medlin Road can run quite a little bit. An easy winner of his first three races, Medlin Road ran well even when he lost for the first time, finishing second in the Matt Winn Stakes on May 11 at Churchill Downs. On Friday, he should have little trouble beating five opponents in the Rustic Ruler Stakes at Hawthorne.

Medlin Road will be a heavy favorite in the Rustic Ruler, a $45,000 overnight stakes at 6 1/2 furlongs, and having yet shown no real chinks in his armor, he's a tough favorite to stand against.

MUSKEGON, Mich. - Leading Michigan rider Terry Houghton is looking to join the 3,000-win club, of which there are about 100 members. Through Tuesday, he had ridden the winners of 2,991 races, including 45 from 149 mounts in the first 18 days of the Great Lakes Downs meeting.

Houghton has 120 wins this year after a winter campaign at Tampa Bay Downs, where he was on top of the standings when he left for Michigan. His mounts this year have earned more than $1.1 million, for a career total of more than $24 million.

SHAKOPEE, Minn. - Race fans at Canterbury Park may have detected a quiver in track announcer Paul Allen's voice when he called the fifth race on Memorial Day. The race was won by Rbrotherinthebooth, a nickname given to Allen by Canterbury Park chairman Curtis Sampson, who was on hand to greet the announcer and his homebred colt in the winner's circle.

LAFAYETTE, La. - This meet's marathon series, eight starter handicap races beginning at 7 1/2 furlongs and concluding with a two-miler on closing day, Sept. 2, started with a bang Friday night at Evangeline.

Lucky Man (8-5) prevailed by a length over Down Too (3-2) after a race-long battle. Lucky Man also beat Down Too in their only other meeting between them this year, which came in a starter allowance at Delta Downs on April 6. The series will continue June 7 at a mile.