MIAMI - While Best of the Rest's game victory over a courageous High Ideal and a tiring Hal's Hope in the Grade 3 Memorial Day Handicap was undoubtedly the most important performance here over the holiday weekend, it may not have been the most impressive. That honor goes to the one given by an up-and-coming 3-year-old named Kingmaker. He blew away 2-5 favorite Royal Lad and five other 3-year-olds to win Sunday's $33,150 Marco Bay Stakes by five widening lengths.

Fresh from a trip home to California to see his children, and a quick visit to Dallas on Monday to watch Congaree win his comeback race, trainer Bob Baffert returned to Kentucky on Tuesday to begin final preparations for the Belmont Stakes with War Emblem, who on June 8 will seek to become the 12th Triple Crown winner.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Following a visually impressive allowance win by his 4-year-old colt Volponi on May 8, trainer Phil Johnson said he would run him back in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap.

Upon further evaluation, Johnson decided to skip that race - in fact he didn't even nominate to the race - and was he ever glad he did.

"This is a slaughterhouse race today," Johnson said Monday, hours before Swept Overboard ran the fourth-fastest Met Mile and won by 4 3/4 lengths.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Mot Juste will make her 4-year-old debut in Saturday's $150,000 Sheepshead Bay Handicap at Belmont Park, her first start since finishing last in the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf in October.

On Tuesday over Belmont's main track, Mot Juste worked five furlongs in 1:00.84 for the Grade 2 Sheepshead Bay, a 1 3/8-mile turf race for fillies and mares.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The latest Grade 1 victory by Azeri, the $200,000 Milady Breeders' Cup Handicap at Hollywood Park last Saturday, has left trainer Laura de Seroux with a puzzle about how to campaign the potential champion in the second half of the year.

While the long-term goal is the $2 million Breeders' Cup Distaff at Arlington Park on Oct. 26, the sequence of races that will be used to get there is not certain.

This much is clear: De Seroux is planning a California campaign that includes the $250,000 Vanity Handicap at Hollywood Park over 1 1/8 miles on June 22.

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Victor Espinoza, regular rider on Triple Crown hopeful War Emblem, and Russell Baze, the nation's winningest rider through Tuesday, will be competing in the National Thoroughbred Racing Association Jockey Championship for the first time when the four-race competition is held June 21 at Lone Star Park.

Attendance and handle figures during Turf Paradise's recently concluded 167-day meet dipped slightly compared to last year, according to figures from the track.

Average all-sources handle at the Phoenix, Ariz., track was $1,952,910, down 3.8 percent compared with last year's 165-day meet. Average ontrack attendance fell 1.5 percent, from 2,165 last year to 2,133 this year.

ALTOONA, Iowa - Cowboy Stuff, under jockey Terry Thompson, stalked a pace duel to the stretch and drew off through the final furlong to score a 3 3/4-length victory in Monday's $66,823 Gray's Lake Stakes at Prairie Meadows.

Cowboy Stuff ($2.80) ran the six furlongs in a rapid 1:09.49, defeating five other 3-year-old Iowa-bred colts or geldings.

Country Warrior, who dueled with Canaverous through a half-mile run in 44.11 seconds, saved second, a head in front of late-running Compatch Road.

SHAKOPEE, Minn. - My Girl Lisa, the only filly in the field of six, upset Monday's $35,000 Honor the Hero Turf Express at Canterbury Park.

My Girl Lisa set moderate fractions of 23.99 and 46.15 in the five-furlong turf race, and kicked clear in the lane to prevail by a 1 1/4 lengths under rider Joel Campbell. She completed the five furlongs in 57.56. Heavily favored Freeway Ticket split foes and rallied for second, a length and a quarter clear of third-place finisher Honor Me.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Getting to Belmont Park for Monday's Grade 1, $750,000 was the hardest part for Swept Overboard.

Once in New York, Swept Overboard made a mockery of a stellar Met Mile field, taking control leaving the five-sixteenths pole and drawing clear to a 4 3/4-length victory over Aldebaran before 20,548 at Belmont Park on Memorial Day. It was another 1 1/2 lengths back to Crafty C.T.

Local starters Affirmed Success and Left Bank, the 2-1 favorite, finished fourth and fifth.