INGLEWOOD, Calif. - There are better races Sunday than the $250,000 Snow Chief Stakes at Hollywood Park. This is slightly unusual, because the Snow Chief is the richest of 10 races that comprise California Gold Rush Day, a 10-race card exclusively for California-breds.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Friday was like the lull before the storm as far as Kentucky Derby workouts were concerned. None of the 20 horses currently expected to start worked Friday. U. S. S. Tinosa, who still needs two defections to get into the race, breezed seven furlongs in 1:27 over his home base at Bay Meadows before boarding a plane that was scheduled to bring him to Churchill Downs on Saturday.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Tony D'Amico knows that when Take Charge Lady runs Friday as the likely favorite in the Kentucky Oaks, she will be in far deeper water than in her first three starts this year.

In each of those races, she had very comfortable trips and coasted to easy victories. But that doesn't necessarily mean she won't enjoy another nice trip again.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Proper Gamble continued on her milestone-a-start pace for 2002 with a hard-fought win in Friday's $250,000 Stonerside Beaumont Stakes at Keeneland.

In February, she won her first stakes in the Dearly Precious at Aqueduct, and followed a month later with her first graded stakes win in the Cicada.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Twice this year, Icantgoforthat has led past the eighth pole of a sprint stakes only to be caught near the line.

By In Excess, Icantgoforthat is a filly with remarkable speed and would seem best suited for sprints. But trainer Steve Knapp is gambling on something new in Sunday's $200,000 Melair Stakes for 3-year-old California-breds at Hollywood Park.

Knapp said he is trying Icantgoforthat in her first race over 1 1/16 miles, hoping that a slower early pace will lead to a different result.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Last year, the $150,000 B. Thoughtful Stakes on Sunday at Hollywood Park would have been a fifty-fifty proposition between Go Go and Favorite Funtime. Flip a coin, pick a graded stakes winner, go to the window.

But this is not last year, and neither Go Go nor Favorite Funtime are invincible going seven furlongs in the B. Thoughtful, race 3 on the 10-race California Gold Rush card at Hollywood Park, and the only race on the program with two graded stakes winners.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Joey Platts, Wyoming horse owner, hung up the phone with his accountant, Mark Duffin, last fall and hollered a bit of good news across the house to his wife, Wendy.

"Mark said I can buy a racehorse," Platts reported.

Wendy, seizing the opportunity, told Mark that was fine if he bought her a barrel-racing horse. With those negotiations quickly settled, Platts called California trainer Jeff Mullins and told him to search for a prospect.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Fit for a King should not be in the $175,000 Khaled Stakes at Hollywood Park on Sunday. With his history, such an appearance does not seem logical.

A 9-year-old with as many injuries over the years as a veteran linebacker is not typically found in the entries of rich stakes for statebred turf milers. They are supposed to be found in cheap claimers at minor tracks.

Also, such old geldings are not supposed to be riding a seven-race winning streak, but giving their connections hope that they can maybe win once in seven starts.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The rivalry between Native Desert and Spinelessjellyfish continues in Sunday's $175,000 Khaled Stakes at Hollywood Park, a competitive turf race that has drawn two intriguing supporting players - Fit for a King and Hugh Hefner.

For the past few seasons, Native Desert and Spinelessjellyfish have set the standard among California-bred turf milers.

They finished in a dead heat in the California Turf Championship last September at Bay Meadows, and two months later were separated by only a head when Native Desert won the California Cup Mile at Santa Anita.

NEW YORK - New York State Senator William Larkin has introduced a bill that would permit New York racetracks to run on Palm Sunday. The bill would keep intact the prohibition on racing on Easter Sunday and Christmas, however.

"Just Palm Sunday at this point," said Steve Casscles, an aide to Larkin. "One step at a time. We don't think we can do the others right now, and probably not for a while."