SUNLAND PARK, N.M. - Saturday's $75,000-added Sunland Park Oaks has drawn an interesting field of eight fillies, many of whom have the ability to win, but also have other factors working against them.

Coastalota will go for her third stakes win of the Sam Houston Race Park meet Saturday night, defending her title in the $30,000 Double Your Flavor Stakes. The seven-furlong race for Texas-bred fillies and mares closes out the 2001-2002 Thoroughbred meet at Sam Houston.

When last she raced in Kentucky, De Bertie finished seventh and last.

Well, no wonder. Every one of her six rivals that November afternoon were Grade 1 stakes winners. There was little shame in getting beaten less than 10 lengths by Forest Secrets and the other top-class fillies in the Falls City Handicap at Churchill Downs.

EAST BOSTON, Mass. - In most sports, the "player to be named later" in a trade rarely amounts to much. The horse racing equivalent paid off Wednesday for trainer Bernard Bramante when 8-year-old Siren Chaser won his maiden in the first race at Suffolk Downs.

Siren Chaser, a gelded son of Corridor Key, toiled in the Maryland maiden ranks as a younger horse until two straight ugly performances in the fall of 1999 prompted his connections tosend him to trainer Glenda Gilday and her companion Richard Retamoza to learn to be a jumper or show horse.

ALBANY, Calif. - College coaches like to say the best thing about freshmen is that they become sophomores.

Trainer Gil Matos knows what they mean. The best thing to happen to Takin It Deep, who won the California Derby for Matos last spring, was turning 4.

"He's muscled up and matured bodywise and mindwise," Matos said of the Cal-bred Takin It Deep, who has earned $243,112 with five victories in 17 starts. "Turning 4 didn't hurt him at all,"

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Trainer Steve Margolis said Thursday that Request for Parole will run next in the April 13 Toyota Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland, although the trainer is unsure who will ride the colt.

Request for Parole finished a close third under Pat Day in his most recent start, the Lane's End Spiral Stakes last Saturday at Turfway Park. Day apparently has committed to ride Buddha on April 13 in the Wood Memorial Stakes at Aqueduct.

JAMAICA, N.Y. - Zonk, who has enjoyed a strong winter campaign in New York, and Irving's Baby, who dominated a Maryland stakes in her latest, square off in Friday's $100,000-added Next Move Handicap at Aqueduct.

Zonk, at 118 pounds, is the starting highweight among the seven fillies and mares entered in the Grade 3 Next Move. Irving's Baby carries 117.

Either Zonk or Irving's Baby, whose combined earnings total $1,185,458, likely will land the role of the favorite in the 1 1/8-mile Next Move.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Mysterious Affair, the top older filly or mare sprinter at Woodbine in 2001, returns from a long sabbatical as the 122-pound highweight in Friday's $102,800 La Voyageuse Handicap.

Mysterious Affair had four consecutive front-running victories here last spring for owner-trainer Mort Hardy. Her streak began with a victory over favored Torrid Affair in the April 13 Whimsical Stakes, and continued two weeks later in the allowance prep for the Grade 3 Hendrie Handicap.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Beau's Town, who has won his last four races by a combined 13 lengths, will get tested for class Friday in the $50,000 Hot Springs Stakes, a six-furlong race that has drawn some of the best sprinters at Oaklawn Park, as well as tough Texas shipper Boots on Sunday.

ARCADIA, Calif. - So far, luck has deserted Stardan since his arrival in the United States last fall.

In his U.S. debut on Feb. 23, Stardan lost a shoe and was no factor in an allowance race. On Friday, the 4-year-old Stardan is entered at Santa Anita in a $57,000 allowance race over a mile on turf, but is stuck on the also-eligible list and needs a scratch to join the field.

The race drew 13 entrants, but only 10 are allowed to start, because the temporary turf rail is set 30 feet from the permanent position, reducing the width of the course.