JAMAICA, N.Y. - It's early spring and trainer Neil Drysdale is at Aqueduct overseeing a bay 3-year-old colt owned by a Japanese businessman.

If that sounds familiar, the sense of deja vu could become downright scary if Sunday Break does what is expected and solidifies his status as a classics prospect in Wednesday's sixth race.

ARCADIA, Calif. - The versatility of Angel Gift, who can lead or come from behind, may result in her third career win at Santa Anita on Wednesday.

Angel Gift, one of six older fillies and mares entered in a $60,000 allowance race over 1 1/8 miles on turf, has had good form in her last three starts for trainer Paddy Gallagher and owners Ward Williford and Rick Strauss.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Windward Passage is on the verge of earning the chance to take care of some unresolved Kentucky Derby business for his owner, Team Valor Stables, and his sire, Captain Bodgit. The homebred Windward Passage became his sire's first stakes winner Saturday when he captured the Grade 3, $100,000 Rebel at Oaklawn Park, earning a place in the Grade 2, $500,000 Arkansas Derby.

FLORENCE, Ky. - The coming weeks will determine just how important the decision was to run Mr. Mellon in the Rushaway Stakes.

"I really was going to just wait for an allowance at Keeneland," Mr. Mellon's trainer, Elliott Walden, said Monday, two days after the horse raced to a decisive 2 1/4-length victory in the Rushaway at Turfway Park. "I'm just glad I decided to go for this race. Real glad."

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer H. James Bond has confirmed Mongoose as a definite starter for Saturday's $300,000 Gulfstream Park Handicap, which now appears likely to draw four Grade 1 winners. Along with Mongoose, winner of the Donn Handicap earlier in the meet, the field for the Grade 1 Gulfstream Park Handicap will also include Red Bullet, Sir Bear, and Hal's Hope.

Mc Mahon turned an uncontested lead and a moderate pace into victory in the $104,450 Sportsman's Park Breeders' Cup Handicap. Ridden by Randall Meier, Mc Mahon held on by a rapidly diminishing neck over odds-on favorite Chicago Six, who suffered his first defeat in seven starts at Sportsman's Park.

Mc Mahon ($18.80), who had finished fourth in his first start of the year at Santa Anita last month, had prior success in Chicago, winning the Royal Glint Stakes at Hawthorne as a 2-year-old.

ALBANY, Calif. - Sentiment sometimes plays a role in racing.

But trainer Ed Moger Jr., who will start Legendary Weave in Wednesday's feature race at Golden Gate Fields, said the decision by owners Curt and Lila Lanning to reclaim the colt one race after he had been claimed from them was not a sentimental one.

Legendary Weave drew the rail in the field of eight older allowance runners who will compete in the six-furlong feature.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. - Rub surged past Leaping Plum in the closing yards to win the $30,000 Pepsi Sprint Handicap by a 1 1/2 lengths on Saturday.

Ridden by Ken Shino, Rub raced in fifth place as Leaping Plum and Abbi's Choice contested the pace through fractions of 23 seconds, 46, and 1:11.60.

Leaping Plum, with Perry Compton aboard, edged clear turning for home but came up empty in the late stages of the 6 1/2-furlong race, allowing Rub to surge by in deep stretch.

GROVE CITY, Ohio - All Out Springs dueled early then drew away for an easy 9 1/4-length victory under David Appleby Jr. in the $40,000 Howard B. Noonan Stakes Saturday at Beulah Park.

All Out Springs covered the six furlongs in 1:11.68, defeating six other Ohio-bred 3-year-olds. The victory was All Out Springs's third in four career starts for trainer Charles Burneson Jr. and owner-breeder Merril Speiss.

NEW ORLEANS - A Californian won the Explosive Bid Handicap with a powerful stretch run. It just wasn't the Californian most people expected.

In the first major stakes victory of his career, Sarafan ran down the highly touted Beat Hollow in deep stretch and won the $700,000 by a neck.

Before Sunday, the 5-year-old Sarafan had won only five races in his career, the best of which were a pair of minor stakes races, one in Europe, one in California. In the Grade 2 Explosive Bid, he proved best among a 14-horse field that included eight different graded stakes winners.