JAMAICA, N.Y. - Trainer Erik Juvonen seeks his first New York stakes win with Short Note in Saturday's $100,000-added Cicada at Aqueduct. If Short Note gets the job done, it would be a good omen for Juvonen, who plans to extend his winter stay in New York to a year-round presence on the circuit.

Juvonen, a former assistant to Hall of Fame trainer Jonathan Sheppard, has been in New York since Dec. 1 and has complied a respectable record of 5-6-6 from 41 starters, with all his winners coming since Jan. 1.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Horse vans will begin rolling out the stable gate in earnest over the next two weeks as New York- and Kentucky-based horsemen head home after another winter in south Florida.

Among the first to vacate the premises will be trainers Pat Byrne and Nick Zito.

Byrne is heading north on a high after Ethan Man's huge performance in last Saturday's Swale Stakes. Zito had an outstanding winter meet but leaves with a bit of a sour taste after his main Kentucky Derby hopeful, High Star, bled in the Florida Derby.

A little more than six weeks ago, it looked like Jeremy's Quest was headed the wrong way. She lost for a $25,000 claiming tag, was dropped in for $20,000 and ran worse, then showed up for $10,000. She won that race in a runaway on Feb. 1, and has been on a roll since.

Jeremy's Quest was triple-jumped, to the $20,000 claiming level, on Feb. 23, won impressively again, and was claimed for the second straight time. Her new trainer is Bill Spawr, who is deadly when he jumps a horse.

NEW ORLEANS - That little Triple Crown nominee symbol affixed to the past-performance lines of five of the eight 3-year-olds entered in the eighth race Thursday at Fair Grounds is becoming less and less relevant as the year unfolds. These are still first-level allowance horses, and the Kentucky Derby is less than seven weeks away.

But dispense with Derby dreams for now. In any case, trainer Steve Asmussen, who will saddle the likely favorite, Forty Nine Deeds, has enough 3-year-old stakes horses going at the moment not to force this one into being something he's not.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - The last time Manny Azpurua switched Blondaway from the turf to the main track he was rewarded with a one-length victory in Calder's Cherokee Frolic Stakes. Azpurua will use the same tactic again with Blondaway, this time against second-level optional claiming company in Thursday's $36,000 feature. The nine-race program also includes the meet's first 2-year-old race.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Bay Monster, fourth in a division of the Southwest Stakes in his last start, will change tactics Saturday in the Grade 3, $100,000 Rebel at Oaklawn Park.

Bay Monster will be stalking the pace in the Rebel instead of contesting it as he did in the second division of the $75,000 Southwest at Oaklawn on March 2, when he raced down the backstretch with the fast Cojet. Bay Monster dropped back on the final turn of that mile race, then came back on in the short stretch to be beaten 1 3/4 lengths by Paloma Parilla.

As someone who has been working with racehorses for 17 years, Steve Margolis is fully aware that most Kentucky Derby contenders don't spend their winters at chilly Turfway Park in Florence, Ky.

Yet Margolis is confident that recent months at Turfway have been very productive for , the colt he will saddle Saturday in Turfway's annual showcase event, the $500,000 Lane's End Spiral Stakes.

"I think it was the right decision to stay here," Margolis said Tuesday on a national conference call. "Everything's worked out timing-wise, and we haven't missed any time training."

ALBANY, Calif. - California's high rates for workman's compensation insurance have led some trainers based in Washington and Canada to return to their home bases early. Other barns have consolidated in an effort to cut costs.

One trainer at Golden Gate Fields has come up with his own solution, one that can be seen in the entries for Thursday's feature race.

Listed as the trainer of record for Mt. Ouray is Elaine Wenstrom, a long-time assistant to Duane Offield. Offield is now listed as Wenstrom's assistant trainer.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - While all the focus of late has been on the 3-year-old colts, a filly who figures to be among the leaders of her division this year has been training sharply for her return. Bella Bellucci, last seen finishing third in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, has put in a series of excellent workouts of late, and the best might have come Tuesday morning at Hollywood Park.

NEW ORLEANS - Ship-ins for Sunday's Explosive Bid were to begin arriving at Fair Grounds Wednesday, when three or four horses from Florida were scheduled to fly into New Orleans. On Thursday, a West Coast flight, which probably will carry four horses, is due in.

They have come for a $700,000 purse, and they have come in strength. Hap, a multiple graded stakes winner, heads the East Coast contingent. He will be joined by North East Bound, who has regained his form of two years ago when he was second in the Breeders' Cup Mile, Pisces, and perhaps Whata Brainstorm.