ARCADIA, Calif. - Despite an admirable second-place finish in the Malibu Stakes and a flawless training pattern since, Giant Gentleman enters the Grade 2 Strub Stakes on Saturday virtually forgotten. "He's going to be 15-1," trainer Brent Sumja said, "but I'm confident he'll finish in the top three."

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - There will certainly be enough angles to choose from for handicappers trying to decipher the puzzle that is Thursday's eighth race at Gulfstream Park.

The third-level allowance/optional claiming dirt race at 1 1/16 miles drew an evenly matched field of nine fillies and mares, five of whom are coming off layoffs of 30 days or more.

If you subscribe to the theory that a horse needs a race over the deep Gulfstream surface, then you will most likely focus on Unrestrained or the trio of horses coming out of the seventh race here on Jan. 13.

NEW ORLEANS - Eight horses with disparate backgrounds clash in Fair Grounds's Thursday feature, an optional-claiming sprint that might better be called an optional allowance.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Everyone loves Beat Hollow.

Alex Solis fell in love with the European import the first time he worked him. Trainer Bobby Frankel praises Beat Hollow's appearance, the manner he trains, and his overseas form.

Thursday at Santa Anita, the adulation will be complete. American bettors get their first crack at Beat Hollow in a three-other-than allowance, and if the 5-year-old is all he is cracked up to be, he will make short work of five rivals in the seventh-race feature at 1 1/8 miles on turf.

NEW ORLEANS - Storybook Kid has turned into a storybook claim for trainer Alvin Sider. Since Sider claimed Storybook Kid early in the Fair Grounds meet, the 4-year-old colt has won three straight starter allowance races on turf.

That's a big step up from the $7,500 nonwinners-of-three dirt race he won the day Sider claimed him, but Storybook Kid seems to be getting stronger with each start. "Turf figured to move him up, but he's just blossomed," Sider said.

JAMAICA, N.Y. - Nobody is hotter at Aqueduct these days than trainer Gary Contessa.

During the course of eight consecutive racing days at the Big A, Contessa saddled one winner on each card. His streak was snapped when Active Cat finished third last Saturday, but Contessa bounced right back and won a race on Sunday.

Following Sunday's races, Contessa was the inner track's leading trainer with 16 wins from 98 starters. Richard Dutrow Jr., who has saddled 39 fewer starters than Contessa, was second with 15 winners.

ALBANY, Calif. - Chime After Chime, a stakes-placed 7-year-old mare, will make her comeback in Wednesday's feature race at Golden Gate Fields.

Chime After Chime, third behind Tuzla and Isle de France in the 1999 Royal Heroine at Hollywood Park, and second, beaten a head by Dream of Gifts in the 2000 Lady Morovich at the Bay Meadows Fair, has not raced since finishing last in the Queen O Green Handicap at Turf Paradise on Nov. 26, 2000.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Saarland, winner of the Remsen Stakes last November and one of the East Coast's top Kentucky Derby hopefuls, is getting close to his 3-year-old debut. When and where that debut will take place is not as clear as first thought.

Trainer Shug McGaughey shipped Saarland to south Florida with the intention of running him in the Grade 1 Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream Park on Feb. 16. But, the Gulfstream surface is much deeper than it has been in past years, causing McGaughey to rethink his plan.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Ruff was considered among the leaders of the 3-year-old filly turf division here last winter after winning the Via Borghese Stakes. But after she underwent throat surgery in the fall, even trainer David Donk isn't sure what to expect when Ruff makes her 4-year-old debut against six rivals in Wednesday's $40,000 allowance feature.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Unseasonably warm weather helped Oaklawn Park draw 46,299 patrons over the three-day opening weekend of its 54-day meet last Friday. The season runs through April 13.

Last year, the track opened the first weekend in February, and over the first three days drew 44,076.

Oaklawn's handle from all sources last weekend topped $15.1 million, more than last year's corresponding handle of $14.6 million.

A crowd of 18,142 filled the grandstand opening day this year, an increase of 1,294 patrons over the 16,848 the track drew in 2001.