JAMAICA, N.Y. - Trainer Carlos Martin said he is viewing Saturday's $100,000-added Aqueduct Handicap as a second chance for Tempest Fugit, a 5-year-old gelding he trains, to prove he can hold his own in stakes company.

* began 2001 as a horse with stakes potential, but by the time summer rolled around he couldn't win a $35,000 claimer. Tempest Fugit, however, ended the season on a positive note by winning back-to-back starts in November, including a third-level allowance race in which he earned a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 108.

SEATTLE - A growing problem affecting virtually all North American Thoroughbred tracks has come to a head in the state of Washington. As a result, horsemen are in for a change when Emerald Downs in Auburn, Wash., opens for training Feb. 1. Straw, the traditional stall bedding material of choice, will no longer be allowed at Emerald.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - It has only been one month since Siphonic last raced, but the change in the calendar is significant. When he last raced, he was 2. Now, with the start of the new year, he is 3, and the attention, like his age, has increased. The colt who is the leader of the West Coast's Kentucky Derby prospects, and whom many consider the best in the country, is about to take his first step on the road to Louisville.

NEW ORLEANS - Trainer Dick Lundy arrived in New Orleans two weeks ago, and last week he predicted stepped up activity from his Fair Grounds string. Here it comes. Thursday will be his busiest day yet at Fair Grounds as Lundy saddles horses in three races, including entrants in the day's two best races.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Go ahead and call the seventh-race feature Thursday at Santa Anita a classified allowance. Trainer Ron Ellis knows better.

"It's going to be as good as a stake," said Ellis. He's right. A field of 14 entered the 6 1/2-furlong turf race, including Grade 1 winners Riviera and Scorpion; Grade 3 winners Lake William and El Cielo; and Brazilian Group 1 winner Thyer's. Ten will start; El Cielo must draw in from the also-eligible list.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Siphonic is not the only problem Cottonwood Cowboy confronts Saturday in the Grade 3 Santa Catalina Stakes at Santa Anita. In addition to facing the country's leading 3-year-old, Cottonwood Cowboy will try to prove in the 1 1/16-mile race that he is more than just one-turn horse.

Cottonwood Cowboy enters the Santa Catalina following two impressive sprint wins at Hollywood Park, but his only route - a flat fourth-place finish - might lead handicappers to infer the Meadowlake colt is strictly a sprinter.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Shug McGaughey displayed the depth of his 3-year-old filly stock on Sunday when both Lamington and Database won their maidens here.

Thursday, On Parade, perhaps the best-bred 3-year-old filly in McGaughey's barn, makes her seasonal debut in a preliminary allowance race at Gulfstream Park. A field of seven was entered for the 1 1/16-mile race that could serve as a prep for the $100,000, Grade 2 Davona Dale on Feb. 24.

NEW YORK - Thursday's feature at Aqueduct could easily be mistaken for a winter stakes.

Stakes winners Lovely Amanda and Fickle Fanny are among seven older fillies and mares entered in the $52,000 classified allowance.

Inner track specialists Poivre and Folly Dollar, and Betty's Hat, Cantkeepfromsingin, and La Galerie were also entered in this six-furlong race, which could turn out to be a prep for the $75,000-added Correction on Feb. 2 for some of the field.

ALBANY, Calif. - Ten 3-year-old fillies are matched in Thursday's Golden Gate Fields feature, a one-mile allowance race on the turf.

Nine of them have something in common: they are making their turf debuts.

Only First Alert, a British-bred filly of trainer Matthew Chew, has turf experience, winning two races last year in her native country. First Alert made her U.S. debut on Jan 4 in a $32,000 claiming race at Santa Anita, finishing fourth in the six-furlong race. It was her first start on dirt.

Delta Downs in Vinton, La., cleared one of its final regulatory hurdles for slot machines Tuesday when the Louisiana Gaming Control Board gave unanimous approval to the track's floor plan for nearly 1,500 machines.

Officials hope to open a slots casino by mid-February, but before they can begin operations, the casino must pass an inspection by the Louisiana State Police.

Boyd Gaming, which owns 11 casino properties, including the Stardust in Las Vegas and the Treasure Chest in Kenner, La., purchased Delta for more than $125 million last May.