ARCADIA, Calif. - Anything less than two wins at Santa Anita on Thursday will be a disappointment for trainer Bruce Headley.

Anything less than a conquest of the pick six, which has a $186,350 carryover, will be a disappointment for many bettors.

On an eight-race program, Headley has two likely favorites - Diamond Tiara in the second race, a $54,000 allowance race for 3-year-old fillies, and Grand Appointment in the seventh race, a $54,000 allowance race for California-breds. Grand Appointment will appear on thousands of pick six tickets.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Jim Picou passed Saturday's Grade 3 Canadian Turf Handicap, looking to find a softer spot to launch multiple graded stakes winner Whata Brainstorm's comeback. But he might find the competition just as tough when he runs Whata Brainstorm for the first time in 11 months in Thursday's $46,000 allowance feature over the Gulfstream Park turf course.

NEW ORLEANS - Louie Roussel holds the keys to the featured ninth race at Fair Grounds. For starters, Roussel has entered the most logical winner, Bold Diva, and she is part of an entry with Extended View, whose participation would change the whole complexion of the race.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Crafty Shaw, who overcame trouble to win last month's $75,000 Diplomat Way by a neck, will go after his fourth consecutive win Saturday in the Grade 3, $75,000 Essex Handicap at Oaklawn Park.

There were five probable starters for the 1 1/16-mile race early in the week. Connections for the 122-pound highweight and defending champ, Mr Ross, were still deciding Tuesday between the Essex and $200,000 Connally Breeders' Cup Turf at Sam Houston Race Park, which also runs Saturday.

ALBANY, Calif. - Trainer Allen Severinsen thinks he may be saddling the winner in Thursday's co-feature at Golden Gate Fields, a $40,000 optional claiming race for 3-year-olds at one mile on the turf.

He secretly hopes it is Moyo Simba he greets in the winner's circle, because that's the one he trains. But he could end up there with Thin Client, a colt he will saddle as a fill-in for trainer Richard Mettee.

"If he beats Moyo Simba, that's the way it goes," Severinsen said.

ARCADIA, Calif. - The cheapest stakes at Santa Anita last weekend may produce a starter for the meeting's richest race.

After Kudos won Sunday's $72,575 San Marino Handicap, trainer Richard Mandella said he may return for the $1 million Santa Anita Handicap on March 2. Run over 1 1/4 miles, the San Marino was transferred from turf to dirt, which did not bother Mandella. "I've been hoping for this in the last few weeks," Mandella said.

NEW ORLEANS - As well as Repent ran in winning Sunday's Grade 3 Risen Star Stakes, at least two 3-year-olds who finished behind him will take another swing in the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby, even if Repent returns for that race.

But Dallas Stewart, who trains Bob's Image, the Risen Star runner-up, had some words of advice for Repent's trainer, Ken McPeek, as the horses returned to be unsaddled after the Risen Star.

"I told him, 'Why don't you stay in Florida?'" Stewart said.

ALBANY, Calif. - Hall of Gold was pulling up from her win in the Richmond Handicap when jockey Chad Schvaneveldt heard a sickening pop.

Hall of Gold never made it to the winner's circle. She had fractured a sesamoid in her left front leg, the latest in a run of serious injuries to horses at Golden Gate Fields.

A couple years ago, trainer Deborah Bodner had a horse in her barn who simply loved Aqueduct's inner and main tracks. That horse, Smart Coupons, won Aqueduct's Kings Point three years running and also won the Grade 3 Excelsior at the Big A for Bodner.

These days, Bodner has another Aqueduct lover on her hands in John Little, who is undefeated in three starts over the inner track.

John Little, a 4-year-old son of Blushing John, meets nine others on Thursday in Aqueduct's $54,000 feature, a mile race around two turns for older males.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Belterra may have gotten most of the headlines and attention in trainer Carl Nafzger's barn last year after winning all three of her starts. But she wasn't the only undefeated 2-year-old filly under Nafzger's shed in 2001.

Take the Cake also had an unblemished record at 2. And while the more heralded Belterra continues to work for her 3-year-old debut, Take the Cake has already made a name for herself this winter, upsetting A New Twist to capture the Grade 3 Forward Gal Stakes.