JAMAICA, N.Y. - In a word, "brutal."

That's how trainer Richard Schosberg describes the last three months for his stable. After losing with both of his starters on Thursday, Schosberg enters the last weekend of the year on an 0-for-43 skid in New York, which he believes is the worst slump of his 13-year training career.

Schosberg's last winner in New York came on Sept. 26 when Bonus Pay Day won a $35,000 claiming race at Belmont. Although Schosberg won two races at The Meadowlands, his frustration is mounting.

MIAMI - Vinnie Blengs won his first La Prevoyante Handicap in 1981 with Judgable Gypsy. Twenty years later, he stands a pretty good chance to take another when he sends out 116-pound highweight Queue in Calder's $150,000 1 1/2-mile test of endurance for fillies and mares.

The La Prevoyante was run at only nine furlongs when Judgable Gypsy rallied to win the opening division in 1981. The race was lengthened to its current distance two years later, and neither Blengs nor Queue will mind the added ground of the Grade 2 race.

MIAMI - Three years ago, Best of the Rest came into the Fred W. Hooper Handicap as the odds-on favorite off a pair of impressive stakes victories, only to chip a knee while finishing a disappointing third in a race that was to serve as his final prep for the Grade 1 Donn Handicap.

The story will be eerily similar, but hopefully with a happier ending, when Best of the Rest returns to Calder on Saturday as the highweight and overwhelming favorite in this year's edition of the Grade 3, 1 1/8-mile Hooper.

MIAMI - Trainer Eddie Plesa Jr. feels lucky when Best of the Rest is healthy enough to make it to a race. His colleague, Marty Wolfson, feels lucky merely to have Mr. Pleasentfar in his barn.

On Saturday, Plesa and Wolfson hope their luck lasts, because among all the local horses, Best of the Rest and Mr. Pleasentfar appear to have the best chance of winning a race on Calder's second annual Grand Slam II program.

Most horses good enough to compete in stakes at Gulfstream or Fair Grounds already are long gone from the chilly climate of Kentucky.

But only after the Holiday Cheer Stakes is run Saturday at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky., will Personal First, the probable favorite for the six-furlong race, finally be shipped to Gulfstream to point to that track's winter series of sprint stakes.

PHOENIX - Usually when a hot new filly rides into town here, she comes from the West, or more specifically, Southern California. But when Turf Paradise presents the $30,000 Kachina Handicap at a mile Saturday, the new shooter comes from another direction. She is, by no means, any less dangerous.

A field of 10 is entered in the Kachina, a mile race for fillies and mares, 3-year-olds and up - and highweight Purls Ledgend presents a new hurdle for the locals. A 6-year-old mare, she has been a dynamo in the Southwest.

Bronze Abe will be the favorite over four other 2-year-old fillies in Saturday's $100,000 Maryland Juvenile Filly Championship Stakes at Laurel Park.

The 1 1/8-mile Juvenile Filly, restricted to Maryland-breds, is Bronze Abe's first start around two turns.

Bronze Abe, who will be ridden by Mario Pino, is the most seasoned and accomplished member of the field with a record of 3-2-2 from eight starts and $102,290 in earnings.

Onlynurimagination, second as a 48-1 longshot last out, in the $50,000 Groovy, should be favored Saturday night in the colts and geldings division of the $56,000 Texas Stallion Stakes at Sam Houston Race Park in Houston.

Two races earlier, Mightbeachamp will attempt to recapture her best form in the $53,000 fillies division.

The 6 1/2-furlong races are restricted to 2-year-olds by stallions nominated to the series.

Onlynurimagination, who heads a field of eight, appears to be working his way into the winner's circle.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Christmas has come all year long for trainer Bobby Frankel, so why should the day after Christmas have been any different?

Frankel, the nation's runaway leader in Grade 1 stakes wins this year, picked up his 18th of 2001 on Wednesday when Mizzen Mast closed sharply to take the $200,000 Malibu Stakes on Santa Anita's opening day.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Poor manners cost Debonair Joe his second stakes win in the Free House Stakes earlier this month at Hollywood Park. Debonair Joe crossed the wire first in the Free House, but was disqualified for causing interference at the start.

Redemption may come in Friday's $150,000 open division of the California Breeders' Champion Stakes at Santa Anita. A winner of two of eight starts, the well-traveled Debonair Joe is the likely favorite in the seven-furlong Champion Stakes for statebreds.