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.

ARCADIA, Calif. - After Fragrant Cloud finished a close second to Lady George in the California Cup Juvenile Fillies on Nov. 3, trainer Paco Gonzalez canceled plans to start her at the Hollywood Park fall meeting.

"She was tired in the test barn," Gonzalez said. "She was jumping from six furlongs to a mile and a sixteenth and she tried very hard. I jogged her for three weeks."

ARCADIA, Calif. - There will not be many stakes for fillies and mares at Santa Anita this winter without the participation of trainer Ron McAnally.

McAnally's barn is loaded with top females who will compete in virtually every major race.

"That's the way it usually is," he said, referring to the number of breeders who keep top females in his stable.

NEW ORLEANS - So far, trainer Neil Howard's winter in New Orleans has gone just fine. Howard, who moved his stable to Fair Grounds from Florida this season, has started eight horses and won three races, including one with the promising handicapper Rock Slide, and has seen a couple of lightly raced maidens run well. Friday, he stands a good chance of winning his first stakes of the meet with Good Game, who deserves to be favored in the $75,000 Furl Sail Handicap.

MIAMI - Saturday's Grand Slam II program at Calder, which shapes up as one of the best cards in track history, lost some luster Wednesday when trainer Bobby Frankel decided against entering of either his multiple Grade 1 winners as originally planned.

Super Quercus is out of the Grade 2, $150,000 W.L. McKnight Handicap at 1 1/2 miles on the turf, and The Seven Seas will not run in the Grade 2, $150,000 La Prevoyante Handicap at 1 1/2 miles on the turf for for fillies and mares.

JAMAICA, N.Y. - As he prepares Xtra Heat for her 4-year-old debut in next Tuesday's Interborough Handicap at Aqueduct, trainer John Salzman is making a case for his filly to win at least one Eclipse Award for her achievements during her 3-year-old season.

ALBANY, Calif. - How good is Catspaw?

That's what trainer Larry Ross will find out when he runs the 3-year-old Storm Cat filly in Friday's feature at Golden Gate Fields, a six-furlong optional claiming race for 3-year-old fillies.

Catspaw hesitated at the start in her Sept. 8 debut at Emerald Downs and was never a factor. She did not run again until a maiden race at Golden Gate Fields on Nov. 17.

NEW ORLEANS - Valhol has trained so well since he won the Tenacious Handicap on Dec. 2 that he will race again Saturday at Fair Grounds in the $75,000 Louisiana Handicap, a race he had been scheduled to pass.

Fred Bradley has been involved in racing for so long that his family has a photograph of him in the winner's circle at the old Dade Park in 1938.

Last Saturday, Bradley, a Thoroughbred owner since the late 1960's, got his first stakes win when Timeless Love held on for a narrow victory in the Gowell Stakes at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky.

"That was a great Christmas present for all of us," said William "Buff" Bradley, who trains Timeless Love for his father. The Gowell was his first stakes victory as a trainer.

MIAMI - It's usually news when the reigning champ in a Grade 3 race returns to defend his title. But American Halo will be among the outsiders in Saturday's running of the Fred W. Hooper Handicap, although he beat a field that included multiple Grade 1 winner Sir Bear in the 2000 Hooper.

Of course winning at long odds would be nothing new for American Halo, who was 76-1 when he shocked everybody - including trainer Angel Medina - by winning last year's Hooper.