NEW ORLEANS - The Lecomte Stakes, Fair Grounds's first 3-year-old route stakes race of the meet, picked up a likely starter Friday when Easyfromthegitgo scored a 5 1/2-length win in a mile and 40-yard allowance race here. Easyfromthegitgo's second straight win was impressive enough to encourage trainer Steve Asmussen to point the colt to the Jan. 26 Lecomte.

Easyfromthegitgo launched his career at Saratoga this summer and finished second in his first three races before breaking through with a maiden win Nov. 16 at Churchill Downs.

ALBANY, Calif. - Trainer Greg Gilchrist has one important piece of business to take care of at Golden Gate Fields on Monday before taking a Hawaiian vacation during California's eight-day racing break.

He will saddle recent maiden winner Mt. Rainer in a six-furlong $40,000 optional claimer that is the feature race on the getaway card.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Tranquility Lake, an eight-time stakes winner and one of the top female turf runners in California in recent years, has been retired, owner Marty Wygod said on Saturday.

The 6-year-old Tranquility Lake will be bred to Storm Cat in coming months. A winner of 11 of 27 starts and $1,663,390, she finished ninth in the Breeders' Cup Distaff at Belmont Park on Oct. 27 in her final start.

Tranquility Lake was entered in Saturday's Bayakoa Handicap at Hollywood Park, but was scratched.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - With Tempera, the winner of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, in Dubai for the winter, there is a vacancy at the top among California's 2-year-old fillies.

The victor of Sunday's $365,000 Hollywood Starlet Stakes, led by Grade 1 winners Habibti, Tali'sluckybusride, and You, should fill that hole.

The Starlet is the year's final major stakes for the division. The winner will be looked upon as a top West Coast challenger for the Kentucky Oaks in May, a race on Tempera's schedule.

JAMAICA, N.Y. - White Ibis is the dominant 2-year-old New York-bred male this year, with three consecutive wins in restricted stakes at a mile and under.

The gelding faces a new challenge on Sunday in the $75,000-added Damon Runyon at Aqueduct, when he tries two turns for the first time.

* is the likely favorite of the eight-horse Damon Runyon, restricted to New York-breds and run at 1 1/16 miles over the inner track.

NEW ORLEANS - The second of five older-horse sprints stakes at the Fair Grounds 4 1/2-month meet, the $75,000 F.W. Gaudin Memorial Handicap, is on tap here Sunday. You know the players. Bonapaw, Abajo, Crucible - they've been running here for years, taking advantage of the stakes-rich schedule.

ALBANY, Calif. - Bill Patterson, trainer Chuck Jenda's assistant, likes to joke that Sea to See, Hoovergetthekeys, and Sir Alfred get together for lunch every week.

They know each other well enough. When they meet in Sunday's feature at Golden Gate Fields, it will be the fifth time all three have run in the same race.

Their previous meeting was in the Nov. 4 Bay Meadows Derby when Sir Alfred ran second, Sea to See third, and Hoovergetthekeys sixth.

PORTLAND, Ore. - Hurricane Rylie, who was named horse of the meeting last season at Portland Meadows after posting four impressive stakes scores, will reemerge Sunday when she takes on seven rivals in the $7,500-added City of Roses Handicap at one mile.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Patrick Valenzuela, whose career has been plagued by interruptions caused by substance abuse problems, was granted a one-year conditional jockey's license on Friday with strict requirements for sobriety.

Valenzuela, who won the 1989 Kentucky Derby on Sunday Silence, is expected to resume riding on Dec. 26, the opening day of the Santa Anita meeting. Reached on Friday, Valenzuela said he received a license, but declined further comment.

Most horses have to wait for their retirement to be recognized with a day in their honor. Not Xtra Heat, who will be feted at her Laurel Park home base on Saturday.

*, second in the Breeders' Cup Sprint and a winner of 17 races from 22 starts, will be paraded following the fifth race and then will pose for photographs in the winner's circle.