Tough prep for Connally Turf Vergennes, a Grade 1 winner of $741,374, headlines Friday night's feature at Sam Houston, a 1 1/16-mile turf allowance worth $24,000 that should produce starters for the track's $200,000 Connally Breeders' Cup Turf on Feb. 23.

Vergennes wired an allowance field in his last start Dec. 14, but will likely face more competition for the lead Friday from a couple of horses, including Schaumburg, winner of the $25,000 Buffalo Bayou Stakes in November and 2 for 3 over the local course.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Chris Block could have found any excuse to get out of Chicago and head to south Florida for part of the winter. In his unbeaten 3-year-old Cashel Castle, Block has the best excuse a horse trainer could want.

Block will learn more about his untested colt on Saturday when Cashel Castle takes a logical step up in class and runs in the $150,000 Hutcheson Stakes at Gulfstream Park. The Grade 2 Hutcheson, run at seven furlongs, is a stepping-stone to the Fountain of Youth, a Grade 1 race run on Feb. 16.

PORTLAND, Ore. - The Portland Meadows meeting, which was supposed to stretch 80 days through April 28, will close Feb. 10 after 46 days of racing. The early closing is because the track's operator, Magna Entertainment, will not be able to fulfill its agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency to complete a new waste water disposal system by Feb. 15.

ALBANY, Calif. - Trainer Dean Pederson faced a decision this week regarding Super Tuesday, a 4-year-old daughter of Political Ambition who has earned $201,310 in her career.

Super Tuesday won the $100,000 Work the Crowd Handicap at one mile on the turf in her last start. It was an easy decision to nominate her to Saturday's $100,000 Grade 3 Brown Bess Handicap at 1 1/16 miles on Golden Gate Fields' turf course.

But the decision whether to run her in the Brown Bess was not so easy.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Despite an admirable second-place finish in the Malibu Stakes and a flawless training pattern since, Giant Gentleman enters the Grade 2 Strub Stakes on Saturday virtually forgotten. "He's going to be 15-1," trainer Brent Sumja said, "but I'm confident he'll finish in the top three."

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - There will certainly be enough angles to choose from for handicappers trying to decipher the puzzle that is Thursday's eighth race at Gulfstream Park.

The third-level allowance/optional claiming dirt race at 1 1/16 miles drew an evenly matched field of nine fillies and mares, five of whom are coming off layoffs of 30 days or more.

If you subscribe to the theory that a horse needs a race over the deep Gulfstream surface, then you will most likely focus on Unrestrained or the trio of horses coming out of the seventh race here on Jan. 13.

NEW ORLEANS - Eight horses with disparate backgrounds clash in Fair Grounds's Thursday feature, an optional-claiming sprint that might better be called an optional allowance.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Everyone loves Beat Hollow.

Alex Solis fell in love with the European import the first time he worked him. Trainer Bobby Frankel praises Beat Hollow's appearance, the manner he trains, and his overseas form.

Thursday at Santa Anita, the adulation will be complete. American bettors get their first crack at Beat Hollow in a three-other-than allowance, and if the 5-year-old is all he is cracked up to be, he will make short work of five rivals in the seventh-race feature at 1 1/8 miles on turf.

NEW ORLEANS - Storybook Kid has turned into a storybook claim for trainer Alvin Sider. Since Sider claimed Storybook Kid early in the Fair Grounds meet, the 4-year-old colt has won three straight starter allowance races on turf.

That's a big step up from the $7,500 nonwinners-of-three dirt race he won the day Sider claimed him, but Storybook Kid seems to be getting stronger with each start. "Turf figured to move him up, but he's just blossomed," Sider said.

JAMAICA, N.Y. - Nobody is hotter at Aqueduct these days than trainer Gary Contessa.

During the course of eight consecutive racing days at the Big A, Contessa saddled one winner on each card. His streak was snapped when Active Cat finished third last Saturday, but Contessa bounced right back and won a race on Sunday.

Following Sunday's races, Contessa was the inner track's leading trainer with 16 wins from 98 starters. Richard Dutrow Jr., who has saddled 39 fewer starters than Contessa, was second with 15 winners.