LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Churchill Downs and the city of Louisville have asked the newly created Office of Homeland Security for special security status for the 128th Kentucky Derby on May 4, track officials said Thursday.

If approved, the Derby would become just the third sporting event to be granted special event status, following the Super Bowl and Winter Olympics, both to be held next month.

The request, which was prompted primarily by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, also includes two accompanying Derby events, the Kentucky Oaks and downtown Pegasus Parade.

JAMAICA, N.Y. - The Affectionately Handicap was so popular with horsemen that when entry time for the Grade 3 arrived on Thursday morning the entry box overfilled.

Thirteen fillies and mares entered Saturday's $100,000-added Affectionately at Aqueduct, with starting status granted to the top 12 highweights. Miss Splash and Tsuyo were both assigned 109 pounds, but Miss Splash won the tiebreaker with more money won, so Tsuyo landed on the also-eligible list.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Red and Linda Smith had a good reason for staying at a yearling sale in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 1999 after being outbid for the horse they wanted.

"I had an empty spot in the trailer," Red Smith said.

Smith, one of western Canada's top trainers, combed the catalog in search of another prospect. He found one, paying $2,148 for a Manitoba-bred with modest breeding.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - It would be hard to blame trainer Frank Alexander for believing he's due to have a little good luck come his way this season with Windsor Castle.

Windsor Castle was among the more promising 3-year-olds on the Kentucky Derby trail here last winter. But those hopes were quickly dashed when illness forced Alexander to take him out of training in January and, as a result, out of the Triple Crown picture.

JAMAICA, N.Y. - The weather in New York this winter has been far from ferocious, something that pleases trainer Pat Kelly as he prepares his stakes winner Evening Attire for his 4-year-old debut in the $100,000-added Aqueduct Handicap on Jan. 19.

On Thursday, an unusually balmy morning, Kelly sat in his Belmont Park office and said training a horse in New York during the winter is difficult if Mother Nature doesn't cooperate.

For Gary Montgomery, just being part of a stakes race might be enough of a thrill.

Montgomery, 51, has held a trainer's license since 1998 after having worked extensively in the Quarter Horse business and for several years as an assistant to Thoroughbred trainers Paul McGee and Ken McPeek.

On Saturday, Montgomery will run a horse in a stakes for the first time when he saddles Show Me the Wire in the $50,000 Wishing Well Stakes at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky.

Devout Sinner, who has won three stakes in her last three starts by a combined 10 lengths, returns from a brief layoff in Saturday night's $50,000 Distaff Handicap at Sam Houston Race Park in Houston.

The 1 1/16-mile race for fillies and mares has drawn 11, including Western Side, a Churchill Downs allowance winner making her two-turn debut for trainer Kenny Smith; Cello, who finished fourth in the $75,000 Truly Bound at Fair Grounds last month following a seven month layoff; and Coastalota, winner of the $75,000 Martanza Handicap for statebreds at Sam Houston.

NEW ORLEANS - Dollar Bill* continued his comeback from injury and a layoff, working a half-mile at Fair Grounds on Thursday in what trainer Dallas Stewart termed the colt's most serious breeze yet.

PHOENIX - Reatta Pass comes into Saturday's $30,000 Sun Devil Stakes at Turf Paradise trying to repair a tarnished reputation after successive short-odds losses in the Arizona Breeders Futurity and a subsequent allowance race. And with her bubble somewhat burst, she will face no fewer than nine 3-year-old fillies - two of whom come from the same owner as Reatta Pass, Dennis Weir, and same trainer, Kevin Lewis.

That entry certainly looms the heavy favorite, but more of the appeal may be coming from Kendrick Peak, not Reatta Pass. Either way, the entry looks formidable.

PORTLAND, Ore. - Lovers Son, who upset the heavily favored Tomtom Tommalice when last seen in the Oregon Sprint Championship on Dec. 15, will seek a third straight win when he takes on seven tough allowance rivals in Saturday's six-furlong feature at Portland Meadows.