HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - The highly anticipated return of Kentucky Derby winner Monarchos will take place earlier than expected as he will make his 2002 debut Saturday in a fourth-level allowance race at Gulfstream Park.

*, who has not run since finishing third in the Belmont Stakes last June 9, will face four rivals in the 1 1/16-mile race which will serve as a prep for the $500,000, Grade 1 Donn Handicap on Feb. 9. It will go as race six on the 12-race card with an approximate post of 3:05 p.m. Eastern.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - When Shug McGaughey shipped Cat Cay out of Payson Park last April, he thought the regally bred filly was going to have a big year. McGaughey had to settle for a big month instead.

After a disappointing spring and summer, * finally realized her promise in the fall, winning a pair of graded stakes in a 34-day span. McGaughey hopes Cat Cay can continue her prowess Friday when she begins her 5-year-old season in the Grade 3, $100,000 The First Lady Handicap at Gulfstream Park.

NEW ORLEANS - There's still a gulf between Rylstone's career earnings and his lofty $350,000 purchase price as a 2-year-old in training last year, but he can continue paying for himself Friday at Fair Grounds in the featured ninth race.

ARCADIA, Calif. - A losing streak will end for someone in Friday's seventh race at Santa Anita.

One of the six older horses entered in a $50,000 allowance race for California-breds can end a losing streak that range in length from one race by Take It Outside to 18 by the overmatched Retsina Year.

The six-furlong allowance race is the feature on an eight-race program. The $75,000 Paseana Handicap for fillies and mares was scheduled for Friday, but was canceled when it failed to draw sufficient entries.

PORTLAND, Ore. - Tomtom Tommalice, who was upset as the heavy choice in the Oregon Sprint Championship on Dec. 15, will attempt to make amends when he returns to action against seven rivals in Friday's feature at Portland Meadows, a 5 1/2-furlong affair for $6,250 claimers.

ARCADIA, Calif. - In September 2000, apprentice jockey Elvis Trujillo graduated from the Laffit Pincay Jockey School in Panama. Today, he is riding alongside his idol, and occasionally beating him.

At the start of Wednesday's program, Trujillo was tied for eighth in the Santa Anita jockey standings. It is quite an accomplishment for a jockey who rode his first race in the United States last month at Hollywood Park.

Trujillo, 18, has accomplished a lot since he launched his career.

NEW ORLEANS - Now that trainer Niall O'Callaghan is off the schneid at Fair Grounds he might really start rolling. O'Callaghan's first winner of this meet, the 3-year-old filly Chamrousse, took a first-level allowance race here Monday and might now be bound for stakes company.

Keeneland Race Course released the stakes schedule for its 2002 spring meet, making only one addition to what always is a rich and important roster of races.

The $100,000 Madison Stakes, for older fillies and mares at seven furlongs, is new to the stakes schedule, which comprises 19 races worth a total of $3.65 million. The Madison will be run April 10.

SUNLAND, N.M. - Norm Amundson, racing secretary at Sunland Park, reports that the average number of starters per race after 33 days of the current meet is 9.85. This comes even though Sunland is a mixed meeting, with Quarter Horse races on the straight limited to 10 starters and 870-yard races limited to eight.

This week Sunland expanded its schedule to 11 races per day to accommodate the large horse population gathered here.

Remington Park in Oklahoma City has scheduled 27 stakes worth more than $2.1 million for its 34-day Quarter Horse meet that runs from April 5 to June 8. The track also will hold trials for the Lazy E Futurity and Derby three weeks before the meet starts on March 16.

Including stakes, average daily purse distribution at the meet will be $110,000.

The Remington Park Quarter Horse Futurity on April 20 and the Heritage Place Futurity on June 1 top the calendar as the richest stakes offered. Each is worth an estimated $500,000.