NEW YORK - Leaders of the New York legislature are close to approving a plan that will allow Aqueduct racetrack to operate video lottery terminals year-round, legislative and racing officials said Tuesday.

There has been an about-face by many legislators who fiercely opposed expanded gambling earlier this summer. With state tax receipts in a freefall as the economy sours, and with the financial burden of the World Trade Center attacks rapidly mounting, opposition to expanded gambling has significantly dampened.

CHICAGO - With a 120-horse stable scattered across the country, half of Steve Asmussen's battle is keeping track of who's who. Well, not really. Asmussen is reputed to have an acute memory - he can rattle off the characteristics of all his own horses, and everyone else's, too.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Flying Alibi should appreciate the drop from allowance to claiming in Thursday's Bay Meadows feature, a mile turf race for $28,000-32,000 claiming fillies and mares.

Flying Alibi has made only four starts this year and is looking for her first victory. In her last race, at Bay Meadows on Sept. 24, she tried the turf for the first time and wound up fourth in an allowance race. She should find Thursday's race a much easier spot.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Handicappers may debate Escape With Me's credentials in the sixth-race feature Thursday at Santa Anita, but two days before the Breeders' Cup, few will dispute her timing.

Sired by 1991 Juvenile winner Arazi, and produced by 1994 Sprint runner-up Soviet Problem, Escape With Me does not need a championship-caliber performance Thursday against seven California-bred fillies and mares in a first-condition, six-furlong allowance. Pedigree aside, Escape With Me ran fast enough in her maiden win Aug. 24 to suggest she fits against winners.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Mysterious Affair dominated the filly-mare sprint ranks here this spring, rattling off four straight wins before going to the sidelines because of injury in mid-June.

Her owner-trainer, Mort Hardy, had hoped to have Mysterious Affair back for a fall campaign, which would have included this Saturday's Ontario Fashion Handicap. But Mysterious Affair, a daughter of Mysterious Vice and Miss Blue Bell, won't race again until next year, when she is 5.

You and You Alone, a strong third in both of his last two tries against much tougher competition, heads a field of seven in Wednesday's feature at Bay Meadows, a second-level allowance at six furlongs.

You and You Alone has made five starts this season and has one win, a second, and two thirds. Trained by Clifford Delima, You and You Alone began his season in April with a strong second behind Flom's Prospector. He came right back in his next start to post a neck decision for his third career victory.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Okay, okay. So they've pretty much blown all their major races. They are down to features that few have heard about and even fewer know about. The Keeneland officials are, for all intents and purposes, playing out the string at what remains of their 17-day fall meet.

But as that old bumper sticker might say, "A bad day at Keeneland is better than a good day almost anywhere else."

ELMONT, N.Y. - Later this week, trainer John Kimmel will try to win his first Breeders' Cup race with Miss Linda in the Distaff and perhaps with Hook and Ladder in the Sprint, if he draws in.

Kimmel could set the tone for a good week with Full Flow in Wednesday's eighth race, a third-level allowance, at Belmont Park.

Eleven colts and geldings entered the 1 1/8-mile inner turf race, including four main-track only horses, Berchtesgaden, Wild Summer, Un Fino Vino, and Tempest Fugit.

ELMONT, N. Y. - A tough trip denied Say Florida Sandy a win in Sunday's $125,000 Hudson Handicap at Belmont Park, but he was still able to make history by finishing second.

Say Florida Sandy became the all-time leading New York-bred money earner with his second-place finish behind Impeachthepro in the Hudson. Sandy, who now has $1,750,926 in earnings from 77 trips to the starting gate, surpassed L'Carriere, who had held the top spot.

OKLAHOMA CITY - Mr Ross won his third consecutive $90,000 Classic Stakes by a commanding 10 3/4 lengths. The race was the richest of seven Oklahoma-bred stakes Sunday in the ninth annual Oklahoma Classics Day.

Mr Ross raced about eight lengths behind his stablemate, Peyvon, who held on for second after running the opening six furlongs of the 1 1/16-mile race in 1:10.88. Mr Ross overtook Peyvon at the top of the stretch, then cruised home, covering the distance over a fast track in 1:44.09. It was another three-quarters of a length back in third to Vince.