INGLEWOOD, Calif. - A smashing comeback one month ago by Figlio Mio will be impossible for bettors to overlook in Wednesday's seventh race at Hollywood Park. Figlio Mio, the lone Cal-bred in the field, will be favored in a field of eight in the one-other-than allowance, a seven-furlong sprint with a purse of $46,500.

ELMONT, N.Y. - The main story line coming out of Saturday's Belmont Stakes was how Point Given, who won the race by 12 1/4 lengths, should have won the Triple Crown. That opinion seems to dismiss the brilliant Kentucky Derby victory recorded by Monarchos five weeks ago.

Monarchos ran away from 16 rivals, including Point Given, in winning the Derby by 4 3/4 lengths in the second-fastest winning time of 1:59.97.

Flooding in Houston last weekend did little to keep diehard race fans from attending the simulcast races at Sam Houston Race Park but did affect betting at a number of racetracks and their offtrack betting parlors that use Sam Houston as a wagering hub. Flooding in Houston started late Friday, stranding about 40 horseplayers and 20 employees overnight at the North Houston track, where a record 18 inches of rain fell. On Saturday, a crowd of 1,913 attended the track on Belmont Stakes Day, defying city officials who urged residents to stay home because Houston was in the state of emergency.

STICKNEY, Ill. - Zoe Cadman held off Chris Emigh by 36 wins to 33 and won the Hawthorne jockey's title. She is the first woman to win a riding title in Chicago and the first apprentice to win a title since E.T. Baird led the Hawthorne standings in 1986.

Cadman, 26, launched her career at Arlington less than a year ago, but has seen success at all three Chicago-area tracks. She took command of Hawthorne's jockey's race at mid-meet and finished strongly to beat Emigh, who won more than his typical share of races in the last two weeks.

Potaro, scratched from the Jersey Derby when the race was switched to dirt on May 26, got his preferred surface in Monday's $75,900 Nick Shuk Memorial at Delaware Park.

Potaro, a Group 3 winner in Europe, won his first stakes in this country when he held off a late charge from Unaccountedlea to win the 1 1/16-mile grass stakes by a half-length.

Aided by an additional race and a lineup heavy on stakes and turf races, the New York Racing Association set several wagering records on Saturday for its Belmont Stakes card.

Ontrack handle was $10,581,093, edging the previous record of $10,577,736 set in 1999. The ontrack record was set with the fourth-highest Belmont crowd of all time, at 73,857, a 9 percent increase over last year but well short of the record of 85,818, set in 1999.

NYRA carded 12 races on Saturday, one more than on previous Belmont cards.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Perfect Sting, last year's female turf champion, came out of Saturday's Grade 1 Manhattan Handicap with filling in the tendon of her right foreleg, an injury that will most likely keep her out of action this summer and could possibly end her career.

Trainer Joe Orseno was somewhat optimistic after X-rays taken Monday morning did not reveal a core lesion, or hole, which would have indicated a torn tendon, thus ending Perfect Sting's career. Orseno said the injury would be re-evaluated in three weeks before any decision would be made on Perfect Sting's future.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - As is typical this time of year, there is a horse crunch in Chicago. In its second year back in business, Arlington Park opens its 2001 meet Wednesday with 2,140 stalls available for its horse population. Those stalls are precious. They must sustain acceptably large fields through Arlington's longer-than-usual 102-day meet and provide sufficient room for trainers who need space to house the means of their livelihood.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - It should take trainer Jerry Hollendorfer about 2 1/2 hours Wednesday afternoon to make his presence felt in Chicago. Hollendorfer, the northern California heavyweight who is stabling locally for the first time, has nearly 50 horses on the grounds, and he will begin running them in Wednesday's sixth race, in which his filly Granja Paranoica should be a solid favorite.

Two races later, Hollendorfer brings back Globalize from a year layoff in the $42,000 Barry Shipp Handicap, Arlington's opening-day feature.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Captain Steve, who will carry high weight of 123 pounds in Saturday's $750,000 Stephen Foster Handicap at Churchill Downs, had his final breeze for the Grade 2 race, going five furlongs Monday in 1:01.40.

Captain Steve is expected to face at least eight other horses in the Foster, which will be his first start since his victory in the March 24 Dubai World Cup. The race will be televised nationally on CBS as part of the NTRA Champions series for older horses.