INGLEWOOD, Calif. - With his reputation established as the nation's top-ranked turf horse, Bienamado's campaign is being geared toward the division's most lucrative races.

Bienamado will start as the 124-pound highweight in Sunday's $350,000 Charles Whittingham Handicap over 1 1/4 miles on turf at Hollywood Park. Despite the presence of White Heart, the winner of the Woodford Reserve Stakes at Churchill Downs on May 5, Bienamado will be a heavy favorite as he tries for his third major stakes win of 2001.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Hyder, who finished third in a similar spot on April 25, should be the slight favorite in the optional claiming feature at Bay Meadows Wednesday.

The six-furlong race is restricted to 3-year-olds and up who have not won twice, or are in for a $40,000 claiming price. Hyder, who has already won at the second allowance level, is one of three who is in for the tag.

STICKNEY, Ill. - With an extra day tacked onto this racing week at Hawthorne, the already depleted horse population - at least the higher-quality portion of it - will be stretched even thinner.

Although fields for the Wednesday card are full enough, four of the first six races are restricted to Illinois-breds, and the best race of the day may be the last, a maiden allowance for turf horses at nine furlongs.

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Star Stormy and Wild Gear, the top two fillies entered in Wednesday's three trial races for the fillies division of the $150,000-estimated Texas Thoroughbred Association Sales Futurity, may provide a preview of the Futurity finals, as they will face each other in the evening's second trial race.

The TTA Sales Futurity finale is to be run over five furlongs on June 30.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - There's nothing like a good 3-year-old to get the heart racing. While the Belmont Stakes brings the end of the Triple Crown in the U.S., in this neck of the woods the 3-year-olds are just getting started. Diglett is clearly the leader of the local division but Cecil Peacock is hoping that Happy Again, a horse he recently purchased, will make the move from impressive maiden winner to stakes contender soon.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - While Win City reasserted his dominance over his fellow males in last Saturday's Plate Trial at Woodbine, it is quite possible a serious Queen's Plate challenger could emerge from this Saturday's Labatt Woodbine Oaks.

Dancethruthedawn, owned by Sam-Son Farm and trained by Mark Frostad, is the horse to beat in the $500,000 Oaks, a 1 1/8-mile race for Canadian-bred 3-year-old fillies.

ELMONT, N.Y. - On the Monday before the 133rd running of the Belmont Stakes, the biggest news of the day wasn't at Belmont Park, but rather at Churchill Downs, where Preakness winner Point Given turned in his final pre-Belmont workout.

The Churchill Downs clockers caught Point Given's five-furlong breeze in :59.60 over a sloppy racetrack. The bullet time was the best of 13 horses on the worktab at the distance. The splits were :24.60 and :47.80 for the quarter and the half. Trainer Bob Baffert had his colt galloping out six furlongs in 1:12.60.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Lazy Slusan seems to have run out of competition in California.

Following her victory in Sunday's $254,300 Milady Breeders' Cup Handicap at Hollywood Park, trainer and co-owner John Dolan said he intends to point the 6-year-old Lazy Slusan to the division's top race - the $2 million Breeders' Cup Distaff at Belmont Park in October.

Along the way, she will have a few more starts at home, including the $250,000 Vanity Handicap on June 30.

Such a run seemed improbable last July when Dolan and Sam Longo claimed Lazy Slusan for $62,500 at Del Mar.

OCEANPORT, N.J. - Forest Heir, a 7-2 shot trained by Ben Perkins Jr. and ridden by Joe Bravo, benefitted from a hot pace to win Sunday's $50,000 Crank It Up Stakes for 3-year-olds at Monmouth Park.

Forest Heir ($9.80), a 3-year-old son of Forest Wildcat owned by New Farm, sat off fractions of 21.98 and 45.08 seconds contested by Unreal Party and Dixie Hope before taking command with a three-wide move to the front.

He covered the five furlongs in 57.47 seconds.

STICKNEY, Ill. - When Soul Onarazorsedge won the Pollyanna Pixie Stakes, a $40,000 overnight race at Hawthorne Friday, she overcame six opponents and a serious physical impediment. An accident shortly after she was born badly injured Soul Onarazorsedge's face, and left her without a right eye.

"She's got about no face on the right side," trainer Gene Brajczewski said Saturday morning. "She lost her eye and the whole side of her face has atrophied."