HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Sinister G's wire-to-wire triumph in Saturday's $500,000 Lane's End Stakes was far and away the richest and most important win of jockey Paul Toscano's riding career. But the victory meant a lot more to the 15-year journeyman than just a big payday and the dream of possibly riding in his first Kentucky Derby.

That's because for Toscano, victory in the Lane's End at Turfway Park was a family affair. Sinister G is owned in part by his brothers Robert Toscano and John Toscano III and trained by his father, John Toscano Jr.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - The Grade 3, $150,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap at Oaklawn on April 8 was looking like it might be a showdown between Shake You Down and Beau's Town. Now, however, they both have to be concerned with Skeet.

Skeet has put together two powerful stakes wins in his two starts at the meet. He captured the $50,000 Hot Springs last Sunday and earned a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 108, and before that earned a Beyer Figure of 107 for his four-length score in the $50,000 King Cotton.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - While Storm Flag Flying was recovering from an injury that limited her 3-year-old campaign to just two starts, Randaroo was winning some of the more significant stakes for fillies and mares run in New York last fall.

Randaroo will pay a little for that success - as well as her dominating victory in last month's Shirley Jones Handicap at Gulfstream - when she carries three more pounds than the multiple Grade 1-winning Storm Flag Flying in Saturday's $150,000 Distaff Breeders' Cup Handicap at Aqueduct.

ARCADIA, Calif. - The Grade 2 Santa Ana Handicap will not arrive soon enough for trainer Jim Cassidy and the 4-year-old filly Katdogawn.

"I just hope we get to Saturday without her killing herself; she's just a monster," Cassidy said.

She will need to be one in the 1 1/8-mile turf race for fillies and mares. Megahertz was assigned 120-pound high weight, and class handicapping suggests the Bobby Frankel-trained Grade 1 winner is the one to beat.

A confident Cassidy believes otherwise. "I'm the one to beat," he said.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Horses develop at their own pace, and trainer John Servis loves how the undefeated Smarty Jones is coming along mentally heading into the biggest test of his career, the $1 million Arkansas Derby on April 10.

Smarty Jones is pointing for the Grade 2 race after turning in a 3 1/4-length win in the $200,000 Rebel Stakes on Saturday. He improved his career record to 5 for 5 and earned a career-best 106 Beyer Speed Figure.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Trainer William Connelly is making an impact in his first meet at Oaklawn Park. He has picked his spots judiciously and is winning with 20 percent of his starters. Connelly can continue his run Wednesday, with Casino Red in the featured eighth race.

Casino Red faces six others in the entry-level allowance, to be run over six furlongs. The purse is $32,000.

Other top contenders include Soo Much, who moves back to the allowance ranks after winning a pair of claiming races; Shiny Meadow, who returns to the distance of his last win; and Fred and Me.

A Louisiana district court judge has ruled that Fair Grounds owes its horsemen $89 million in proceeds from video poker machines dating back to 1993.

The judgment, which followed a Louisiana Supreme Court ruling in favor of the Louisiana Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association, puts a precise figure to the amount that Fair Grounds owes its horsemen. The amount had previously been estimated in a range between $75 million and $100 million.

Hastings, the Vancouver, British Columbia, track that has been operated by Woodbine Entertainment Group since May 2002, has been sold to Great Canadian Gaming Corp.

In a press release Monday, David Willmot, chairman and CEO of Woodbine Entertainment, called Great Canadian "well positioned to enhance the prospects of the horse racing business."

Great Canadian operates seven casinos, four restaurants, and a marina operation in British Columbia, as well as three restaurants and four gaming facilities in the state of Washington.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - For a young trainer who hails from Louisville and has been out on his own for a short period of time, George Weaver has shown amazing restraint when it comes to the Kentucky Derby.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Trainer Barry Abrams has been the biggest booster of the stallion Unusual Heat throughout his brief career. He trained the horse, sent him to stud, and has bred numerous mares to him.

One of the hallmarks of Unusual Heat's offspring has been their knack for improving on turf, no surprise considering that Unusual Heat is by Nureyev. Three of his daughters are in Wednesday's featured seventh race at Santa Anita, and Abrams trains two of them, , who should prove a formidable entry.