BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. - When Magna Entertainment Corp. first proposed building the Palm Meadows Training Center in Boynton Beach several years ago, its goal was to provide a first-class training facility that would attract the highest caliber of horses.

But even Frank Stronach, Magna's chairman of the board and the driving force behind the construction of Palm Meadows, probably never dreamed the state-of-the-art training facility would become such an instant hit with horsemen or have such a positive impact on the 2004 Gulfstream Park meeting.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Some years, it's a bust. For whatever reason, the most promising candidates for the Kentucky Derby are located anywhere but south Florida when the calendar flips to a new year.

And some years, it's a boom. Derby prospects converge en masse on Gulfstream Park and the other nearby training facilities, rendering south Florida a galaxy of 3-year-old stars.

So far, the outlook for 2004 is looking like a boom.

MIAMI - New Year's day may have been a holiday for some, but not trainer Barclay Tagg or Kentucky Derby winner , who celebrated turning 4 by working six furlongs in 1:11.20 on Thursday morning at the Palm Meadows training center.

"He worked good the whole way," Tagg said. "He's really starting to get fit now and back to where he was when he was good last year. He was a little sluggish in his first couple of works after getting down to Florida but he seems to be back in the groove now."

BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. - Steve Margolis was little more than a cog in the Michael Gill machine when Gulfstream Park began its 2003 meet. As a right-hand man to trainer Mark Shuman, Margolis helped to oversee Gill's sizable string at the Palm Meadows training center while also training his own stable of four horses.

What a difference a year makes.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Richard Mandella has won major dirt races for older horses with the likes of Dare and Go, Gentlemen, Malek, Pleasantly Perfect, and Siphon, but to hear him tell it, Olmodavor has the potential to be as good as any of them.

There's just one big "if."

"If not for his ankles, he could win everything," the trainer said. "He had a big chip taken out of an ankle before he was even broke. He's a first-class horse. But we have to stop and rest him once in a while."

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Veteran jockey Stewart Elliott said could be the fastest horse he has ever ridden. Elliott is eager to see how far the 3-year-old colt can carry that speed.

After winning two sprints in dominant fashion at Philadelphia Park in November, Smarty Jones will make his two-turn debut in Saturday's $75,000 Count Fleet Stakes at Aqueduct.

NEW ORLEANS - The Colonel E.R. Bradley Handicap, co-featured on a strong program Saturday at Fair Grounds, drew a deep field of 11 horses, but the race might turn out to be quite simple. to the rear, and those two should hook up in the stretch run of the race, which is at about 1 1/16 miles on grass.

Todd Pletcher had a handful of talented 2-year-old fillies in his barn during 2003, a group headed by Ashado, second in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies and winner of the Grade 2 Demoiselle at Aqueduct.

Pletcher also trained Lokoya and Marylebone, the one-two finishers in the Grade 1 Matron; Sisti's Pride, third in the Grade 3 Tempted; and Capeside Lady, winner of a pair of stakes restricted to New York-breds.

OLDSMAR, Fla. - South Florida horses are always tough when they ship north to Tampa, and a trio of talented Calder shippers, including Vision in Flight, will attempt to continue that pattern in the $60,000 Minaret Stakes at six furlongs.

Vision in Flight, who finished second to such notables as Storm Flag, Gold Mover, and House Party this past summer and fall, tops a full field of 14 filly and mare sprinters in the Minaret.

ALBANY, Calif. - Trainer Patrick Gallagher is wary coming into Saturday's $100,000 Work the Crowd Handicap at Golden Gate Fields.

The race is loaded with speed with Super High, Princess V., and Marty's Zee in the lineup. It seems to set up for a closer such as Gallagher's filly .

But Gallagher isn't ready to hoist the trophy yet.

"Sometimes when it looks like that on paper, it's not always the way it turns out," Gallagher said.

Tucked Away is one of six entrants in the one-mile race for Cal-bred fillies and mares.