SUNLAND PARK, N.M. - Trainer Steve Asmussen has a strong uncoupled entry of entered in Saturday's $50,000-added Bold Ego Handicap, a 5 1/2-furlong race for fillies and mares that drew a field of eight. Although Asmussen is dominating the trainer standings at this meet, he has yet to win a stakes - unusual considering he won six stakes here last year.

PHOENIX - Expresso Bay apparently doesn't understand how this whole time continuum thing works. You're supposed to slow down as you get older. But Expresso Bay, a 7-year-old Southern California-based runner, has never looked better than he does now.

He better be at his best for Saturday's $50,000 Paradise Mile Handicap at Turf Paradise, because Grimm, probably the best horse on the Arizona circuit, is waiting for him. Eight are entered in the the one-mile turf race.

Simply Jolie, who has won three of her four starts by a combined 14 3/4 lengths, will be tested for class on Saturday night when she meets Grade 3 winner Wacky Patty in the $40,000 Genesis at Delta Downs.

The five-furlong race for 3-year-old fillies drew a full field of 10, including Spoiled, the first foal from Grade 3-winning racemare Little Sister.

Simply Jolie figured the racing game out quickly. She won her maiden by 3 1/2 lengths in her debut in July, and added Lasix after finishing fifth in an entry-level allowance one start later.

Two years ago Perfect Drift won the Turfway Prevue and later developed into one of the top horses in training. Last year Champali won the Turfway Prevue, after having already won the Grade 3 Iroquois at Churchill Downs two months earlier.

Expectations are lower for the race this year. None of the eight 3-year-olds in Saturday's $50,000 Turfway Prevue appear on par with the winners from past years, and all but two of the starters, Degenerate Gambler and Dollar a Dip, remain eligible for a one-other-than allowance.

NEW ORLEANS - is the kind of horse apt to run for $600,000, not $60,000, but there he is, drawn in post 1 for Friday's Louisiana Handicap at Fair Grounds.

And it is not just him. The $60,000 Louisiana, at 1 1/16 miles on dirt, also features the return of , a highly promising brother to Giant's Causeway, and an appearance by Comic Truth, whose connections hope they have a horse for the New Orleans Handicap. Also entered were G.W.'s Skippie and Spanish Empire, one-two in the Dec. 6 Tenacious Handicap, as well as Kodema and Fitzroyal, talented horses in their own right.

NEW ORLEANS - Tenpins, an established Grade 2-type handicap horse, might be too strong for his opponents in Friday's Louisiana Handicap, one of the more compelling $60,000 stakes a racing fan will encounter. But skeptics won't need to look long to find holes.

Tenpins just turned 6, and his last start didn't exactly meet his high standards. In the Clark Handicap at Churchill on Nov. 28, Tenpins encountered trouble on a racetrack that isn't his favorite, but his 12th-place finish - a career-worst performance - is disturbing.

And then there is his opposition Friday.

NEW ORLEANS - When Steve Asmussen talked late last week about his split with Corey Lanerie, his stable's first-call rider, he was somewhat coy about his plans for replacing Lanerie. Give it a few days, Asmussen said, and things will become clearer.

They're fairly clear now. Shane Sellers will ride the bulk of Asmussen's powerful Fair Grounds stable. Last Sunday, Sellers won two races for Asmussen, and he has been named to ride Warleigh this Saturday in the Colonel E.R. Bradley Handicap.

MIAMI - Scott Savin had a spring in his step and every right to be smiling as he strolled through the racing office at Gulfstream Park on Wednesday morning. After suffering through several lean and stressful winters since assuming the position of track president in 2000, Savin is confident the 2004 meet, which opens Saturday, will be the most successful since Magna Entertainment Corp. acquired Gulfstream in the fall of 1999.

MIAMI - came into the 2003 Gulfstream Park meeting as a relatively unknown Calder-based 3-year-old. He came out of the meet headed for Churchill Downs and the Kentucky Derby.

Supah Blitz enters the 2004 Gulfstream meet with a little more notoriety because of his Derby experience, but he must prove again that he is good enough to compete on the national stage.

PORTLAND, Ore. - will make a formidable team in Friday's top offering at Portland Meadows, a six-furlong sprint for open $2,500 claimers that has drawn a field of eight.

Chantilly Lad and Billy White Shoes are trained by Jonathan Nance, who also owns Chantilly Lad, and they will race as an entry Friday.