BONSALL, Calif. - Azeri's competitiveness has been seen throughout her career in the afternoon when she races, but it was on display even before a key workout Tuesday morning at San Luis Rey Downs. Prior to heading from the barn to the track, Azeri was walking in circles behind another horse trained by Laura de Seroux. Azeri pinned her ears, walked with purpose to get in front of her stablemate, then threw her ears forward, turning some nondescript exercise into another reason to compete.

BOSSIER CITY, La. - Beau's Town was going to train up to the $1 million Breeders' Cup Sprint next month at Santa Anita, but those plans have changed after he came out of a Sunday morning workout razor sharp. He is now scheduled to run in the Grade 3, $250,000 Phoenix Breeders' Cup at Keeneland on Oct. 3.

The six-furlong race will serve as his prep for the Sprint.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Say Florida Sandy, one of the greatest New York-breds of all time, has been retired and will enter stud in 2004.

On Tuesday, John Rotella, Say Florida Sandy's owner, said he is near completing a deal to sell Say Florida Sandy to a New York farm.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - A full field of 12 seems likely for Saturday's Grade 3, $200,000 Bay Meadows Breeders' Cup Handicap.

Trainer Bobby Frankel decided Tuesday that he would likely enter highweight Decarchy along with Fateful Dream in the 1 1/8-mile turf race. Fateful Dream will be ridden by Patrick Valenzuela, who has won riding titles at Santa Anita, Hollywood Park, and Del Mar this year, while northern California leader Russell Baze will ride Decarchy.

POMONA, Calif. - Anthony Eats has been begging for a route of ground, and the 2-year-old will get it Thursday at Fairplex Park as one of 11 entrants for the $50,000 Gateway to Glory Stakes at 1 1/16 miles.

The race might have been a slam dunk for Best Pal runner-up Capitano, but when trainer Ray Bell elected to skip the Fairplex race and wait for the Grade 2 Norfolk, the floodgates opened. The Gateway to Glory attracted a full field, and many of the entrants are returning off maiden wins.

Abby Meyocks, the daughter of New York Racing Association president Terry Meyocks, was listed in guarded condition Tuesday at Winthrop Hospital on Long Island after she suffered a laceration to her liver in a car accident Monday afternoon.

Meyocks, 24, was a passenger in a car driven by jockey Javier Castellano, her fianc?, who escaped the accident without injury. Meyocks and Castellano are due to be married next July 12.

Emerald Downs in Auburn, Wash., closed its 92-day 2003 meeting on Monday with declines in its overall handle and its handle on live racing.

The meeting's total wagering, which includes all betting on Emerald's races and on incoming simulcasts, averaged $1,180,841 a day, down 5.8 percent from last year's average of $1,253,521.

The handle on Emerald's own races averaged $751,582, down 16 percent from the 2002 average of $895,355. That decline was due largely to a decrease in the sale of Emerald's simulcast signal.

ELMONT, N.Y. - First Blush, a graded stakes winner, and Bishop Court Hill, returning to the dirt after an unsuccessful foray on the grass, are the main contenders in Thursday's eighth race at Belmont Park.

First Blush and Bishop Court Hill are the only 3-year-olds among six male sprinters entered in the third-level allowance race, which has a $51,000 purse and will be run at 6 1/2 furlongs.

CHICAGO - Kickboard is a maiden in an overnight stakes race, a three-time starter who has never gotten within six lengths of winning a race. But when Kickboard sets foot on Arlington Park's turf course Thursday afternoon, it might feel like home.

The 2-year-old Kickboard is by the top stallion Kingmambo, and his mother is a daughter of the world's best grass sire, Sadler's Wells. After three races on dirt tracks, Kickboard finally switches to turf, the surface for which he is bred, in the $45,000 Manila Stakes.

CHICAGO - Eusebio Razo Jr. has had the best Arlington meet of his career this season. But to put an exclamation point after it, he has to leave.

Instead of riding closing day at Arlington, Razo will spend Saturday at Belmont, where he rides Ajedrez in the Grade 1, $500,000 Vosburgh Handicap.