HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - The featured ninth race at Oaklawn Park on Friday will test the conditioning of its eight entrants. All of the horses in the entry-level allowance are returning from layoffs, ranging from six weeks to 10 months. The race will be run over six furlongs for a purse of $31,000.

Scrum has the speed to control the pace, but he has not raced since Aug. 4, when he finished third in an entry-level allowance at Ellis Park. He shows three five-furlong works in preparation for his comeback, and on Friday will be making his first start for trainer Bob Holthus.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - It was John McKee who received all the hype before Aqueduct's inner track meet began. It has been Luis Chavez who has enjoyed the most success among the group of apprentice riders in New York.

NEW ORLEANS - Bill Badgett's barn got hot during the last month at Fair Grounds and has jumped into a tie for fourth place in the standings. And, with four wins in 23 starts at Fair Grounds, Becky Maker has been hot enough to jump-start her nascent training career.

Badgett has a live horse, Run to Victory, in Friday's featured ninth race, while Maker saddles Biorhythm, one of her treasured winners this meet, in the eighth. After Badgett and Maker are done, the day winds up with a wave of maiden 3-year-old sprinters in the 10th race.

ALBANY, Calif. - A pair of Grade 1-winning comebackers, Sligo Bay and Redattore, seem likely to head Saturday's $100,000 Tanforan Handicap at Golden Gate Fields.

Sligo Bay, the 121-pound highweight, is a definite for the race. Redattore, who gets in at 120, will run if an allowance race scheduled for Saturday at Santa Anita doesn't fill. The race did not fill for Friday.

PORTLAND, Ore. - Seven older maiden fillies and mares meet in the Friday night feature at Portland Meadows.

The $8,000 claimer at 5 1/2 furlongs appears to be a virtual match race on paper between the speedy Black Barry Velvet, drawn in the outside post 7, and Bubblegum Red, who breaks from the rail.

Both come off runner-up finishes at this level.

Black Barry Velvet, a 4-year-old, figures to be in front early. She is the only member of the field who has ever had the lead in a sprint.

TORONTO, Ontario - Good Journey, impressive winner of the Grade 1 Atto Mile at Woodbine, has been made the overall topweight at 126 pounds on the Canadian Free Handicap for 2002.

Good Journey, weighted in the turf male category, was pegged one pound above Ballingarry in the hypothetical handicap sponsored by the Jockey Club of Canada and orchestrated by Chris Evans, Woodbine's director of Thoroughbred racing.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - It may seem to Gulfstream Park fans that owner Mike Gill and trainer Mark Shuman appeared out of nowhere this winter to become the hottest items in the game. Actually, both have been involved in racing for years, although never with this level of success.

By volume and percentage, their numbers are dwarfing the highly reputable stables that annually come south. Through Monday, Gill and Shuman had teamed to win 31 races from 96 starters; the next-highest win total among trainers is eight, shared by three men.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - She needed arthroscopic surgery to take a chip out of her right front ankle, and since returning, she has won two straight races. She is in the best form of her career.

Trained by Paul McGee, And Thats My Story, is coming off the fastest win of her career. She seeks her third consecutive victory when she faces seven rivals, including an entry trained by Mark Shuman, in Thursday's featured ninth race at Gulfstream Park.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Mark Hennig reached into his briefcase and pulled out a folder containing photos of a hoof missing part of the shelly wall. Underneath was a raw mess. The flesh was exposed.

This was Gygistar's right front foot on the eve of the Breeders' Cup Sprint.

"It was down to the bone nearly," Hennig said Tuesday morning at Gulfstream Park.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - It may not be enough to assess current form when trying to come up with the winner of the featured eighth race Thursday at Oaklawn Park.

One should take a long look at company lines, with the leading contenders in the six-furlong conditioned allowance for fillies and mares - Cherylville Slew, Steaming Home, and Freddie's Folly - each exiting races that have produced some interesting return winners.