Handicap

Friel's for Real woke up frisky yesterday, and she brought her aggression to Laurel Park for the $50,000 Maryland Racing Media Handicap. About 4 a.m. yesterday at Philadelphia Park, as she was being walked around her barn before being loaded onto a van, she reared up and lashed out at her handler with her front feet. That made her trainer, Ned Allard, smile. "She's a tough gal," said Allard, 58, who has trained at Philadelphia Park for six years. "She's got a little man in her." After a two-hour van ride to Laurel, the 5-year-old mare manhandled her six competitors in the 1 1/8 -mile handicap for fillies and mares.

Silmaril, a mud-splattered, 3-year-old filly, defeated older horses for the second time this year when she captured the $100,000 Geisha Handicap yesterday at Pimlico. After racing fifth down the backstretch, Silmaril barged between horses around the far turn and commandeered a comfortable lead down the homestretch. She won the 1 1/8 -mile stakes for Maryland-bred fillies and mares by 1 1/4 lengths on a soaked track rated "sloppy." "I've liked this filly ever since she walked into the barn," said Chris Grove, her trainer at Bowie.

A small group of Russian librarians visited Maryland last week for a lesson in how to help the disabled - and a little history of Edgar Allan Poe. Touring such locations as the Enoch Pratt Free Library and the State Disabilities Law Center, the librarians were trying to learn more about how libraries in the United States serve the disabled and help them learn about their legal rights. After their visit, each of the four librarians is expected to return to Russia and tackle a project for the coming year.

A Grade I winner from New York and a hard-luck mare from California will race at Laurel Park today in hopes of ending losing streaks against a tenacious and upset-minded home team. Evening Attire, a winner of six graded stakes, heads the nine-horse field in the $150,000 John B. Campbell Handicap, and Bear Fan, an injury-prone but talented mare, competes in the $200,000 Barbara Fritchie Handicap. The Barbara Fritchie, a Grade II sprint of seven furlongs, kicks off Laurel's Winter SprintFest, which includes stakes tomorrow and Monday.

Cruise Along pulled away from a solid field of Maryland-bred fillies and mares in dominating fashion to win the $100,000 Geisha Handicap yesterday at Laurel Park. Sent off as the third choice behind multiple stakes winners Shiny Sheet (4-5) and Undercover (2-1), the Larry Murray-trained horse was unhurried early by jockey Abel Castellano as the favorites battled up front. Castellano advanced the daughter of Runaway Groom around the far turn and swept to command at the top of the stretch.

ARCADIA, Calif. - The post-position draw yesterday for the eight Breeders' Cup races Saturday at Santa Anita Park was cruel to perhaps the event's brightest budding star. Halfbridled, the undefeated 2-year-old filly, drew post 14 in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies. That is the outside post in a 1 1/16-mile race. At Santa Anita, as at many tracks, the starting gate for races that distance is so close to the first turn as to put outside horses at a huge disadvantage. "I guess we want to see how good she really is," said Richard Mandella, the filly's trainer.

NEW YORK - Pete Sampras, winner of a record 14 Grand Slam events, will make his retirement official tonight at the U.S. Open in a ceremony that honors his career. But Andy Roddick, the hottest player in men's tennis this summer, said he won't miss the big guy. "That's OK," said Roddick, 20, when asked about Sampras, who beat him in last year's Open quarterfinals en route to his final Grand Slam title. "That's just one less player that's a threat." For the first time in 32 years at the Open - when Ken Rosewall and Margaret Court were absent - neither the men's nor women's champion will attempt to defend a title.

It takes a village to raise a British Open champion. Most of the people in Ostrander, Ohio, had some connection to Ben Curtis long before he lifted the Claret Jug in victory last month at Royal St. George's in England. They ate in the same restaurant, went to the same school or just saw him grow up at Mill Creek, the course Curtis' maternal grandfather built. Bob Curtis watched the older of his two sons go off to Kent State and become a three-time All-American and realizes he might be on his way to becoming the PGA Tour's Rookie of the Year, but Ben Curtis has never really left his town of 400 set among corn and soybean fields some 30 miles from Columbus.

The Servis brothers are making Laurel Park their personal playground this winter. John Servis has sent three horses into the track for stakes victories since New Year's Day, and yesterday Jason joined the winning trainer's act by saddling Tempest Fugit to a front-running score in the $100,000 John B. Campbell Handicap. Postponed from the previous Sunday by the snowstorm that hit the state last weekend, the Campbell originally had an 11-horse field. It went to the post with only eight after the last-minute scratch of Quick Punch yesterday.

How did an embarrassment of comic-book riches become simply an embarrassment as a movie? Chalk it up to mistaking the fannish enthusiasm of writer-director Mark Steven Johnson for instinct or skill. Before penning the script and taking the reins on Daredevil, Johnson was best known for the scripts to Grumpy and Grumpier Old Men. But he managed to convince this film's producers that because of his passion for the comic book he was perfect for the job. He's going to make a lot of young men grumpy with this movie.