Granted, a day or a couple of days of action on a surface like Pro-Ride can not be said to be a true measuring stick of what will occur in the future but horse bettors watching opening day at Santa Anita had to come away with a harbinger of how the track may unfold this meet.

Unlike the Cushion Track at Hollywood Park, where there were a lot of parades as early speed did very well, it appears that the Arcadia surface will play a big slower and much fairer.

Before going over the first several winners of the meeting, check out the quotes from some Hall of Fame trainers in the Daily Racing Form courtesy of Brad Free, who seems to get trainers to open up and speak honestly more than any other writer around.

Richard Mandella: " I think this track is going to favor the better horse, whoever that is. I don't think it will be lightning fast like it was during the fall. I think it'll probably be a touch slower, which is fine."

As far as when and if the rains come, Bobby Frankel had some clues to give Free about races that are scheduled on the turf but have to be moved to the Pro-Ride. Frankel: " I'll run, unless they've proven they cannot handle synthetic. Grass horses are training very well on the Pro-Ride. They run on top of it, it doesn't slip away from them, they get good footing like on grass. With all the off tracks, I never used to run. Now. I'll probably be running a lot more."

If the thoughts of these two legends are correct, horseplayers should be very well away of runners that go turf to Pro-Ride and for runners that are dead fit.

On opening day, players saw horses winning from everywhere. The 12-1 winner of the opener going a mile and a sixteenth on the Pro-Ride came from about 4 lengths off the lead to win inching away and the trifecta players rallied from 6th and 7th.

The logical second choice came from dead last going 9 furlongs in the second race. Regally bred debuter Point Encounter wired a field sprinting on the Pro-Ride in the third.

Winner of the fourth also went wire to wire while the 6-1 hero of the fifth came from 7th to cash. All Saint took the sixth in a shocker after settling about 3 lengths off the lead early on.

When the Sir Beaufort came off the grass, the chalk dawdled and came from dead last to win at a mile on the Pro Ride.

Speed was again king in the Malibu when Bob Black Jack tow-roped the field while the nightcap went to King Bejarano with a former maiden that came from 9th.

The thing to be learned for hard-working horse bettors is that like Mandella suggested, the best horse will win most of the time but that horse had better be fit, able to adapt, and agile enough to track runners or make a clear lead and take them all the way.