HOT SPRINGS, Ark. -- The real Bayakoa never showed up for her going-away party.

In her absence, yesterday's $500,000 Apple Blossom Handicap turned from a one-horse show into an old-fashioned shootout. Degenerate Gal, a 6-year-old who couldn't be sold as a baby, battled to a 1 1/4 -length victory over Charon on the next-to-last day of the Oaklawn Park season.

If the 7-year-old Bayakoa had won her final career start, she would have eclipsed Lady's Secret's earnings record for a female racehorse.

Instead, the finicky Bayakoa finished last of six starters and never flashed her trademark early speed.

Said trainer Ron McAnally: "Maybe this was just one too many. I guess this is the right time to call it quits. Maybe she just wants to make babies now."

Bayakoa retires with $2.8 million in lifetime winnings -- about $200,000 less than the record -- and will be vanned Monday to Brookside Farm in Versailles, Ky.