The aptly named speedball Xtra Heat, a candidate for 2001 Eclipse Awards as both champion 3-year-old filly and sprinter, launches her 4-year-old campaign at Aqueduct today – the universal birthday for all thoroughbreds – as the heavy favorite in a field of eight fillies and mares dashing six furlongs in the $75,000 Interborough Handicap.

“Of course, I’d like her to win an Eclipse,” said trainer John Salzman. “But I can’t control that. I don’t think she should be penalized because she runs in sprint races.”

Xtra Heat, who cost just $5,000 and has earned nearly $1.3 million, is a remarkable win machine. The Maryland-based daughter of Dixieland Heat is 17-for-22 lifetime and 10-for-12 at the Interborough distance, her only two defeats coming against the boys in her last pair of starts, when she was a close second in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint and third in the DeFrancis Dash.

A blazing frontrunner, Xtra Heat has been in front at the half-mile call in each of her last 12 races, all stakes, and she’s 2-for-2 over the Big A’s inner dirt track.

Xtra Heat, who’ll be ridden for the second time by Harry Vega (her regular jockey, Rick Wilson, is sidelined with a broken leg), packs highweight of 125 pounds, giving away from 11-to-14 pounds.