Cayard was too slow as Francesco de Angelis drove Prada of Italy to a 37-second victory Saturday over AmericaOne, tying the best-of-9 America's Cup challenger finals 4-4.

	AmericaOne was hurt by another penalty in Saturday's race.

"Going into today, there were two races left," Cayard said. "The odds probably are that each of us would win one, so that looks good for us tomorrow."

So after 202 races involving 11 boats from seven countries, it has come down to this:

One 2¼-hour race Sunday for the right to meet defending champion New Zealand in the best-of-9 Cup finals starting Feb. 19.

"Nobody has sailed against the Kiwis," de Angelis said, "so nobody knows how fast they are."

A costly penalty against AmericaOne helped the silver-and-red Italian boat break a three-race losing streak and avoid elimination. Now one of the most exciting Cup series ever will be decided before hundreds of spectator boats -- from luxury yachts to rubber boats -- on the Hauraki Gulf off Auckland.

"We started back on Oct. 18 with the first race and, here we are, Feb. 5, and it is only one race tomorrow," said Dyer Jones, head of the challenger finals. "It really, though, shows what great champions we have here with Paul Cayard, Francesco, their crews."

AmericaOne had rallied from a 3-1 deficit to a 4-3 lead with a 1-minute, 6-second victory Friday. But Prada led from start to finish Saturday in moderate southwest wind of 10-16 knots.

"The races have been difficult and it was like a pendulum that went back and forth," de Angelis said. "The pendulum went up our way again."

Cayard's biggest Cup comeback came in 1992 when he skippered Il Moro di Venezia of Italy back from a 3-1 deficit to a 5-3 victory over New Zealand in the challenger finals. Then he lost the Cup finals 4-1 to America3.

On Saturday, he was penalized on the second leg for failing to stay out of Prada's way, the same infraction that cost him the fourth race.

"They probably made a good call," Cayard said. "We're just playing a little too much with fire in the windward-leeward situations," which require the windward boat, Cayard's in this case, to stay clear.

The penalty meant he had to make an extra 270-degree turn -- lasting about 30 seconds -- at a point of his choice, and he did it just after Prada crossed the finish line.

Cayard is trying to win the Cup for the St. Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco so he can defend it there in three or four years. But he could find himself in the Mediterranean, a challenger again, if he loses Sunday and Prada beats the Kiwis.

New Zealand is the least populated country ever to compete for sailing's top prize. Italy has never won it in four previous campaigns. The United States has dominated, winning all 25 competitions from the first one in 1851 until 1980.

Australia took it away in 1983, but the United States won the next three before New Zealand's 5-0 sweep in San Diego in 1995 brought the silver trophy to Auckland for the first time.

The 18½-mile race is an up-and-back course, three legs into the wind and three, including the last, with the wind from behind.

In the fourth race, Cayard also was penalized for not giving way, as the windward boat must do. That happened as he held a narrow lead one minute from the finish.

On Saturday, the yachts approached and nearly touched midway through the second leg. The referees in a nearby boat immediately signaled the penalty.

So when Prada started the final leg with a 16-second lead, Cayard's chances of overcoming that plus the penalty time were very slim.

His best opportunity was to steal a page from an NFL playbook -- by doing the equivalent of a long, desperation pass on the last play, with the quarterback hoping for a defensive pass interference call in the end zone.

Cayard first had to get close enough to Prada to force it into a penalty which would negate both penalties. That rarely happens and it didn't Saturday.

Prada won the start by two seconds and stretched the lead to 20 seconds at the first mark. It was 19 seconds after the second mark and 30 seconds after the third, the midpoint of the race.

The third leg was among the most exciting of the series as the boats engaged in 20 tacks.

AmericaOne gained on each of the next two legs, cutting the margin to 17 seconds after the fourth and 16 seconds after the fifth.

Prada began the final leg with a bad gybe set and had a brief spinnaker pole problem midway through the leg. But as the boats sailed to the finish line, Prada made sure to stay far away from AmericaOne to avoid a penalty.

Prada cruised up the left side, its sailors exchanging firm handshakes as the boat crossed the finish line. AmericaOne went up the right side and, with the race already lost, its sailors were reminded of the penalty's heavy price.