Beulah track report

GROVE CITY, Ohio - Both the riding and training titles will be decided at Beulah Park when the track concludes its 72-day fall meet on Sunday afternoon.

Through Tuesday, jockey Huber Villa-Gomez held a 55-53 advantage over Perry Ouzts in the rider standings despite having 76 fewer mounts than Ouzts. Villa-Gomez is in search of his first Beulah Park riding crown, while Ouzts has been a perennial leader both here and at River Downs over the past three decades.

Jake Radosevich held a 23-22 lead over Albert Palacios in the trainer standings through Tuesday. Both men have won multiple training titles at Beulah Park.

* After nearly a three-week break, racing will resume here on Jan. 10 with the winter-spring meet, which will run through Kentucky Derby Day on May 4.

The racing schedule has been changed slightly from years past as Beulah will race four days per week in both January and February with racing to be conducted Friday through Sunday and on Tuesdays. Thursdays will be added to the schedule in March and Beulah will cut back to four days per week again in April.

In the past Beulah has run three days per week in January, four in February, and five from March on.

The new schedule should relieve pressure at the entry box in April when Beulah usually struggles to fill races because many horses and trainers leave for River Downs. When River Downs opens in mid-April, all three of Ohio's Thoroughbred tracks race at the same time.

* In 2003 some front-office personnel will work at both Beulah Park and River Downs. Beulah's track announcer Bill Downes and racing secretary Ed Vomacka have accepted similar positions at River, in Cincinnati, which conducts a spring-summer meeting. Both will return to Beulah in the fall.

A replacement will likely have to be found for Downes at Beulah when the track's meets overlap.

Mike Weiss, Beulah Park's general manager, says the new hirings by River Downs reflect a spirit of cooperation between the two tracks.