ETC. . . .

Damage estimates from a fire that destroyed the Assiniboia Downs press box Monday morning have increased to $1.5 million from the $1 million originally thought. The fire is thought by track investigators to have been the result faulty electrical wiring. . . . Canterbury Park Holding Corporation, which owns the racetrack and card club in Shakopee, Minn., had a 23.4 increase - from $9,229,250 to $11,385,965 - in revenue in the first quarter of 2004 compared with the first quarter of 2003, fueled primarily by a 40 percent rise in card club revenue. Parimutuel revenue for the quarter rose 1.7 percent from 2003.

rter in the May 29 Hanshin Handicap an hour after the horse posted a strong work Wednesday morning at Arlington. At daybreak, Wiggins, one of Apt to Be's competitors in the Grade 3 Hanshin, worked five furlongs in his final major exercise for the race.

Jockey Eddie Razo has ridden both horses in recent races: He worked Wiggins on Wednesday morning and will ride him in the Hanshin. Carlos Marquez Jr. breezed Apt to Be and has picked up the mount on him.

Apt to Be won the Hanshin last season, but Block fears the horse is a race away from his best. This work should help. Apt to Be was relaxed on his run up the backstretch, finishing up well, and his six-furlong time of 1:12.40 was a full three seconds better than the next-fastest work at the distance.

Wiggins, a winner of a Prairie Meadows allowance race in his last start, was timed in a quick 1:00.40 for five furlongs.

"Eddie said he could have gone in 58 if he'd wanted him to," trainer Tony Granitz said.