Etc. . . .

The New York Racing Association appeared Friday to have averted a strike by mutuel tellers for Saturday's Belmont Stakes card. NYRA tellers said Friday that they had dropped strike plans, and NYRA said it expected no problems from clerks for the card. . . . River Downs set a live handle record Wednesday when $1,679,038 was bet on the track's nine-race program. The previous record of $1,617,778 was set July 6, 2000. . . . Bill Nader, senior vice president of the New York Racing Association, and Dan Fick, executive vice president and executive director of The Jockey Club, have been appointed to the Equibase Management Committee. Nader replaces Terry Meyocks, who served three years as a representative of the Thoroughbred Racing Associations, and Fick fills one of The Jockey Club's seats. . . . Yankee Wildcat on Friday became the third horse at the current Pimlico meet to lower the turf course record for five furlongs. He wired a field of optional claimers in 55.99 seconds.