Prairie handle up slightly

Prairie Meadows concluded its 45-day 2006 Thoroughbred meeting Tuesday with average daily handle from all sources on live races up less than 1 percent from 2005's comparable 47-day meeting.

The average daily handle this year on Prairie Meadows races from all sources was $546,516, compared with $542,201 last year. Ontrack handle declined 3.6 percent from last year's $77,765 daily to $74,990 in 2006. That was offset by a 1.5 percent increase in offtrack handle, from $464,436 in 2005 to $471,526 this year.

Tim Doocy easily captured his third straight Thoroughbred meeting title here by a 77-53 margin over Glenn Corbett, who served six days of suspensions during the meet. Dick Clark, the all-time leading trainer at Prairie Meadows, ran away with training title, saddling 64 winners, with Kelly Von Hemel second with 24.

Owner Maggi Moss had 60 winners during the meet, more than four times as many as River Ridge Ranch, who finished second in the owner standings with 14 wins. Moss's runners earned more than $1,050,000 the meet, or approximately 11 percent of the purse money distributed during the meeting. Moss, who has runners with several trainers in different regions, leads the nation's owners in victories in 2006.