CYPRESS, Calif. – Urlacher is expected to be the only maiden in Saturday’s $350,000 Los Alamitos Futurity, a status that is little more than a technicality to trainer Eoin Harty.

Urlacher, who must be supplemented to the Los Alamitos Futurity for $20,000, finished first in a maiden race at a mile at Del Mar on Nov. 15 but was disqualified and placed second for causing interference in the stretch.

“He knows what it’s like to win a race,” Harty said. “If he’d stayed up, people wouldn’t question why I’m running in this race.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – With the handicap division undergoing wholesale changes following the retirement of Honor Code, Liam’s Map, and Tonalist at the end of the season, there is plenty of room for horses like Keen Ice to position themselves near the top of the list in 2016.

The West Virginia Racing Commission on Tuesday approved 179 racing days at Charles Town in 2016. The season will begin Jan. 7 and end Dec. 29. Racing will be held Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights in January, February, July, and August. Wednesdays will be added during the other months.

The biggest cards of the meet will be Charles Town Classic Day on April 23, the Race for the Ribbon program on Sept. 17, and the West Virginia Breeders’ Classics on Oct. 8.

Penn National concludes its meet Saturday night. The Grantsville, Pa., track will begin its 2016 season Jan. 6.

Timothy Kreiser leads the trainers’ standings by a large margin. This will be his second consecutive title. Angel Rodriguez has clinched the riding crown.

The Rainbow 6 at Laurel Park will have a carryover of $58,239 on Friday. The 10-cent bet was last hit Oct. 24 and has carried over on 22 straight cards.

The Rainbow 6 jackpot is only paid out when there is a single winning ticket. On days when there is more than one winner, 60 percent of the pool is paid out, and 40 percent of the pool is carried over.

Friday’s Rainbow 6 sequence on races 4-9 has 61 entrants and 59 betting interests.

It has been a year of change at Parx Racing, which concludes its 2015 season Tuesday and will not reopen until Feb. 13.

The seven-week break is the result of a June agreement between Parx management and the Pennsylvania Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association that created a 32-day fall festival centered around Parx’s two $1 million races, the Grade 2 Pennsylvania Derby and the Grade 1 Cotillion. Overnight purses were doubled during the festival – which ultimately was cut short due to an equine herpesvirus quarantine – and racing dates were reduced to keep the purse fund solvent.

OLDSMAR, Fla. – Trainer Eoin Harty will be well represented in the two stakes for juveniles at Tampa Bay Downs on Saturday, but one of the 2-year-olds who is training best for him, Uncle Jerry, will stay in the barn for now.

Uncle Jerry, a son of Uncle Mo, will be kept in two-turn races and likely will start in a first-level allowance before possibly aiming for the Triple Crown prep races. On Monday, Uncle Jerry breezed a half-mile in 48.40 seconds, the second-fastest of 29 works at the distance here.

NEW ORLEANS – With the recently implemented week-distant draw system in place, the six stakes to be run this Saturday at Fair Grounds were assembled last Saturday. Some of the races are decent, but with purses of just $50,000 and $60,000, the stakes offer about the same money as a maiden race over the inner dirt track at Aqueduct right now, which puts a low ceiling on their quality.

NEW ORLEANS – On paper, it looked like only something crazy could get String King beat Saturday in the Louisiana Champions Day Turf, a race String King had won three times before and in which he was the 4-5 post-time favorite. The starting gate clanged and opened, horses and riders jousted for early position, and before a quarter-mile had been run, something crazy happened.

NEW ORLEANS – The Pickett Factor won four of his first five starts, including the $100,000 Prelude Stakes, yet his best racing still might be in front of him. After finishing fourth in the Super Derby, The Pickett Factor has run perhaps the two best races of his life, easy wins in the Gold Cup at Delta Downs last month and in the Champions Day Classic on Saturday. He backed up his 99 Beyer Speed Figure at Delta with a 96 on Saturday and handed Mobile Bay, the Super Derby winner, a 5 1/4-length defeat.