All-sources handle for Laurel Park’s winter meet, which ended March 30, jumped 21.5 percent, according to figures released by the Maryland Jockey Club on Wednesday. Total wagering from Jan. 1 to March 30 was $117.4 million, compared with $96.6 million in 2012.

Average daily handle went from $1.65 million to $1.94 million, an 18 percent increase. Ontrack handle figures increased 7 percent from $485,500 to $518,900, while the export numbers increased 22.5 percent from $1.16 million to $1.42 million per day.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Christmas has come in April – specifically Friday, April 5 – for owners, trainers, and jockeys who have stuck it out to the very end of the 2012-13 Gulfstream Park meeting. Due to an underpayment in the purse account, Gulfstream will give away more than $560,000 on its 13-race closing-day card, with nary a stakes race on the docket. The biggest slice of that pie is the $62,100 up for grabs in the fifth race, an optional $62,500 claiming race for fillies and mares going 1 3/8 miles on turf.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – It is the transitory nature of horse racing that when a meet opens, interest is sky-high in who will do what – but by the time the meet is over, yesterday’s news is just that, and it’s on to the next venue.

Keeneland Race Course’s live racing seasons are boutique meets, bringing out both lifelong aficionados of the sport as well as casual and novice fans for top-class racing.

Recognizing its unique position on the racing landscape, Keeneland has planned several fan education efforts and initiatives for its upcoming spring meeting, which will run from April 5-26, in an attempt to educate newer fans and perhaps turn them into longtime customers of the sport.

Gabby Gaudet received an early college graduation present Wednesday when the Maryland Jockey Club announced she has been chosen as the new racing analyst at Pimlico and Laurel Park.

Gaudet, 22, a daughter of longtime Maryland trainers Linda and Eddie Gaudet, was hired after she did an on-air audition at Laurel on March 23. She will replace Frank Carulli, who is leaving after 10 years to move to Las Vegas.

Racing fans will get to know Gaudet during Pimlico’s meet, when she will co-host the in-house broadcast with Carulli on Saturdays and Sundays.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - These should be giddy times for David Wilkenfeld, owner of the undefeated Vyjack, who enters Saturday’s $1 million Wood Memorial at Aqueduct as the second choice on the morning line to fellow undefeated 3-year-old Verrazano.

2013 Racing Dates

January 7 - May 4 ~ November 2 - December 17

Post Time: 1:15 p.m. ET

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Sam Houston in Houston, which closed out its 33-date Thoroughbred meet March 18, handled an average of $1,330,820 a day on its live races from all sources, down 4 percent from its 2012 average of approximately $1.38 million a day.

Of Houston’s handle this year, an average of $1,207,396 a day was bet on the track’s races offsite – down 5 percent from the 31-date meet in 2012 – and $123,424 was bet ontrack – up 3 percent from last season. Attendance was up 10 percent, the track reported, while average daily purses at the meet rose 5 percent to $170,000 a day.

Delta Downs in Vinton, La., experienced a more than 13 percent increase in average daily handle during its 87-date Thoroughbred meet that ended March 23, the track announced Tuesday.

Delta handled an average of $1,629,138 a day on its live races from all sources, compared to $1,431,407 during the corresponding meet a year ago. Of the handle amount, an average of $1,599,553 a day was bet on the track’s races offsite, up 14 percent from last season. Ontrack, an average $29,584 a day was bet on live races, up 3 percent from last meet.

The owner of a horse at the center of a perplexing incident in January at Tampa Bay Downs, which resulted in the track’s banning of a veterinarian, said she was told by her trainer that the horse had mistakenly been treated with an antibiotic on race day that was intended for a different horse.