OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The last time they met, Icabad Crane needed every inch of the sloppy Saratoga stretch to beat Stormy’s Majesty by a nose in the Evan Shipman Stakes. Five months later, Icabad Crane and Stormy’s Majesty renew acquaintances in Saturday’s $75,000 Alex M. Robb, the featured event on the nine-race New Year’s Eve program at Aqueduct.

Icabad Crane, who won last year’s Robb, and Stormy’s Majesty are two of eight horses entered in this 1 1/16-mile race restricted to New York-breds. Stakes winners Inherit the Gold and Groomedforvictory add depth to the field.

The California Horse Racing Board has filed six complaints against Quarter Horse trainer Adan Farias after horses he started at Los Alamitos in late October, including four winners, tested positive for the banned medication zilpaterol.

Three of the positives were taken from runners in major stakes on the AQHA Challenge Championship program at Los Alamitos on Oct. 29 – T Gold J, the winner of the $200,000 Derby Challenge, and Illegal Smile and FDD Moon, who were first and third in the $150,000 Juvenile Challenge. Illegal Smile finished in a dead heat for first.

The much-improved gelding Jimanator, who went from a well-beaten seventh running for a $17,500 claiming tag last January to winning a Grade 3 stakes last month, will try to close out his 2011 campaign with a second straight stakes win in Saturday’s $75,000 Auld Lang Syne at Parx Racing.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Apriority will get a little class relief while returning to the scene of perhaps his finest hour when topping a field of seven sprint specialists set to go six furlongs in Saturday’s $100,000 Mr. Prospector at Gulfstream Park.

Cold Cash 123 will have more than just purse money on the line Saturday when he runs in the Grade 1, $350,000 Championship for Quarter Horses at Sunland Park. He enters the race as the American Quarter Horse Association’s top-ranked runner, according to a poll covering 3-year-olds and up, and a win should secure his No. 1 spot for 2011.

With the racing season having ended at Woodbine in Canada, Peter Redekop was looking for a racing outlet for a few of his synthetic-running steeds.

So Redekop, the Vancouver real estate developer with a prodigious stable, had his racing manager, Brian Anderson, give Wayne Mogge a call at Turfway Park. Mogge had developed a rapport with Redekop after selling him a 3-year-old gelding named Inhisglory early this year, and Mogge was more than happy to fold Hollywood Hit, La Rocca, and Inhisglory into his Turfway barn for the northern Kentucky winter.

PHOENIX – Beer Meister tried to parlay his 40-1 upset in last winter’s Turf Paradise Derby into bigger things as he tried a couple graded stakes. He found those waters a bit too deep, but the 3-year-old son of Pleasant Tap returns to his home base and the site of his big Turf Paradise Derby win when he leads Saturday’s $35,000 Luke Kruytbosch.

The 1 1/16-mile event for 3-year-olds, named for the former track announcer who also called races at Churchill Downs before he died in 2008, drew a field of nine.

By David Grening

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Two horses returning from extended layoffs help liven up a $62,000 first-level allowance race that serves as Aqueduct’s featured event on Friday.

Black Pen, away since May 1, and Vee’s Accolade, not seen since June 18, have run races that make them win candidates in this six-furlong dash that appears loaded with early speed.

Trainer John Terranova usually sends a string of horses to Gulfstream for the winter, but this year he opted to keep his horses solely in New York while turning out some of his grass horses.

“Why not run for the money here?’’ said Terranova, who has 36 horses stabled at Belmont and has already won three races this meet. “Horses that have their conditions I’d prefer to keep them here. I have no problem keeping good horses here through the winter.’’

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – After finishing second as the 4-5 favorite in the Queens County Stakes three weeks ago, Inherit the Gold returns to New York-bred company when he heads a field of eight entered for Saturday’s $75,000 Alex M. Robb Stakes at Aqueduct.

Inherit the Gold had won five consecutive starts over the inner track before being outfinished by Ron the Greek in the Queens County. Though Ron the Greek won by 2 1/4 lengths, Jim Hooper, the trainer and part-owner of Inherit the Gold, still believes he ran the best horse in the race.