Trac N Jam made a visually impressive move to split horses late and get up to win the $137,000 Indiana Downs Distaff on Wednesday evening. The Distaff was one of two stakes on the final evening of the Indiana Downs racing season.

SHAKOPEE, Minn. – Just hours after a well-attended Wednesday press conference by local leaders at Canterbury Park to support the reopening of the racetrack, track officials were forced to cancel racing for Thursday evening, the ninth consecutive race card canceled due to the ongoing budget stalemate which has resulted in a shutdown of Minnesota state government.

A week has passed since attorneys for Canterbury Park asked Judge Kathleen Gearin to reconsider her initial decision to keep the Minnesota Racing Commission closed during the shutdown, but no decision has been rendered.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Ramon Dominguez went into the final four days of racing here with a 64-62 lead over Javier Castellano in the battle for leading rider at the meet, a title that likely won’t be decided until closing day.

Dominguez and Castellano both ride in 16 of the 18 races scheduled over Thursday and Friday. On Saturday, Dominguez is at Delaware Park to ride Havre de Grace in the $750,000 Delaware Handicap, while Castellano has mounts in all 10 races at Belmont.

The race for leading trainer and owner are equally as tight.

Retired jockey Tim Doocy and track photographer Jack Coady have been named to the Prairie Meadows Hall of Fame.

Doocy, an Iowa native, retired with 5,061 career victories, including 536 victories and 32 stakes wins at Prairie Meadows. He was the leading rider at Prairie Meadows from 2004-06.

Coady has been the photographer at Prairie Meadows since the track opened in 1989. Coady is part of a family of track photographers. His father, Jack Sr., started at Turf Paradise in Arizona in 1962 and Jack and his brother Jeff head up a business that photographs races at 21 tracks.

Keeneland representatives announced Wednesday an 18-race, $4.37 million fall stakes schedule – anchored by five Grade 1 races over opening weekend – for its fall meet that celebrates its 75th anniversary of racing and runs Oct. 7-29.

The stakes schedule is up marginally from last fall, when the program totaled $4.35 million, but far less than its schedule of $5.12 million that was showcased in 2009.

Coming off two graded stakes victories utilizing distinctively different running styles, Banned heads a field of 12 3-year-old turf runners that were entered Wednesday for a contentious renewal of Saturday’s Grade 2, $600,000 Virginia Derby at Colonial Downs.

The Virginia Derby, run at 1 1/4 miles, tops a 14-race card that begins at 5 p.m. The Virginia Derby will go as the eighth race, with a post of 8:05 p.m.

With a change in conditions, Ready’s Rocket might be viewed by some as a “play against” in Friday’s featured seventh race at Ellis Park, a second-level optional $40,000 claiming race at six furlongs.

The reasoning would be twofold. First, Ready’s Rocket is leaving his favorite racetrack, Churchill Downs, where he has won 10 races, a record since Equibase began compiling statistical data in 1991. And second, he is taking a noticeable class hike, jumping all the way up from a $5,000 starter allowance.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Friday is the 44th racing day of Arlington Park’s 86-day 2011 meet, which means the program marks the first day of the second half of the season. And, as far as racing surface goes, the card could be a sign of things to come. The last five races of the day all are scheduled for grass, and with Arlington’s course finally and wholly dried out after a very wet late spring, the turf should see plenty of action in coming weeks.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Trainer John Shirreffs has a deep team of 3-year-old turf fillies this summer in the stakes winner Star Billing and the improving Nereid.

With the Southern California calendar offering frequent opportunities for that division, some trainers would be tempted to split the two, running one in Saturday’s $250,000 American Oaks over 1 1/4 miles on turf at Hollywood Park and another in the $150,000 San Clemente Handicap over a mile at Del Mar on July 24.

FORT ERIE, Ontario – Hippolytus, runner-up in Woodbine’s Queen’s Plate at 61-1, has been made the 2-1 morning-line favorite for Sunday’s $500,000 Prince of Wales Stakes at Fort Erie.

A field of seven was announced here Wednesday at the ceremonial draw for the Prince of Wales, the 1 3/16-mile dirt race which is the second leg of Canada’s Triple Crown for Canadian-bred 3-year-olds

Hippolytus, trained by Mark Casse and to be ridden by Tyler Pizarro, drew post 3 and is one of five horses returning from the June 26 Queen’s Plate, which was run over 1  1/4 miles of Polytrack.