NEW ORLEANS – Little Polka Dot and Bella Medaglia might have been a little disappointing in their most recent races at Fair Grounds, but the two fillies are in much different positions coming into Friday’s featured sixth race here. Bella Medaglia must prove that after a long layoff she remains the same filly who finished second by a half-length in the Tiffany Lass Stakes last winter. Little Polka Dot, for her part, only needs to rebound to the form she showed Nov. 10 at Delta Downs to be a major factor in Friday’s first-level optional $25,000 claimer at a mile and 70 yards.

Sam Houston Race Park’s racing program has undergone a complete makeover for the 27-date meet that opens Friday. The calendar is condensed, while purses have expanded. The stakes program has been enhanced. And there will be afternoon cards every Monday through the close of the season March 7.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Most first-level allowance races are ordinary affairs, rarely eliciting more than passing interest other than from handicappers trying to find a winner to bet on. But first-level allowance races for 3-year-olds during the first two months of the Gulfstream Park meet are anything but blase, usually producing one or more contenders for the major Kentucky Derby preps to be decided later in the session.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Handle at Santa Anita has fallen through the first three weeks of the winter-spring meeting, but attendance is holding steady compared to the 2009-10 meeting, track president George Haines said earlier this week.

Through Sunday, ontrack handle was down 4 percent, while out-of-state handle had fallen 11 percent, Haines said. He described ontrack attendance as “flat.” More specific figures were not made available.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Alley Hondro made the successful transition from maiden claimer to allowance race winner against statebreds through the second half of 2010.

The question surrounding his 2011 campaign is how far can he progress against open company?

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Winter time on this circuit is the ideal time to experiment, and the connections of Driven by Success are doing just that when they send the stakes-winning sprinter a mile and 70 yards around two turns in Friday’s $60,000 Mr. International Stakes over Aqueduct’s inner track.

Top Quarter Horse jockey Cody Jensen will miss most of 2011 while recovering from a broken pelvis suffered at Los Alamitos on Jan. 8.

Jensen underwent surgery for the injury Jan. 12 and returned to his home near Los Alamitos on Monday to begin a lengthy recovery that is expected to last at least until the fall and may take until 2012, he said Tuesday.

“Anything less than a year will be a victory,” he said.

Marty McGee

The 2011 Canterbury Park meet will include 28 stakes while missing the longtime centerpiece, the Claiming Crown, it was announced Wednesday by officials at the Shakopee, Minn., track.

Highlights of the 62-day meet, which runs May 20 through Sept. 5, will include the seven-race, $345,000 Minnesota Festival of Champions for statebreds on Sept. 4, and the $75,000 Lady Canterbury, one of three stakes set for July 31. The Lady Canterbury has undergone a purse cut from $100,000.

Russell Baze rode 11 winners at Golden Gate Fields last week – nothing all that unusual for him – but it was definitely an up-and-down week for the meet’s leading jockey.

His week started when his mount, Lady Dawn, clipped heels and fell in Thursday’s first race. No problem. He bounced back up and won the second race with E’volet and then won another race with A K Racer. He also rode two winners Friday with back-to-back scores aboard Movie Star R.N. in the fifth and American Wildcat in the sixth.

Julien Couton knows exactly what he is riding when he gets aboard Positive Response.

“He’s definitely the best 3-year-old at Golden Gate Fields,” said the French jockey after the Pomeroy gelding captured his third straight victory and second in a stakes in Saturday’s $100,000 California Derby.

Trainer Billy Morey won’t argue with that description, but he knows Positive Response will face a much stiffer test on Feb. 12 in the Grade 3, $200,000 El Camino Real Derby.

“I think it’s going to get tougher,” he said. “There may be some strong shippers.”