OZONE PARK, N.Y. – After Stormy’s Majesty won the Grade 3 Discovery last month, trainer Dominic Galluscio wasn’t sure what he wanted to do next with the 3-year-old New York-bred. With limited lucrative opportunities on the horizon, Galluscio was contemplating giving the colt a little break and point for 2011.

Apprentice jockey Jason Gracia, seriously injured in a Nov. 27 spill at Aqueduct, has shown significant improvement during his hospitalization, according to a press release from the New York Racing Association on Thursday.

Gracia, 28, sustained broken ribs, a broken collarbone, and a hairline fracture of his neck when his mount fell during the day's third race.

Initially on a ventilator at Jamaica Hospital in New York City, Gracia was transferred Wednesday to North Shore Medical Center on Long Island, where only an IV tube was inserted.

Kiss Mine has faced more demanding tasks during what clearly has been a breakout year. Kiss Mine was assigned post 12 for the $50,000 My Charmer Stakes on Saturday at Turfway Park, but if the 4-year-old filly runs like she has been, the difficult post just might not matter.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. − The Grade 1, $750,000 Wood Memorial and the return of the Tom Fool and Jerome highlight Aqueduct’s 2011 winter/spring stakes schedule, released Thursday by the New York Racing Association.

Aqueduct will offer 29 stakes worth $3.59 million over 80 days of racing from Jan. 1 through April 23.

LOS ALAMITOS, Calif. – Freaky has been the dominant older horse in Quarter Horse racing for the last 18 months, but even his trainer, Adan Farias, wonders if that status is under threat in Saturday’s $750,000 Champion of Champions at Los Alamitos.

MIAMI – Mambo Meister will attempt to cap off a second straight outstanding season with another graded stakes win when he carries high weight of 120 pounds in Saturday’s Grade 3 Fred Hooper Handicap at Calder.

Mambo Meister won 3 of 10 starts, earned $229,000, and ran credibly in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile in 2009. He has been even a little better this year, having won 2 of 9 tries, with both victories coming in Grade 3 races here earlier in the campaign. A win in the nine-furlong Hooper would push his 2010 earnings over the $300,000 mark.

If this is, as the song says, “the most wonderful time of the year,” then that sentiment is particularly true for trainers with improving 2-year-olds. Eight 2-year-olds will be trying to provide a wonderful time for their connections Saturday in the $75,000 Gold Rush at one mile at Golden Gate Fields.

The field ranges from Luckarack, who has won two stakes and picked up checks in two others, to King Cola, who has finished second or third in his three stakes attempts, to Eddie Coddana, who graduated for a $20,000 claiming price in his last start.

Trainer Richard Small is no stranger to sending out 2-year-olds on short rest for a late-season stakes at Laurel Park. For the third time in the last five years, Small will saddle a runner coming back in less than two weeks when he sends out the unbeaten Side by Side in Saturday’s $50,000 Maryland Juvenile Filly Championship, a 7 1/2-furlong race restricted to Maryland-breds.

PHOENIX – Beautiful Holiday and Table Mesa, first and third in a Turf Paradise optional claimer on Nov. 26, meet for the second straight race in Saturday’s $25,000 City of Phoenix Stakes. The six-furlong event for fillies and mares drew a field of eight.

Jockey Eddie Castro appeared to escape serious injury after being thrown from his mount, Reading Group, during the running of the eighth race at Aqueduct. Jockey Edgar Prado was also involved in the spill and was uninjured, though he did take off his mount in the last race.

Castro, 24, was taken by ambulance to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where he had precautionary X-rays taken on his right shoulder, according to his agent, Mike Gonzalez.