There has been no onslaught of winners from the Fair Grounds barn of Steve Asmussen so far this meet, and given the recent alterations in the Asmussen operation – more focus on California, less on Louisiana this winter – that might not change during the 2010-2011 season. But Heavenly Chorus’s victory in the first race Saturday gave Team Asmussen two victories from their last five starters in New Orleans, and handicappers would do well to keep an ear to the ground, listening for rumblings of an Asmussen breakout.

MIAMI – Seven of this year’s 14 Breeders’ Cup winners will be stabled throughout the south Florida area this winter. One of them, Eldaafer, was on the work tab for the first time since shipping to Gulfstream Park earlier this month when breezing an easy half-mile in 51.60 seconds with trainer Diane Alvarado aboard on Friday.

Eminent Tale and Royal Currier, both coming off front-running stakes victories in New York, will face Fort Hughes, a wire-to-wire winner of a fast maiden race in his lone start, in one of two $75,000 stakes for 2-year-olds on Tuesday’s card at Parx Racing.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Wet weather kept Santa Anita’s main track closed for training Saturday and prevented Champagne d’Oro from a workout in advance of the $250,000 La Brea Stakes for 3-year-old fillies on opening day of the meet, Dec. 26.

Initially, trainer Eric Guillot was frustrated at the disruption, but after thinking through the situation, he decided that Champagne d’Oro may not need that much exercise to be ready for the Grade 1 race over seven furlongs.

Familiar foes Ready or Not and Philly Bound, both of whom have shown a distinct fondness for the main track at Penn National Race Course, will clash for the fifth time this season in Monday night’s featured fifth race, a one-mile event open to second-level allowance runners and $25,000 claimers.

The rivalry between the two geldings began in October 2009, when Ready or Not romped by 6 1/2 lengths over a sloppy track in a third-level optional $20,000 claimer, posting a career-best 96 Beyer Speed Figure. Philly Bound was third, a neck behind runner-up Phil the Brit.

Turfway Park was forced to cancel the last five of 12 races Friday night when a transformer blew shortly after the start of the seventh race, leaving half the racing surface in the dark.

Although that race was run without incident and the local electric company responded to the problem, a new fuse also blew, after which management deemed it advisable to cancel following a delay of more than an hour.

Imported simulcasting and other activities in the grandstand continued without interruption.

Taptam, a multiple stakes winner who was second to Zenyatta in the Grade 1 Apple Blossom last April at Oaklawn, is being pointed to the Texas Champions Day card at Sam Houston on Jan. 22, trainer Bret Calhoun said.

“We’re probably going to run her against the boys in the Star of Texas,” Calhoun said of the $100,000 race restricted to 4-year-olds and up bred in Texas.

The 1 1/16-mile stakes is the lone dirt route on Texas Champions Day.

Time is running short for jockey Garrett Gomez’s quest to secure the national earnings title for the fifth consecutive year.

Through Thursday, Gomez’s mounts had earned $16,687,669 this year, leaving him in third place and $504,601 behind leader Ramon Dominguez. Gomez trailed runner-up John Velazquez by a mere $30,179.

Mine That Bird has spent the past three weeks making the transition from racehorse to retiree at his new home, Double Eagle Ranch in Roswell, N.M.

“We’re still hand walking him to let him down,” said Leonard Blach, who co-owns the 2009 Kentucky Derby winner with Mark Allen. “He’s really relaxing and really settled in.

“He’s had quite a few visitors.”

ARCADIA, Calif. – Steve Asmussen’s nationwide operation arrives in Southern California for an extended stay for the first time this month, coinciding with the start of the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting on Dec. 26.

It is the one region that Asmussen, 45, has yet to conquer. In earning the Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding trainer in 2008 and 2009, Asmussen’s stable has thrived on such major circuits as New York and Kentucky, while maintaining a presence in Illinois, Florida, Louisiana, and Texas, to name a few.