OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Derek Ryan has only one victory from 32 stakes starters this year, but he knows he is only a few body parts away from having a career year.

“It was one of those years,” Ryan said Tuesday from Monmouth Park. “It was a good year − it could have been great.”

One of the most excruciating defeats for Ryan came in the Grade 1 Carter Handicap at Aqueduct, where his Musket Man was beaten a nose by Warrior’s Reward. That loss came about three weeks after Schoolyard Dreams was beaten a nose by Odysseus in the Tampa Bay Derby.

NEW ORLEANS -- Looking out over the Fair Grounds main track at the end of training hours Monday, Al Stall pointed to one of the horses he trains breaking off into an easy jog.

“That’s Blame’s full sister,” Stall said. “Look at her. She’s just like him. She’s relaxed like him, her hind end looks just like him.”

NEW ORLEANS – Fair Grounds, one assumes, has nowhere to go but up when its 2010-2011 racing season commences Thursday.

Average daily handle from all sources fell more than 11 percent in 2008-2009 compared to the previous season, but that decline was nothing compared to what happened during Fair Grounds’ most recent meeting. Business during the 2009-2010 meet was down 30 percent for much of the winter, and by meet’s end, average daily all-sources handle had dropped 20 percent even from those deflated 2008-2009 figures.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Thursday’s 97th running of the Fall Highweight Handicap at Aqueduct could easily be renamed the Fall Middleweight Handicap. None of the five top-weighted horses – including the 140-pound highweight Girolamo – entered the Grade 3 race, leaving a competitive if not compelling field of nine carrying anywhere from 126 to 129 pounds.

The Fall Highweight, run at six furlongs, is the traditional Thanksgiving Day feature and goes as race 8 on a nine-race card that begins at 11:25 a.m. Eastern and concludes at 3:10 p.m.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Apart was assigned post 2 when 11 3-year-olds and upward were entered Tuesday for the Grade 1 Clark Handicap, which will be run Friday for the 136th time at Churchill Downs. As a 3-year-old owned by Adele Dilschneider and trained by Al Stall Jr., Apart will be trying to follow in the footsteps of his more accomplished former stablemate, Blame, winner of the 2009 Clark on his way to a triumph in the Breeders’ Cup Classic nearly a year later.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Astrology heads a prospective field of eight or nine colts and geldings for the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes, while Aide and Kathmanblu lead the likely cast for the sister race, the Golden Rod Stakes. Both are Grade 2, $150,000 races that will be run at 1 1/16 miles Saturday.

Astrology, winner of the Iroquois Stakes here opening day, Oct. 31, will be favored in a field that also likely will include Cane Garden Bay, Major Gain, Rogue Romance, and Trubs. Other contenders for the Golden Rod include Gran Lioness and Missyoulikecrazy.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The Klein family experienced one of their many thrills in racing when Allamerican Bertie carried their familiar lime and black silks to victory in the Falls City Handicap at Churchill Downs on Thanksgiving Day 2002. Bert and Elaine Klein and their son, Richard, will be hoping for another memorable holiday when Cash Refund makes his turf debut in one of four undercard allowance races Thursday at Churchill.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Michael Pino, the leading trainer by win percentage at this year’s Woodbine meet, possesses superb numbers in numerous statistical categories, but first-time route (13 percent) isn’t one of them.

The Pino-trained Magical Merry will negotiate 1 1/16 miles for the first time as one of the favorites in Thursday’s seventh race, and it will be interesting to see how far she’ll go in the first-level allowance for 2-year-old fillies.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Before the weekend Turf Festival at Hollywood Park begins Friday with the first of five grass stakes, Cushion Track remains the focus Thursday with two key races on the main track.

Early post Thanksgiving is 11 a.m. Riveting Reason faces maidens in race 1, his first start since he set the pace and finished eighth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. A victory by Riveting Reason at 1 1/16 miles would lead to the Grade 1 CashCall Futurity on Dec. 18.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Family tradition being what it is on Thanksgiving, a certain edge might have to be granted to Wally Dollase and his wife Cincy this Thursday at Churchill Downs. Few racetrack couples epitomize the core values the Dollases have come to represent, and it would seem most appropriate if it was them occupying center stage after the Grade 2 Falls City Handicap is run for the 95th time.