Wise Awake, a 5-year-old New York-bred mare who won 8 of 14 starts this season at Finger Lakes, has been named the western New York track’s horse of the year by the local Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association.

Owned and trained by M. Anthony Ferraro, Wise Awake dropped to the bottom $4,000 claiming level on May 17 after back-to-bak off-the-board finishes in allowance company. She proceeded to reel off six consecutive wins while rising in class. In her most recent win on Nov. 6, Wise Awake defeated an allowance field that included stakes winner Bob’s Dylan.

Miss Kinderhook will have more fitness to call on Friday when gut-check time arrives in a first-level allowance route for 2-year-old fillies that tops the Fair Grounds card. She will be making her second two-turn start in the race following a close-up fourth in the $69,000 Happy Ticket at 1 1/16 miles at Louisiana Downs on Sept. 25.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – A 3-year-old filly owned by Jerry and Ann Moss and trained by John Shirreffs rallied from off the pace to win her debut against sprinters at Hollywood Park. The style of the win suggested there is massive room for improvement.

Sound familiar? Zenyatta did that way back in 2007 at Hollywood Park. Mokoma did the same Oct. 11. That’s about as far as Shirreffs is willing to stretch the comparison.

“History is not going to repeat itself,” he said. “It’s such an extraordinary thing that Zenyatta did.”

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – John Parisella plans to take three months off at the beginning of 2011. Before he goes, however, the trainer hopes to start a few more horses, beginning with Wild News in Friday’s featured second-level optional $50,000 claiming race at Aqueduct.

Hialeah Park will open its second season of Quarter Horse racing on Friday. The 2010-11 meeting will consist of 24 days of live racing, Fridays through Sundays, until Jan. 23.

Hialeah reopened its doors for the first time in more than eight years last season when it conducted a Quarter Horse meet that began on Nov. 28, 2009. A crowd of more than 25,000 people greeted the horses back to one of racing’s landmark tracks, but interest waned quickly and the all-sources handle for the 2009-10 meet averaged less than $140,000 daily.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Thunder Ball and Prized Humour are the obvious protagonists in Friday’s eighth race, and Thunder Ball could turn the tables on his rival in the nine-furlong allowance that headlines the third-last day of the Woodbine Racetrack meet.

Prized Humour has had a frustrating time trying to clear this first allowance condition, since earning his diploma on Polytrack on July 2. He came up a half-length short of turning the trick on the grass Oct. 2, but could only manage fourth over yielding ground Oct. 30.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario —Trainer Ian Black is back on Canadian soil following his second journey to Japan, where he sent out Fifty Proof for last Sunday’s Japan Cup at Tokyo Racecourse.

“We had a great trip,” said Black. “We had a wonderful time. Great hosts, lovely people.”

Fifty Proof’s reception was not quite so hospitable, as the 4-year-old gelding gave way in the final furlong to finish last of 18 in the Grade 1 Japan Cup with his regular rider Justin Stein in the irons.

Live racing at Aqueduct was canceled Wednesday - the first scheduled day of racing over the inner track - due to inclement weather. There is no simulcasting either.

Heavy rains and high winds pelted the New York metropolitan area early Wednesday morning, and a high wind advisory remained in effect throughout the day.

Live racing is scheduled to resume on Thursday, first post 12:30 p.m.

Racing this past Saturday opened a window onto the 3-year-old class of 2011, with Aqueduct hosting the Remsen and Demoiselle for 2-year-olds, and Churchill’s all-juvenile program topped by the Kentucky Jockey Club and Golden Rod stakes. The 2-year-old race of note at Fair Grounds on Saturday was a short-field, entry-level allowance, but it might have provided a peek at a future stakes horse.

The only trainer with horses in as many as four races Thursday at Fair Grounds is not Steve Asmussen, not Tom Amoss, not Bret Calhoun: It is Michelle Lovell, whose barn has quickly become one to follow over the winter in New Orleans.