Golden Gate Fields cancelled Saturday’s $50,000 Golden Nugget Stakes when only three of the 2-year-olds nominated to the six-furlong race were entered Wednesday.

Delaware Park managed to record gains in average daily all-sources handle at its 2010 meet, which ended last Saturday.
According to figures released by the track on Wednesday, the average daily all-sources handle climbed 3 percent, from $1,550,256 in 2009 to $1,602,401.
Delaware’s total handle of $181,071,299 for 113 days represented a 7 percent increase from the 2009 meet, which had 109 racing days.

Wasted Tears has been training like a mare on a mission. One of the nation’s top turf runners, she has turned in a series of bullet works at her Retama Park base and is scheduled to ship next week to Hollywood Park for the Grade 1, $250,000 Matriarch on Nov. 26.

“We’re planning for California,” said Bart Evans, who owns and trains Wasted Tears. “We’d be looking at getting there a week before the race, on the 19th. We might work her a little bit out there, if she so desires. That’s what we did at Del Mar. We blew her out a little bit.”

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Ellafitz will be loose on the lead Friday night when she tries to wire a small field in the $50,000 Life Is Sweet Stakes at Hollywood Park.

“She’s training well,” Bob Baffert said.

Ellafitz also is the only front-runner in the five-horse field that entered the Life Is Sweet, a restricted stakes for fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles on the main track. The stakes is race 7 on the night card; first post is 7:05 p.m.

Robert Hansan, a resident of Reston, Va., used a bold late bet in the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge handicapping contest on Friday and Saturday at Churchill Downs to grab the top prize of $137,000.

With only the Breeders’ Cup Classic left, Hansan placed his entire bankroll of $7,236 on Blame to win, a wager that returned $44,863. The win vaulted Hansan into first place by a wide margin. James Henry, the second-place finisher, had a bankroll of $30,010.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Denomination, who garnered back-to-back stakes victories at Longchamp in April 2009, looks for her first win in the United States when she returns from a layoff in Friday’s featured eighth race at Aqueduct.

A field of nine older fillies and mares entered the $52,000 race, a third-level optional $75,000 claimer scheduled for one mile on the turf.

Trainer Jerry Hardin died of a heart attack Wednesday morning at his Benton, La., home, according to a number of friends and racing officials in Louisiana. He was 62.

Hardin, an Arkansas native who raced throughout the Southwest, trained for more than 30 years. He raced this past summer at Louisiana Downs and was currently based at Delta Downs.

“He was a super person,” said jockey Don Simington, who often teamed with Hardin. “He was one of the first guys I rode for when I came to Shreveport 25 years ago.”

Gulfstream Park opened its stable area Tuesday, taking in the first horses who will race at the 2011 meeting which begins Jan. 5.

Horses trained by Wesley Ward and Tim Hills were the first to arrive on the grounds. The Palm Meadows barn area located approximately 45 miles north of the track in Boynton Beach opened last week.

Wise Awake, a 5-year-old mare who collected her eighth win of the meet last Tuesday, is among the candidates for 2010 horse of the year at Finger Lakes.

The best performers in various age and class categories will be announced at the local Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association dinner on Nov. 20.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Court of the Realm, trained by Peter Berringer, had been going about his business in relative anonymity through his brief career.

But Court of the Realm’s profile has changed since he reeled off his third straight victory at Woodbine Racetrack last Friday. The Kentucky-bred 3-year-old’s latest Beyer Speed Figure of 98 has caught the eyes of horseplayers and would-be purchasers alike.

“He’s pretty versatile,” said Berringer, who has sent out Court of the Realm to run well on turf and Polytrack at distances ranging from 6 1/2 furlongs to 1 1/16 miles.