OCEANPORT, N.J. - Monmouth Park is a bulwark against time. The stately 65-year-old racetrack peddles charm and tradition, and those wares have never faded here. Fresh coats of green and white paint are usually the only things required to spruce up the place every summer. And although the 2007 Breeders' Cup necessitated renovations and a few additions to the facility, the postcard-pretty racetrack has always offered satisfying continuity. Until now, of course.

ELMONT, N.Y. - There is a pick-six carryover of $105,745 into Friday's card at Belmont Park after the wager went unhit for a second consecutive card. There was a modest carryover of $26,595 following Wednesday's card.

Entering the last leg of Thursday's pick six, there was one live ticket with 56-1 shot Mystic Era. But that horse was eased in the stretch, never giving that one bettor a run for his/her money.

OCEANPORT, N.J. -- Garrett Gomez and agent Ron Anderson were keenly interested when news of the 50-day, $50 million summer meet at Monmouth Park first circulated over the winter.

The more they explored the concept, the more excited they became.

"My agent had to feel things out," said Gomez, the nation's leading money-winning rider for a fourth straight year in 2009. "We had to make sure this was actually going down. Once we found out it was going to happen, we started to tell people we were coming this way."

New Madrid's status as a Belmont Stakes starter took a hit Thursday when the 3-year-old could manage no better than a fifth-place finish in a first-level turf allowance race at Belmont.

After dueling outside of Syo Defenceman through modest fractions, New Madrid could not quicken when the real running started in the stretch and he was beaten 3 3/4 lengths by Kindergarden Kid, who rallied powerfully four wide in the stretch. Jockey John Velazquez said New Madrid was "one-paced."

Expansion, winner of the Grade 2 Red Smith at Aqueduct last fall, is being pointed to the Grade 1 Manhattan here on Belmont Stakes Day, trainer Chad Brown said Thursday.

In two starts this year, Expansion finished fifth in the Grade 2 Mac Diarmida at Gulfstream and then fourth in the Grade 2 Elkhorn at Keeneland. Brown said he believes Expansion had significant trouble in the Elkhorn until too late.

ELMONT, N.Y. - The New York Racing Association opted not to card either of Sunday's two scheduled New York Stallion Stakes for 3-year-olds due to insufficient entries. The Cupecoy's Joy, for 3-year-old fillies, and the Spectacular Bid, for 3-year-old males, were both scheduled as seven-furlong turf races.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Roan Inish, one of the leading candidates for the Woodbine Oaks, is not scheduled to start again before that June 13 feature.

Trained by Carolyn Costigan, Roan Inish finished second, beaten five lengths by Resentless, when making her seasonal bow in the seven-furlong Fury here May 1.

ALTOONA, Iowa - Prairie Meadows has carded two $60,000, six-furlong sprints Saturday, the Prairie Express for older horses and the Prairie Rose, which is restricted to fillies and mares.

Ez Dreamer, a 5-year-old trained by Kory Owens, will make his first start of the Prairie Meadows meet in the Express. Owens said that Ez-Dreamer is the fifth generation of horses he has raced from this female family, beginning with In the Gate, a foal of 1978. Ez-Dreamer is the first foal of the dam French Debutante, who also produced the multiple graded-stakes-placed 3-year-old Uh Oh Bango.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Eclipse Award-winning jockey Julien Leparoux will be out of action until at least May 29 with a compression fracture in his back. Leparoux suffered the injury last Friday, when he was thrown during the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes at Pimlico. He was taken off all of his upcoming scheduled mounts at Churchill Downs.

A BRAND NEW BALLGAME?

The turbo-charged 2010 Monmouth Park meet - being dubbed "The Elite Meet" - features $50 million in purses, which is good news for owners, trainers, and jockeys. The added money figures to attract a high quality of racing, but it also means the handicapping puzzle just got a lot more complex. Dozens of new outfits from around the country, a handful of new jockeys, and a better class of racing mean the tried-and-true methods employed by New Jersey players may not work as well this season. We'll all have to adapt.