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.

JUVENILE REPORT

An appealing aspect of spring at Hollywood Park is 2-year-olds, and Belleofthebridle set the tone April 21 when she won an opening-day maiden race by almost six lengths in 51.59 seconds. The clocking, for 4 1/2 furlongs, earned an Beyer Speed Figure of 81.

But one month later, almost nothing has changed. Belleofthebridle remains the fastest 2-year-old winner of the meet. Her figure remains seven points higher than next-fastest Hi Ho Yodeler (74 Beyer, May 2). The juvenile crop has been ordinary.

WHO'S HOT

Defending Calder riding champion Manny Cruz moved back into his familiar spot atop the standings last week, leapfrogging apprentice Luis Saez by posting seven victories from Thursday through Sunday, including four Friday. Cruz is also spreading the wealth; each of his seven wins came for a different barn.

WHO'S HOT

Jockeys

Already topping the rider standings at Churchill Downs, Calvin Borel won with 6 of 13 mounts last week - more winners than any other rider for the week, even though he rode at the track just two days due to riding at Pimlico last Friday and Saturday. He went 3 for 7 last Wednesday, and 3 for 6 last Sunday at Churchill.

For the meet, Borel was 22 for 78, giving him a nine-win margin over his next closest pursuer, Julien Leparoux.

WHO'S HOT

Leading rider Eurico Da Silva led all jockeys during the eight days of racing from May 5-16, winning aboard 12 of his 47 rides. Chantal Sutherland moved into fourth in the standings, scoring on nine of her 44 mounts.

Da Silva is serving a suspension this weekend, but he has obtained an exemption for the La Lorgnette Stakes on Sunday so that he can pilot Biofuel in the $150,000 event.

BOSSIER CITY, La. - Entries were drawn Wednesday for Saturday's Louisiana Cup Day at Louisiana Downs. A total of six stakes, two starter stakes, and a pair of Louisiana-bred maiden events will offer more than $600,000 in purse money to the state's best. A total of 110 horses were entered for the 10-race program.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - After just nine days of racing, Hastings is cutting purses by 5 percent. The bottom-level purses will remain the same, but purses for $12,500 open claimers and above will take the hit.

The reason for the adjustment is threefold, according to track officials. Firstly, the total per-race average handle of $65,151 is down roughly 11 percent, and the ontrack live handle is down roughly 5 percent per race.

For $27,000 last fall, Jose Gonzalez bought a yearling colt closely related to a horse who won six times for him in Mexico a few years ago.

Cash This Okie won "some pretty big races" in Mexico, Gonzalez said. His little half-brother West Coast Hawk is doing even better in the United States.

Last Saturday, West Coast Hawk pulled a 14-1 upset in the $362,300 Kindergarten Futurity at Los Alamitos, the first futurity of the year at the track.