INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Lava Man's retirement from racing lasted all of one year.

The 8-year-old gelding, who dominated the California handicap division during most of two years, earning $5.2 million and winning seven Grades 1's, worked three furlongs Wednesday morning at Hollywood Park and will aim for a racing comeback.

Owners Steve Kenly and Jason Wood, and trainer Doug O'Neill, confirmed tentative comeback plans for Lava Man after the snappy three-furlong work in 36 seconds, fastest of 24 works at the distance.

Test results for equine strangles have come back negative for all of the horses quarantined in Barn 5 on the Hoosier Park backstretch, according to a release issued by the Anderson, Ind., track late Wednesday afternoon.

Two horses displayed symptoms consistent with strangles in the barn on Sept. 11, resulting in the quarantine, and later tested positive for the disease. Those horses have been removed from the track grounds.

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Lone Star Park is scheduled to be auctioned during the course of its Quarter Horse meet that opens Friday night, but it will be business as usual during the season that runs through Nov. 28.

Magna Entertainment, which owns the track, will continue to operate Lone Star through the final closing of any sale. The auction is expected to be held in mid-October in New York, with the sale also subject to approvals by the Texas Racing Commission.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - When the entries closed here at Woodbine on Wednesday, Careless Jewel's name was noticeably absent from the Grade 3, $250,000 Selene Stakes.

Careless Jewel, trained by Josie Carroll, had been nominated to both the Selene and next Saturday's Grade 2, $750,000 Fitz Dixon Cotillion at Philadelphia Park. Both races are at 1 1/16 miles.

The millionaire turf sprinter Heros Reward and 3-year-old filly Blind Date, both Grade 3 stakes winners this season, and the 3-year-old colt Not for Silver, a Grade 2 winner two starts ago, are the three biggest stars on Saturday's 24th edition of the Maryland Million at Laurel Park.

Entries for the 12-stakes program for Maryland-sired horses, rechristened Jim McKay Maryland Million Day, were drawn Wednesday with 114 horses. Six of the races attracted fields of 10 or more, led by the Lassie with 14 2-year-old fillies.

BOSSIER CITY, La. - The phrase "Silence is Golden" certainly applies to racetrack superintendents. Chances are if nobody is talking about the track surface, the superintendent is doing his job.

"You only seem to hear about the track when there is a problem," said first-year Louisiana Downs trainer-turned-track-super Billy McKeever. "Almost everybody likes to blame the racing surface as one of the reasons they aren't winning races."

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - A lot of people get hurt when stock markets crash, but in the case of trainer Rob Gilker and his wife Vicky, a downturn in the market in 1989 turned out to be the best thing that could have happened.

Vicky was working at the Vancouver stock exchange in 1989 where she met Lindsay Semple, a prominent horse owner at Hastings. Semple had horses in training with Daryl Snow, and since times were slow in the financial markets, Vicky convinced Semple to let her work with Snow at a training center where Semple had some of his horses.

Retama Park near San Antonio was to offer turf racing on Thursday night for the first time since its meet opened in late August. Drought conditions had led to the indefinite cancellation of turf racing just before the season started, with stewards making weekly inspections of the course to determine when it could be used.

In the last week, rains have hit the area and the stewards have now deemed the course suitable for racing. There were two turf races scheduled for Thursday and two more for Friday night.

FLORENCE, Ky. - Finally, the all-or-nothing career of Wicked Style has settled into a decent rhythm. A Grade 1 winner in just the third start of his career, Wicked Style went badly off form before hitting a consistent pattern of respectability.

The final three stakes of the Presque Isle meet will take place Saturday. All three have drawn competitive 12-horse fields.

The $100,000 Fitz Dixon Memorial is for 2-year-old colts and geldings going 6 1/2 furlongs. Grand Slam Andre, trained by Steve Asmussen, has won 3 of 6 this year, including the Clever Trevor at Remington Park and the Middleground at Lone Star. In his last out Sept. 7, he was sixth in the Grade 1 Hopeful at Saratoga after breaking slow. He will add blinkers for the Dixon.