The live racing season in Nebraska reaches its final extended stop Friday night as Agricultural Park at Columbus opens for a 23-day meet that runs through Labor Day, Sept. 7.

Racing will be conducted on a Friday-Sunday basis this year, with a post time of 6:30 p.m. Central on Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. on Sundays and Labor Day. A Thursday evening card will be offered Aug. 20. The final stop on the state circuit, Horsemen's Atokad Downs, will conduct a four-day meet following Labor Day weekend.

The wait is nearly over for members of the Stellar Teller Racing Partnership, a group of Canterbury Park mutuel tellers who formed a breed-to-race partnership in May 2005 after several tellers had discussed the possibility of buying a racehorse together. The 12-member partnership has been guided by Jolene Danner, who works in the Canterbury Park information booth when not caring for a number of horses at a nearby farm.

Rock Hard Candy is now 4 for 5 at the Presque Isle meet after defeating a field of starter allowance fillies and mares Sunday. Trained by 29-year-old Jevon Crumley, Rock Hard Candy has finished first or second in all eight starts she has made for him.

AUBURN, Wash. - Tim McCanna leads the Emerald Downs trainer standings with 41 wins through 51 racing dates, but has yet to saddle a stakes winner at the meeting. That could change Sunday, when the fast-improving Way Too Much tackles a strong field in the $50,000 Mount Rainier Handicap at nine furlongs.

SHAKOPEE, Minn. - Created as a novel way to honor the unsung heroes of Thoroughbred racing, the Claiming Crown will begin its second decade of existence when it is renewed Saturday at Canterbury Park.

The usual melting pot of across-the-continent shippers will once again characterize the Claiming Crown, for which entries were drawn Wednesday. A total of 62 runners were entered in the $600,000 seven-race series, with the $100,000 Claiming Crown Emerald being easily the deepest and the $150,000 Claiming Crown Jewel the richest.

DEL MAR, Calif. - The last time Thorn Song raced in California he was trained by Dale Romans and shipped in from Kentucky to score a convincing win in the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile at Hollywood Park on Memorial Day.

Not even two months later, Thorn Song is back in California under vastly different circumstances. Owner Zayat Stables and Romans have parted, and Thorn Song has been sent to trainer Mike Mitchell. Mitchell starts Thorn Song for the first time in Saturday's $350,000 Eddie Read Stakes at Del Mar, and the trainer plans to make some minor changes.

MIAMI - Remember "Multiplicity," the movie where Michael Keaton's character is able to clone himself so he can be in more than one place at the same time?

Trainer David Fawkes will need a little Multiplicity of his own if his plans come to fruition for his two top 3-year-olds, Big Drama and Duke of Mischief, both of whom will be running at nearly the same time at two different places on the afternoon of Aug. 1. Big Drama is scheduled to start at Mountaineer in the West Virginia Derby, while Duke of Mischief is likely headed for the Jim Dandy at Saratoga.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Tasty Temptation, who had been under consideration for Saturday's Coaching Club American Oaks at Belmont, instead will start here in the Wonder Where.

Coming off a fourth-place finish in the June 21 Queen's Plate, Tasty Temptation will be making her local turf debut in Saturday's $250,000 Wonder Where, a 1 1/4-mile turf race that is the final leg of the triple tiara for Canadian-bred 3-year-old fillies.

Atomic Rain, winner of the Long Branch Stakes at Monmouth Park, has been purchased by Godolphin Racing.

Previously trained by Kelly Breen, Atomic Rain was on target for Monmouth's Grade 1, $1 million Haskell Invitational on Aug. 2.

Now his status for the Haskell is uncertain.

"We have purchased Atomic Rain to race in Dubai this winter, but we will make a decision shortly with regard to his more immediate future," said Simon Crisford, Godolphin's racing manager.

Indiana Downs averaged $983,848 in daily handle on its live races at the meet that ended July 15, up 4.1 percent over the 2008 meet, when it averaged $945,023 a day.

The gross handle was up by a higher percentage, but Indiana Downs conducted a 62-day meet this year, up from 54 last year. There is a possibility that the number of days may be increased next season, according to the track's racing secretary, Butch Cook.