VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Anyone making a $2 win bet on the nine horses trainer Craig MacPherson ran over the three days of racing last weekend at Hastings would have grossed $40.70, for a net profit of $22.70. MacPherson won five races and moved up to third in the trainer standings with eight wins at the meet. Troy Taylor and Dino Condilenios are tied for the lead with nine wins apiece.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Malcolm Pierce's barn seldom seems to be lacking in quality turf runners, and this year is no exception.

Pierce nominated Sterwins, Equitable, and Get Rich Quick to Sunday's Grade 3, $150,000 Connaught Cup, a 1 1/16-mile race for 4-year-olds and upward that is scheduled to be the first turf stakes of the meeting.

While Sterwins is the only one of the trio entered for the Connaught Cup, Pierce plans to field both Points of Grace and Remarkable Remy for the following Saturday's Nassau over the same distance and surface.

The horse racing industry in Colorado received a boost during the state's legislative session, and it comes just as Arapahoe Park, the lone horse track in Colorado, opens its 36-date mixed meet on Saturday. Simulcast operations at Arapahoe are expected to be able to be increased as a result of a bill that passed both the senate and house this session and is now awaiting the signature of Gov. Bill Ritter.

The California Horse Racing Board has asked the company providing bet-processing services for its racetracks for an explanation of an incident last Saturday that led to the refund of $100,000 in wagers at 33 sites on a race at Hollywood Park, the board said late Wednesday.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Garrett Gomez, the Eclipse Award winner as the nation's leading rider in 2007 and 2008, is returning to Southern California to ride on a full-time basis on June 7, his agent, Ron Anderson, said Thursday.

Gomez, 37, who is currently riding in New York, wants to spend more time with his wife and two children, who live in Southern California year round, Anderson said.

"It's just more of an issue of him being comfortable and wanting to be there," Anderson said from New York. "He's really missing his kids."

Track maintenance supervisor Ian Gamble had a problem after the seventh race last Friday at Canterbury Park when a 70-foot section of the outside rail was damaged when the starting gate was being moved from the backstretch chute to the front of the track.

Gamble and his crew worked until late into the morning hours Saturday repairing the rail. Following the suggestion of Canterbury Park president and general manager Randy Sampson, Gamble used the rail from the turf course as a temporarily stopgap until replacement rails could be delivered.

The father-son riding duo of Luis Ranilla and son Jose have put on quite a show during the early part of Lincoln State Fair season and sit atop the jockey standings after two weekends of racing. The pair were involved in a couple of one-two finishes last weekend that were separated by less than a neck.

Leading owner Maggi Moss currently has more than 30 horses at Prairie Meadows, most of whom reside in trainer Chris Richard's barn. She recently received great news about their most successful horse, the accomplished sprinter Native Ruler.

Victorious in seven of his last eight starts on dirt, including last June's Iowa Sprint Handicap in which he collected $75,000, the 5-year-old Native Ruler has been sidelined since taking Oaklawn Park's King Cotton Stakes by 1 1/2 lengths on Jan. 31.

Evangeline Downs continues to buck the national trend of small fields and reduced racing calendars as it lives up to its self-proclaimed billing of "Home of the Biggest Fields."

Since its current meeting began on April 8, Evangeline has averaged more than 11 runners per race, a remarkable number by today's industry standards.

Native Ruler may return from an injury in the Iowa Sprint on June 27.P

Plans are being finalized for trainer Wesley Ward to bring five 2-year-olds to River Downs for a public workout on the turf course between races Sunday. The horses are the five Ward plans to to race at Royal Ascot in England.

"I had them on the turf course at Keeneland last week," Ward said, "but River has a beautiful turf course and I think it may be more like the European courses. I want to make sure they take to it okay before shipping them all the way over there."