Average daily all-sources wagering on races held at Atlantic City Race Course was up 300 percent for the meet that ended May 1 because of the widespread availability of its racing signal at out-of-state sites for the first time in 10 years, according to figures provided by the track.

The average daily figure of $543,325 for six days of racing was up 303 percent from the $134,655 figure posted last year, when wagers were only accepted on-track. Total handle for the six days this year was $3,259,953, compared to $807,932 last year.

A sharp decline in total handle during Hawthorne's 2009 spring meet more than offset gains posted during the 2008 spring meet at the Chicago-area track. A year after out-of-state handle on Hawthorne races rose 5 percent, the same type of betting declined by 15 percent, leading to a 15 percent decline in total average daily handle for the 38-day Hawthorne meet that ended April 27.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Sugar Bay is all dressed up with no place to go.

Sugar Bay, a 4-year-old filly trained by Mac Benson, was entered in a classified allowance here Friday. The 1 1/16-mile race for fillies and mares, which was situated as a prep for the Nassau, offered a purse of $101,100 including Ontario-bred bonuses but did not fill for Friday and was carried over until Saturday and then to Sunday.

"She's as ready as you can get her without overdoing it," said Benson, who trains Sugar Bay for owner/breeder George Strawbridge Jr.

Saturday's scheduled running of the $75,000 Raise Your Skirts Stakes at Golden Gate Fields was canceled.

The six-furlong sprint for fillies and mares saw only one runner entered, the multiple stakes winner High Resolve, who is stabled at Golden Gate Fields but has never run there. Five of the race's nominees were entered in a Thursday allowance race at Hollywood Park.

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CREDIT: Barbara D. Livingston

CAPTION: Joe Talamo missed out on riding the favorite in the Derby.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The view that Joe Talamo had of the Kentucky Derby last Saturday was not the one that he envisioned through the month of April.

"I ended up in the boxes with my parents," he said.

Apprentice rider Erin Wilkinson, a 24-year-old native of Marietta, Ga., won two of the eight races at River Downs on Saturday. In the third race, she won aboard Lil Firefly ($4.60) for trainer Randy Kerr. In the eighth race, she won on Adoring Dori ($34.80) for trainer Daniel Thompson. It was the first time she had ever recorded two wins in the same day, and the victories gave her a total of 4 wins from 22 starts at the meet.

Most jockeys grew up around horses or always wanted to be a jockey. But not Wilkinson, she left Georgia for school in Kentucky in 2002.

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Brandon Bridges took a year off from training back in 2007 to sell cars at a dealership down the street from Lone Star Park. Saturday, the 25-year-old will send out Red Lead in the Grade 3, $400,000 Lone Star Derby.

Red Lead is one of six probables for the 1 1/16-mile race. Mythical Power and Mayor Marv, both trained by Bob Baffert, arrived on a flight from Kentucky late Wednesday morning. Others officials consider probable are Cape Truth, Galloping Gulch, and Uno Mas.

After four days of racing, Ernesto Oro has opened a daylight lead in the jockey standings. He has six winners, double the output of David Cardoso and Weldon Cloninger Jr. Six trainers have two winners, Angel Feliciano, Rod Madrigal Sr., Jevon Crumley, Jerry Noss, Tony Rini, and Randy Faulkner.

Grade 1-winning Quarter Horse juveniles First Prize Leesa and Sir Ellerton will meet Saturday night at Remington Park in a trial race for the $1 million Heritage Place Futurity. The horses will square off in the eighth, which is one of 18 trials to be run for the Heritage Place between Friday and Saturday night at Remington.

The five fastest qualifiers from each night will make up the field for the May 30 final. The trials are at 350 yards, and the purse for each is $15,500.

Breeder-owner Isaac "Gene" Phelps has experienced plenty of success during his lengthy participation in racing. But with the classy veteran Wayzata Bay and flashy sophomore filly Don'ttalktome in his stable, things have never been better for the Minnesota native. Both runners reside in trainer Judi Hicklin's barn at Prairie Meadows and are being pointed to stakes races here in the coming weeks.