LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Zenyatta, last year's Eclipse Award-winning older filly or mare, was scratched from the Grade 2, $350,000 Louisville Stakes on Friday at Churchill Downs because of an off track. The race would have marked the 2009 debut for the unbeaten mare, who has won nine times.

Television Games Network, the largest account-wagering operator in the U.S., reached an agreement on Thursday that will allow the company to offer wagering on Churchill Downs beginning on Friday, the network and Churchill said on Thursday.

The agreement will allow TVG to offer wagering on the Kentucky Oaks and the Kentucky Derby for the first time in two years. TVG once carried the rights to Churchill and the tracks owned by its parent company, but after agreements with Churchill's tracks began expiring in 2006, the network has been blacked out from the races.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Wesley Ward long has had a reputation for being an extraordinary trainer of 2-year-olds. On Thursday, before a festive and wind-blown crowd at Churchill Downs, that notion was hammered home when a pair of fillies trained by Ward finished one-two in the Grade 3, $113,900 Kentucky Juvenile Stakes.

The political environment for horse racing in Massachusetts has never been better as Suffolk Downs opens its 2009 season Saturday.

The seven-month Suffolk meet begins with a nine-race card, and optimism is high, as it has been in the previous two seasons since majority owner Richard Fields swept into East Boston. The economy promises to hamper the short term significantly, but Suffolk officials believe the slot machines they say are necessary in the long term are not far away.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Diamond Diva seemed to be going through the motions of a comeback from a 10-month layoff until she worked five furlongs in 1:00.40 at Santa Anita last Sunday.

In that workout, trainer Jim Cassidy saw clues that Diamond Diva was back to her 2008 form, which resulted in three stakes wins. One of those wins came in the Grade 3 Wilshire Handicap, a title that Diamond Diva will attempt to defend on Saturday at Hollywood Park.

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Galloping Gulch will make his next start in the Grade 3, $400,000 Lone Star Derby following a recent allowance win at Lone Star Park, said his trainer, Steve Asmussen.

Asmussen also has Uno Mas pointing for the Lone Star Derby. Other early probables for the 1 1/16-mile race on May 9 include Kelly Leak, the winner of the $800,000 Sunland Park Derby, and Terrain, who was third in the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby.

INGLEWOOD, Calif.-There are two carryovers at Hollywood Park on Friday, the next day of racing there.

A lack of winning favorites on Wednesday's card created a pick six carryover of $64,925. There is also a carryover of $51,166 in the $1 super high five, which requires bettors to correctly select the first five finishes of the final race.

Bettors will have to wait until Friday to have a crack at those bets. Hollywood Park does not have a program on Thursday. The track was unable to fill entries for Thursday earlier this week.

Former trainer and jockey agent Elza McKay, 63, died Monday in Columbus, Neb. McKay suffered a stroke in the early part of this decade that left him in a wheelchair. He died at a care facility after recently being transferred from the hospital in Grand Island.

Former owner Eldon Benson, 71, died April 26 at St. Francis Medical Center in Grand Island, Neb., following a long battle with cancer. Services were set for Thursday at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Grand Island.

Benson campaigned several horses in the 1980s and 1990s with his son, trainer Jeff Benson, under the name J E B Stables. Of note was his multiple stakes winner Magnum G. I., who captured the 1990 Ak-Sar-Ben Laddie Stakes, the 1991 Nebraska Derby at Fonner, and the 1992 Grand Island Eagles Handicap, also at Fonner.

Northlands Park opens its 96-day meet on Friday, and for the first time will host the entire live major racing season in Alberta. Closing day is Oct. 25.

Traditionally, Stampede Park, in Calgary, held the spring dates. Between the two tracks 111 days were scheduled in 2008, 61 of which were run at Northlands.