A promising 2-year-old by the sire Proud Citizen, owned by Brereton Jones, and wintering at Fair Grounds with trainer Larry Jones. Ring any bells? It should, for those were the circumstances that one year ago described Proud Spell, who has a good chance to win an Eclipse award as the top 3-year-old filly of 2008. But they also apply to It Happened Again, who races Saturday at Fair Grounds in a strikingly deep edition of the Sugar Bowl Stakes.

The 11th running of the Claiming Crown has been set for July 25, 2009, officials at Canterbury Park in Shakopee, Minn., said Wednesday. Purses and conditions for the seven-race, $600,000 series will be identical to those in 2008. The richest race, the $150,000 Claiming Crown Jewel, will be for horses who have started for a claiming price of $35,000 or less since Jan. 1, 2008.

This will be the ninth time Canterbury has hosted the Crown. It was held at Philadelphia Park in 2002 and Ellis Park in 2006.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The clock is ticking on Hollywood Park, but how fast? Its current owner, Stockbridge Real Estate Funds, has said it will develop the property, and a report this week in the Los Angeles Business Journal said that process would begin Aug. 1 of next year.

However, no timetable has been given to the current operators of the racetrack, according to Jack Liebau, the president of Hollywood Park, and Eual Wyatt Jr., the track's vice president and general manager.

Penn National Race Course lost its fourth consecutive live racing card when Wednesday night's program was canceled due to poor track conditions.

It was the sixth program this month and the fourth time since last Friday that the track has been unale to race.

The track hopes to resume live racing on Thursday with first race post time at 6:45 p.m Eastern.

Superior Storm gave her rivals in Saturday's Louisiana Champions Day Ladies a chance. The filly had injured her hoof in a sprint prep race for Champions Day and had missed training time leading to Saturday's race. But she still won the Ladies by two lengths while earning a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 91. The victory was her seventh straight in Louisiana-bred stakes competition, and Superior Storm - superior, indeed - has won nine races while compiling earnings of almost $426,000.

Live racing was canceled at Penn National Race Course on Tuesday night due to ice and winter weather conditions.

It was the fifth program this month and the third time since last Friday that the track has been unale to race.

The track hopes to resume live racing on Wednesday with first race post time at 6:45 p.m Eastern.

STICKNEY, Ill. - Embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed into law Monday legislation requiring the four highest-earning casinos in the state to pay 3 percent of their adjusted gross revenue to the Illinois horse racing industry.

The legislation extends for three years a law that previously existed for two years, but expired in May 2008. Legislators crafted the law to compensate horse racing for business that was lost to the casino industry.

MIAMI - Smooth Air has returned to his home base at Calder and has already started gearing up for a 4-year-old campaign that could begin next month in Gulfstream Park's $1 million Sunshine Millions Classic.

Smooth Air was given a month off in Ocala following his seventh-place finish in the Breeders' Cup Classic. He had his first official work since the Breeders' Cup here Sunday morning, going an easy five furlongs in 1:02 under regular exercise rider Jody Gelb.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Despite two inches of rain pummeling Santa Anita the previous day and a half, it was pretty much business as usual here on Tuesday morning, with horses galloping and working out over a synthetic Pro-Ride surface that trainers said passed its first major test of wet weather.

"In the past, we wouldn't even be training today," trainer Eoin Harty said. "They would have had to seal it."

OLDSMAR Fla. - It's not often a horse comes directly from the Breeders' Cup to a race at Tampa Bay Downs, but it happened on opening day last weekend when Dream Rush, who last raced in the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, returned with an impressive victory over a solid field of allowance runners going six furlongs.