The Assiniboia Downs meeting, which opens on May 10, will offer 32 stakes races worth a total of $1,165,000. The track has trimmed the purses of several stakes and dropped another from the schedule.

The purse for the Aug. 3 Manitoba Lotteries Derby, the showpiece of the 65-day session, will be $75,000, a drop of $25,000 from recent years. The purses for five other open stakes have been reduced from $50,000 to $30,000.

"We had to chop a little bit," said Ray Miller, Assiniboia's racing secretary. "We're hurting in this economy like everybody else."

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Michael Repole and Steve Sigler will likely be involved in a year-long battle for leading owner on the New York Racing Association circuit. For now, they are engaged in a legal battle over the ownership of a horse.

ARCADIA, Calif. - The $1 million Santa Anita Handicap on March 7 lost two potential starters Thursday when trainer Doug O'Neill said that Informed and Slew's Tiznow will be directed to other races.

Informed, second in the San Pasqual Handicap on Jan. 10 and fourth in the San Antonio Handicap on Feb. 8, will make his next start in the $1 million Godolphin Mile in Dubai on March 28. O'Neill said he was told that Informed had been invited on Thursday morning.

Will Rogers Downs will roll out a record purse structure during its 44-date mixed meet for Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses that opens on Saturday, and the wealth has helped attract a number of new stables to the Claremore, Okla., track.

"I think it's the best horses we've had yet," said Kelly Cathey, track operations manager.

Will Rogers, which operates a 250-machine electronic gaming casino, has budgeted purses at $180,000 a day this meet, up 10 percent over the corresponding season in 2008. Of that amount, $130,000 a day has been tabbed for Thoroughbreds.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - When it was confirmed Thursday that Paul Pompa Jr. had sold off an interest in his latest Kentucky Derby prospect, This Ones for Phil, the initial reaction was that the buyer must be Michael Iavarone and the IEAH Stable. After all, the first deal between Pompa and IEAH worked out pretty well for all concerned after Big Brown won both the Derby and Preakness and ultimately an Eclipse Award as the nation's top 3-year-old in 2008.

Rachel Alexandra looked every bit the part of one of the nation's top 3-year-old fillies on Thursday morning, when she breezed five furlongs in an effortless 1:00.80 at her Oaklawn Park base. She is scheduled to make her next start in the Grade 2, $400,000 Fair Grounds Oaks in New Orleans on March 14.

ARCADIA, Calif.-The absence of any winning favorites in Wednesday's pick six races has led to a two-day carryover of $704,945 for Thursday's program.

Santa Anita offers an eight-race program on Thursday, with the pick six covering the third through eighth races. The program begins at 1 p.m. Pacific.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - The quality of the field for Saturday's $250,000 Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream Park has been well documented, although the presence of Derby Watch members Capt. Candyman Can, This Ones for Phil, Notonthesamepage, and Beethoven did little to scare away the opposition.

A full field of 12 3-year-olds was drawn Wednesday for the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth, which will be run at a mile for the first time in the illustrious 63-year history of the race.

There have always only been two options for trainer Bret Calhoun's top 3-year-old prospect Silver City, but as far as paring the two down to one, Calhoun has not gotten very far. In fact, he said Wednesday that he is perfectly content to sit back and wait to determine whether Silver City will remain at his Fair Grounds base to start in the Louisiana Derby, or ship back to Oaklawn Park for another joust with Old Fashioned in the March 14 Rebel Stakes.

ARCADIA, Calif. - The $1 million Santa Anita Handicap has largely developed in recent years into a seven-figure race for locals, save for the occasional invader from the East Coast.

But this year's running on Marcho7 will be different. Court Vision and Einstein are intriguing contenders from Florida, and they will not have come the farthest.

On Wednesday, Dansant, who has won five stakes in England in the last 18 months, left Great Britain for California.