OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Though he has trained horses since 1994, Jeff Barkley is about to get the most significant opportunity of his career.

With trainer Larry Jones in the process of cutting down his stable - and possibly retiring at year's end - Barkley is positioned to become an important part of Rick Porter's Fox Hill Farm Stable. Barkley currently has 18 horses at Maryland's Fair Hill training center, though even Porter admits it's not the most talented group.

There will be fewer stakes and less purse money available for top-class horses at Delaware Park this season.

The 2009 stakes schedule released Thursday contains 12 fewer stakes than a year ago. In addition, 10 other stakes sustained purse cuts, including the Grade 2 Delaware Oaks, as part of a reduction in stakes purses from $4.3 million to $3.1 million.

With icy road conditions preventing horses stabled off-site from safely shipping to Turfway Park, live racing for Thursday has been canceled. The track remains open for simulcasting.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Rick Dutrow said he's never seen Arson Squad happier than he's been since arriving in south Florida earlier this winter. That might be bad news for his nine rivals, including Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile winner Albertus Maximus and multi-Eclipse Award finalist Einstein, in Saturday's Grade 1 Donn Handicap.

At 2 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., the temperature had just made it up to 32 degrees - which is why hot 3-year-old prospect Old Fashioned still was in New Orleans.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Alex Solis on Tuesday fired his longtime agent Scotty McClellan, replacing him with Brian Beach, who has been away from racing for three years.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - If you judge She's Prime by the company she has kept, she looks better than her 1-for-6 record might suggest. She's Prime looks especially good when you judge her against the company she's keeping in Friday's featured first-level New York-bred allowance at Aqueduct.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Hello Again, the undefeated winner of the $50,000 Dixie Belle for 3-year-old fillies at Oaklawn last Saturday, is set to make her two-turn debut next month in the $50,000 Martha Washington, trainer Moises Yanez said.

Hello Again came rolling from last for a half-length win in the Dixie Belle, a six-furlong race for which she earned a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 73. She had won her maiden and a first-level allowance, both against Illinois-bred sprinters at Hawthorne, heading into the race at Oaklawn.

Aqueduct canceled Wednesday's nine-race card due to a winter storm that brought a mixture of snow, ice, and rain to the New York area. It was the second cancellation of the winter meet.

Aqueduct was to remain open for simulcasting with no charge for admission and parking.

Live racing is scheduled to resume Thursday at 12:30 p.m.

Jeff Thornbury never has won a graded stakes race in a training career dating to 1981, but he will have at least one if not two chances to notch his first graded victory on the multi-stakes card at Fair Grounds on Feb. 7. Thornbury confirmed Tuesday that 2-year-old stakes winner War Tigress will make her 3-year-old and dirt debut in the Grade 3 Silverbulletday Stakes, while recent allowance winner Mad Flatter is a possible runner in the Grade 3 Mineshaft.