NEW ORLEANS - At a moment in time when the buzzword at many racetracks is "survive," Fair Grounds wants to work under a different premise when its 87-day race meet begins Friday: Thrive.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - The Thoroughbred meet at the Meadowlands Racetrack concludes Saturday night with one of the strongest cards of the 41-day run.

The 10-race card that gets under way at 7 p.m. includes five allowance-optional claiming races.

The features are a pair of $51,000 split divisions of the second-level allowance condition for New Jersey-breds with the option to run for a $25,000 claiming tag at one mile and 70 yards.

In the first division, race 7, Rolled Up slides in via the claiming option.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The New York-bred program has certainly come a long way over the last decade. Now, one of the top New York-breds of 2008 is going a long way to carry the banner for the program and North America.

The connections of Tin Cup Chalice have accepted an invitation to run their 3-year-old gelding in the $2.4 million Japan Cup Dirt at Hanshin Racecourse in Hyogo, Japan on Dec. 7.

The Maryland Department of Agriculture on Thursday placed a hold order on a barn at Laurel Park after a 2-year-old filly tested positive for equine herpesvirus, a highly contagious disease that has surfaced several times at racetracks in Maryland over the past two years.

The filly, Nin, who is trained by King Leatherbury, could not stand on Wednesday, according to state veterinary officials, but was eating on Thursday with no sign of fever. None of the other 29 horses in the barn was showing any neurological signs of distress, the officials said.

Churchill Downs Inc. on Thursday named Tom O'Donnell, a longtime casino executive, as the new president and general manager of Calder Race Course as well as a senior vice president of Churchill Downs Inc., which owns Calder.

O'Donnell succeeds Ken Dunn, who left Calder in April, just before beginning of the current racing season.

NEW ORLEANS - Denis of Cork, who wintered at Fair Grounds last season before making an impact on the Triple Crown trail, is recovering nicely from the injury that sidelined him early this summer, and trainer David Carroll hopes to have the colt back in his barn by mid-January. If things move along smoothly, Denis of Cork could be ready in time for the New Orleans Handicap March 14 - a big "if" with a horse coming back from a long break.

Carroll typically enjoys successful Fair Grounds meetings, and usually has a promising youngster or two that winter in New Orleans.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - While invaders Selva and Holiday Girl figure to attract serious support in Saturday's Glorious Song at Woodbine, a third out-of-towner is coming into the race under the radar.

Hooh Why, who had been based at Hawthorne with trainer Michael Reavis, checked in just a month ago and won a first-level allowance at 6 1/2 furlongs on Oct. 16.

On Saturday, Hooh Why again will be looking to come up with the correct answers when she makes her stakes debut in the $150,000 Glorious Song, a seven-furlong race for 2-year-old fillies.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Zenyatta, the unbeaten winner of the Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic last month and a top contender for the Horse of the Year title, will have her exercise limited to walking until the end of the year, trainer John Shirreffs said on Thursday.

Owned by Jerry and Ann Moss, Zenyatta has been walking up to two hours a day at Shirreffs's barn at Hollywood Park since her win in the Ladies' Classic at Santa Anita on Oct. 24. Shirreffs said that routine is unlikely to change until the first of January. She is not expected to make her 2009 debut until the spring.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Commentator arrived Wednesday at Churchill Downs following an overnight van trip from New York and was on the racetrack the next morning to begin two weeks of local preparations for the annual fall-meet highlight, the Nov. 28 Clark Handicap.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - David Clark, a jockey based at Woodbine, was sentenced to house arrest for a period of two years less a day in a Newmarket, Ontario courtroom on Thursday.

Clark, 55, had pleaded guilty in April to charges of impaired driving causing death and impaired driving causing bodily harm.

The charges stemmed from an accident on May 16, 2006, in which Clark's vehicle struck one traveling in the opposite direction. The passenger in the other vehicle, a 34-year-old woman, was killed.