ELMONT, N.Y. – Neil Howard made official Friday what he has been hinting at for the last week: Mambo in Seattle, the hard-luck loser of the Travers Stakes, will face Curlin in next Saturday’s Grade 1, $750,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park.

Charles Town intends to offer an open stakes race worth up to $1million next season.

The West Virginia track announced on Thursday the creation of the Charles Town Classic, a 11/8-mile race for 4-year-olds and up, scheduled for April 18, 2009.

The new race, the richest in the track's 75-year history, will have a guaranteed purse of $500,000, with an additional $500,000 available to graded stakes winners.

POMONA, Calif. - Hollywood Park and the Thoroughbred Owners of California have yet to reach an agreement with horsemen for the track's fall meeting, with a dispute centering on the distribution of revenue from account wagering sources, according to discussions at Thursday's California Horse Racing Board meeting.

Racing board officials said on Thursday that it will conduct a special hearing in coming weeks in an attempt to remedy the dispute. The Hollywood Park fall meeting is scheduled for Oct. 29 through Dec. 21.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Midnight Lute, the champion sprinter of 2007, is still recovering from a hoof injury suffered in the Pat O'Brien Handicap at Del Mar on Aug. 24 and will make his next start in the Breeders' Cup Sprint at Santa Anita on Oct. 25, trainer Bob Baffert said.

Baffert said Midnight Lute has resumed normal training but will not start in the $250,000 Ancient Title Stakes over six furlongs at Santa Anita on Sept. 27. Baffert said there is sufficient time to prepare Midnight Lute for the BC Sprint.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Disfunction, one of the major success stories of Woodbine's 2008 meeting, will be taking his show on the road for his next start.

The 4-year-old gelding, trained by Julia Carey, is scheduled to run in Keeneland's Grade 3 Phoenix, a six-furlong race for 3-year-olds and upward Oct. 4.

Disfunction, who is not Breeders' Cup eligible, will be competing for a purse of $150,000 in the Phoenix.

"There's nothing for him here, unless we want to run him long, and we wouldn't want to change things on him right now," Carey said.

BOSSIER CITY, La. - Trainer Dallas Stewart once worked as a valet in the jockeys' room at Louisiana Downs. Wednesday, he entered his first horse in the track's most prestigious race, the Grade 2, $500,000 Super Derby.

Macho Again has been made the 5-2 morning-line favorite in the 10-horse field Saturday. He drew post 3 on Wednesday for the 1 1/8-mile race, and will be ridden by Kent Desormeaux.

Macho Again, who is based at Churchill Downs, flew into his trainer's old stomping grounds on Tuesday.

BOSSIER CITY, La. - Forest Command will make his stakes debut in just his fourth career start Saturday in the Grade 2, $500,000 Super Derby, but with a pedigree like his, the move is to be expected. He is a son of Kentucky Derby winner Monarchos and the Grade 1-winning mare Forest Secrets.

"Those are kind of two jewels in a row right there, so this horse has got every license to be a top racehorse," said John Ward, who trains Forest Command for John Oxley.

The Delaware-based trainer Larry Jones has appealed a seven-day suspension handed down by the Delaware Thoroughbred Racing Commission on Wednesday for the postrace finding of a prohibited bronchial dilator after a race in June, Jones and officials of the commission said after the ruling was released.

The appeal, which will automatically stay the suspension, was filed late on Wednesday, and the commission has tentatively scheduled to hear the appeal at its meeting on Oct. 21, according to the commission's executive director, John Wayne.

By winning the Whitney Handicap in July, Commentator secured his spot in the $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic next month at Santa Anita if his connections so desire. But before thinking about that, owner Tracy Farmer and trainer Nick Zito are focused on Saturday's $500,000 Massachusetts Handicap, a race in which Commentator will be heavily favored against six opponents.

MIAMI - While the newly created Monmouth Stakes was getting all the attention last Saturday because of the presence of Big Brown, there was another rich turf race for older horses being decided the same day just down the turnpike at Philadelphia Park, the $250,000 PTHA President's Cup. That race was won by the Calder-based Soldier's Dancer, who exploded through the stretch to an impressive two-length victory over longshot Ballonenostrikes for trainer Dave Vivian and owner Herman Heinlein.