ALTOONA Iowa – Prairie Meadows’s signature race, the Grade 2, $300,000 Cornhusker Handicap, will close out the Iowa Festival of Racing on Saturday night, and while this year’s field may not have a horse with the potential of the 2004 winner, Roses in May, it does have the makings of a great betting race.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - With nothing left to prove after easily winning her sixth straight stakes race in Western Canada in the fillies division of the CTHS Sales Stakes at Hastings last Saturday, Dancing Allstar could make the long trip to Calder to run in the $250,000 Azalea Stakes for 3-year-old fillies on July 12.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Mac Benson recently lost a graded stakes winner when Arravale, Canada's Horse of the Year in 2006, was retired to prepare for a career in the breeding shed.

That left the role of stable star up for grabs, and Ice Bear can cement his status with a top effort here in Saturday's Grade 2 King Edward Gold Cup at 1 1/8 miles on turf.

Two horses were killed when they were hit by a truck on a highway near River Downs early Wednesday morning. Eddie McGrath, a 5-year-old trained by Israel Sostre, and Airhead Harry, a 3-year-old trained by Leroy Simon, were killed when they ran head on into a pickup truck.

Sostre heard the two horses fighting in the early hours of the morning. Both had broken their webbing and were at the end of the shed row. "I walked around the corner and tried to catch them, but they went flying by," said Sostre.

Four Illinois casinos filed an 11th-hour appeal Thursday morning of an Illinois Supreme Court decision that would direct millions of dollars of casino revenue to the state's horse racing industry.

The appeal can delay for several months the distribution of about $80 million from an escrow fund into the Illinois racing fund, from which it would be paid to racetrack operators and purses.

Joseph J. Andelmo, a West Virginia-based trained for more than 40 years, died June 12 of lung cancer. He was 83. More information is availble at

INGLEWOOD, Calif.-A two-day pick six carryover of $747,253 will be the highlight of an eight-race program at Hollywood Park on Thursday.

The pick six covers the third through eighth races, and several of the races are not very deep. All of the pick six races are run on the main track; there are no turf races on Thursday.

The third race is a $25,000 claimer over 1 1/16 miles. Informed, trained by Bob Baffert, will be a strong favorite.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - One winning ticket worth $107,647 was sold on the Super Hi Five on the ninth race Wednesday at Churchill Downs. The ticket was bought through the Racing Gaming Services hub, according to Churchill officials.

The Wednesday payoff was the highest so far at Churchill, and the third-largest in North America, following two previous payoffs in California. This is the first meet at Churchill for the Super Hi Five, a $1 minimum bet.

Brooks Fields, the founder and the first chief executive officer of Canterbury Downs, died Monday following a lengthy battle with chronic emphysema at the age of 89.

Fields, along with his nephew Brooks Hauser, formed Minnesota Racetrack Inc. after a constitutional amendment allowing parimutuel wagering on horse racing was approved by Minnesota voters in 1982.

ELMONT, N.Y. - The last time Harlington ran in a graded stakes race, few people had even heard of the horse that would beat him that day. While Invasor used the Pimlico Special as a springboard to become the 2006 Horse of the Year, Harlington went to the sidelines with an injury.

Two years later, Harlington has only been able to run twice more, winning an allowance race in May 2007 and losing an allowance race in May 2008. But Harlington has emerged to run another day, and will do so in Saturday's Grade 1, $400,000 Suburban Handicap at Belmont Park.