DEL MAR, Calif. - By virtue of his experience, jockey Garrett Gomez is an expert on riding North American synthetic tracks. From California to Kentucky to Illinois, he has firsthand encounters on virtually all of them.

What Gomez encountered at Del Mar on Wednesday's opening day led him to believe that the racetrack has solved the problems that plagued the 2007 season, the first year the Polytrack surface was used. Last year, the surface differed greatly from morning to afternoon and produced slow times.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Le Cinquieme Essai just keeps on rolling.

Now 9 years old, Le Cinquieme Essai will make his season debut here Saturday in the $100,000 Ontario Jockey Club, a seven-furlong overnight turf stakes for 3-year-olds and upward.

If all goes according to plan, then the OJC will propel Le Cinquieme Essai toward a fourth consecutive appearance in the Grade 2, $200,000 Play the King, a seven-furlong turf race that will be run here Aug. 23.

The Toronto City Council, by a vote of 32-6 on Wednesday, approved a plan to give the Woodbine Entertainment Group a $120 million tax break over 20 years for its Woodbine Live! development project.

Woodbine Entertainment had applied for the tax break under the city's community improvement program.

The project, a partnership between Woodbine Entertainment and the Baltimore-based developers The Cordish Company, is a $1 billion-plus, 180-acre project combining retail, entertainment, and residential elements.

Turf Paradise has named a stakes honor of its longtime track announcer Luke Kruytbosch, who died Monday at age 47.

The $50,000 Luke Kruytbosch will be for 3-year-olds at six furlongs and will be inaugurated on the track's 2008 opening day, Oct. 3.

"We thought it fitting to memorialize him in the very thing he loved most: a horse race," said the track's president and general manager, Eugene Joyce.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Harlem Rocker, who remained undefeated on dirt with his victory in the Prince of Wales Stakes last Sunday, could make his next start in the $1 million Travers Stakes at Saratoga, trainer Todd Pletcher said Thursday.

"I would say it's a possibility; I haven't had a chance to speak with the Stronachs yet, but the spacing is good," Pletcher said, referring to owner Frank Stronach and his wife Frieda. "It would make the most sense."

DEL MAR, Calif. - Del Mar drew a record opening-day crowd of 43,459 on Wednesday, but showed a significant decline in all-sources handle, leading the track's president, Joe Harper, to question how the race meeting will fare in a tough economy.

Wednesday's program was the third consecutive year for a record crowd on opening day. Last year, the crowd reached 42,842. This year's ontrack audience was the second highest in track history, surpassed only by the 44,181 for the 1996 Pacific Classic.

In an effort to increase field size, the New York Racing Association will increase purses for route races on turf and dirt at Saratoga based on number of starters per race.

NYRA will provide incremental increases for every betting interest over six that starts in dirt races at 1 1/8 miles or longer. For turf races longer than 1 1/8 miles, the increases take effect for every betting interest over eight that start.

MIAMI - Trainer Marty Wolfson will have all bases covered when he sends out the speedy Eclisse and stretch-running Dancing Band as a non-coupled entry in Saturday's $55,000 Ms Brookski Stakes at Calder. The Ms Brookski is carded at 7 1/2 furlongs on the turf and drew a full field of a dozen fillies and mares.

SASKATOON, Saskatchewan - Five older horses will do battle in Saturday's $7,500 City Centre Bingo Early Bird Handicap over seven furlongs.

Standoff has 9 wins from 20 local starts, including a win in the Saskatoon Handicap two races ago.

A five-time winner last year, including a seven-length victory in this race, Standoff swept all four stakes events for older horses here in 2007 and will be hoping for a quick pace to run at to best utilize his late-closing style.

AURORA, Colo. - Gold Is Cash comes into Saturday's $25,000 Colorado Breeders Oaks off a stakes win and is the horse to beat in the field of 11. Six of the entrants in the mile and 70-yard contest are maidens.

Gold Is Cash is one of a pair entered by trainer Kenneth Gleason, who seemingly takes dead aim on every stakes at this oval. Dazzling Blu Skies, third in the recent Ruffian Stakes, is the other part of the uncoupled Gleason entry.