BOSSIER CITY, La. - Racing at Louisiana Downs switched to its traditional Thursday-through-Sunday schedule this week after beginning the meet May 17 with a weekends-only schedule. As with many issues in the industry these days, track management and horsemen viewed the Saturday and Sunday experiment differently.

"It's tough just running two days a week," said trainer Sam David, "especially for the owners who need to earn some purse money to pay the bills. Some of us have been here since late March when Fair Grounds ended, and now it is the first of June.

ELMONT, N.Y - When Birdstone caught and passed Smarty Jones in deep stretch of the Belmont Stakes four years ago, there was an unmistakable tone of despair and disappointment to race caller Tom Durkin's voice.

"Birdstone wins the Belmont Stakes," said Durkin, without exclamation.

It was the sixth time since Durkin made his first Belmont Stakes call in 1991 that a horse attempting to complete the Triple Crown had been denied. As unbeaten Big Brown takes aim at racing's greatest prize Saturday, Durkin once again is preparing himself for a momentous occasion.

ELMONT, N.Y. - True to the over-the-top programs that virtually all racetracks now stage on their biggest days, Belmont Park has packed its Belmont Stakes card with five other graded races, including three other Grade 1 events.

The two turf races - the Just a Game for fillies and mares and the Manhattan for older males - shape up as the deepest betting events of a 13-race Saturday marathon that begins at noon Eastern and lasts until 7:45 p.m.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Nick Gonzalez currently is the top stakes-winning trainer at the meeting, with five wins.

Gonzalez will have a significant chance of adding to that total over the next few days, with contenders in Saturday's Steady Growth, Sunday's Woodbine Oaks, and Wednesday's Bold Ruckus.

Michael's Bad Boy, a 5-year-old gelding, will be making the 14th start of his career but his first stakes appearance in the $125,000 Steady Growth, a 1 1/16-mile race for Ontario-sired 3-year-olds and upward.

In an overt attempt to secure Curlin as a starter, Churchill Downs announced Wednesday that the purse for the Grade 1 Stephen Foster Handicap on June 14 has been increased to $1 million from the original $750,000 level.

The additional $250,000 will not come from the horsemen's purse account, but will instead come from what Churchill is calling a marketing account set aside for a special circumstance. The race conditions have been rewritten to require that a Grade 1 winner must start in the race in order to pay out the extra $250,000.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The burden of past success forces Lava Man to carry top weight of 121 pounds Saturday in the Grade 1 Charles Whittingham Memorial Handicap. But 119-pound second topweight Champs Elysees is expected to go favored in the 1 1/4-mile turf race. Both horses will have new riders, and both are expected to alter strategy after losing their most recent start.

AUBURN, Wash. - Margo's Gift has proven beyond doubt that he is an exceptional sprinter. He has won 6 of 7 sprint attempts, including the $250,000 Favorite Trick Stakes last fall at Monmouth Park.

Margo's Gift, a 3-year-old son of Polish Gift and the Knights Choice mare Burgundy Jones, underscored his sprint ability on Sunday, getting up in the final strides under Ricky Frazier to nail the pacesetting Easy Going Cecil by a neck in the 6 1/2-furlong Pepsi-Cola Handicap. Margo's Gift's arch-rival Gallon was another head back in third as the 6-5 favorite.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Bennie Stutts has gone back home to south Florida to attend to his regular string of horses stabled at Calder Race Course, but the Stutts stable star, Smooth Air, is back at his summer home at Arlington Park, where he will prepare for his next start, the June 27 Iowa Derby.

Eight Belles, this year's Kentucky Derby runner-up who was euthanized after suffering a catastrophic breakdown moments after the race, will be interred at the Kentucky Derby Museum at Churchill Downs, the track announced Tuesday.

The Churchill Downs Foundation and Eight Belles' owner, Rick Porter of Fox Hill Farm, also announced that each will contribute $25,000 to the Eight Belles Memorial Fund, established by Thoroughbred Charities of America, for continued research into racehorse injuries and toward the retraining of retired Thoroughbreds.

Keeneland Race Course will have a record $5.4 million stakes schedule for its fall meet that begins Oct. 3 and continues through Oct. 25, Keeneland announced Tuesday.