HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Anybody who likes betting races with big fields on the turf will love being at Gulfstream Park on Sunday for closing day of the 2008 meeting. All 11 races on Sunday's card will be contested on the grass. Ten of those 11 events have full fields of 12, the other goes with 11 starters.

AUBURN, Wash. - Trainer Doris Harwood is coming off a dream season at Emerald Downs, smashing the previous record for stakes wins with an even dozen and ranking as the leading trainer in money won with $688,443 in purse earnings.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Prop Me Up was on a farm in Ocala, Fla., following her sixth-place finish in the Sunshine Millions Distaff early this winter when trainer Joe Orseno informed the mare's owner, Silly Goose Racing Stable, that the racing office had put up a $75,000 stakes for statebreds that would fit her perfectly on the next-to-last day of the 2008 Gulfstream Park meet.

Even if you turn the volume control on your television or computer to its maximum setting, you won't hear anything during the running of the season's first race at Finger Lakes on Saturday afternoon.

In honor of Ross Morton, the regular track announcer during the track's first 46 years, there will be no live call for race 1, a 4 1/2-furlong sprint for older claimers. Morton, 74, died following a stroke in February.

His replacement, former longtime Northern California race caller Tony Calo, will succeed Morton, starting with Saturday's second race.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - New compensation guidelines issued by the Jockeys' Guild are creating a rift between riders and their valets in New York.

The guidelines suggest that jockeys pay their valets 2.5 percent of their earnings for races run at a specific meet and nothing for purse money earned out of town. Also, the fee would be capped at the rider's winning share of a $250,000 gross purse.

ARCADIA, Calif. - The $250,000 San Juan Capistrano Invitational Handicap on Sunday has drawn a field of eight, including Shamdinan, the runner-up in the 2007 Breeders' Cup Turf at Monmouth Park, and defending champion On the Acorn.

Their presence may not be enough to restore the race to a Grade 1 status, a distinction the race lost after its 2003 running. A bigger purse could be the answer, and will be discussed before the 2008-09 winter-spring stakes schedule is final, according to director of racing Mike Harlow.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Except in the case of jockeys, who can't clone themselves, having an embarrassment of riches seldom creates a dilemma. While Edgar Prado had to discard Monba and Tale of Ekati in declaring his Kentucky Derby mount to be Adriano, trainer Todd Pletcher gets to keep all his Derby horses to himself.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Based on his third-place finish in last Saturday's Blue Grass, Kentucky Bear would have as good a right as many to be in the starting lineup for the Kentucky Derby.

But, with graded stakes earnings of $75,000 looming well below the cutoff point, Kentucky Bear is very unlikely to earn a spot in the maximum 20-horse field.

"Our chances of getting in are pretty slim, but I'm going to try anyway," said Reade Baker, whose barn has been prominent in the early days of this Woodbine meeting while the trainer himself has looked on from Florida and Kentucky.

Delaware Park's slots-fueled economy is sufficient for the track to offer $40,000 for a maiden special weight race and $5.3 million worth of stakes for 2008.

Yet when entries were drawn for Saturday's season-opening card, Delaware's racing secretary, Izzy Trejo, had to scramble to come up with 52 horses for eight races, not counting the traditional card finale for Arabians.

Representatives of Calder Race Course and its horsemen said Wednesday that they had made progress on a purse contract for the 2008 meeting, which begins on Monday.

The Florida division of the Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association said it would not sign a contract until agreement is reached on revenue splits from advance-deposit wagering handle and on future slot money generated at Calder, which is owned by Churchill Downs Inc. The track was given the right to operate slot machines when local voters approved them earlier this winter.