NORTH RANDALL, Ohio - Thoroughbred racing returns to northeastern Ohio on Thursday when Thistledown begins a 122-day schedule that runs through Oct. 26.

For the third consecutive year, the number of racing days at Thistledown has been reduced. In 2005 Thistledown raced 187 days. That number was reduced to 156 in 2006 and to 136 last year. This year's 122-day schedule was agreed to after months of negotiations between the track's owner, Magna Entertainment Corp., and the Ohio Division of the Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association.

Legislation has been introduced in the Louisiana state senate to bring racing back to the old Evangeline Downs in Carencro, La.

The bill would reintroduce racing to Lafayette Parish without a vote by its residents. In 1997, Lafayette voters outlawed video poker, which prompted the construction of the new racing and gaming facility in nearby Opelousas, in neighboring St. Landry Parish.

Opposition to the new bill is stiff and includes Opelousas Mayor Donald Cravins Sr.

Lone Star Park in Texas plans to cut purses across the board by 10 percent beginning May 8, citing declining wagering revenue because of a blackout of the track's signal on account-wagering platforms, the track said Tuesday.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Only 59 horses posted timed workouts at Arlington on a cold, gray Tuesday morning, and even that was the highest number working on any given day since Arlington reopened its track for training last Wednesday. Still, the horses are out there - some 1,300 of them on the Arlington backstretch as of Tuesday afternoon - and 92 were entered Tuesday for Friday's opening-day program here.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Fire Wood would look better Thursday at Hollywood Park except for a conspicuous liability noted by trainer Ron Ellis: "He runs second a lot."

When he runs 1 1/4 miles on the main track Thursday in race 3, Fire Wood enters with 2 wins and 12 second-place finishes from 28 starts. Nonetheless, the 6-year-old Fire Wood looks like a logical contender in the second-level optional $62,500 claimer.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Trainer Larry Jones entered Eight Belles in Friday's $500,000 Kentucky Oaks just in case his filly drew a bad post in the Kentucky Derby. His insurance policy, however, arguably lost much of its value after Eight Belles was assigned the extreme outside post position in a full field of 12 3-year-old fillies drawn Tuesday at Churchill Downs for the Grade 1, 1 1/8-mile Oaks.

As expected, Jones entered Eight Belles in the Oaks along with Proud Spell, who will break from post 8 and will likely be favored should her uncoupled stablemate run in the Derby as planned.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Though the members of the International Equine Acquisitions Holdings Stable will be preoccupied with the proceedings in Kentucky on Saturday, they will be very interested in at least one race at Belmont Park.

Irish Smoke, winner of last year's Grade 1 Spinaway at Saratoga, will be making her first start for IEAH when she runs in Saturday's Grade 3, $200,000 Nassau County Stakes for 3-year-old fillies.

Keeneland Race Course on Monday released a full business report that revealed average all-sources handle at its 16-day spring meet was down 11 percent over the corresponding 2007 meet, while average ontrack handle was down nearly 6 percent despite an increase in average attendance of 6 percent.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Lava Man's losing streak continued into 2008 with a third-place finish in the Khaled Stakes for statebreds on Sunday, but trainer Doug O'Neill said his faith in the 7-year-old multi-millionaire gelding has not wavered.

Lava Man is winless in four starts since his third consecutive win in the Hollywood Gold Cup last June.

A cooperative of racetracks on the Eastern Seaboard has broken off negotiations on a simulcasting agreement with the New York Racing Association for the rights to accept wagers on Belmont Park, the cooperative said on Monday.

Belmont Park’s popular spring-summer meet opens on Wednesday. The executive director of the cooperative – which includes 16 member tracks in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire – said the cooperative was unwilling to pay the rate that NYRA was seeking for the Belmont signal.