The connections of the promising Cave's Valley, who experienced his first career defeat last week in the Grade 3, $1 million Delta Jackpot at Delta Downs, will start mapping out a 3-year-old campaign for the horse next week. It could include races at his Laurel Park base and Aqueduct.

"We have quite a few options," said Michael Trombetta, who trains Cave's Valley. "For now, we'll keep him up north. We'll be looking in this corridor here."

The owner and trainer of Golden Yank, who finished third in the Grade 3, $1 million Delta Jackpot, have appealed the decision of the Delta Downs stewards to disallow a foul claim that the horse's rider, Gerard Melancon, made concerning bumping in the late stages of the Dec. 7 race.

The appeal from the Millard R. Seldin Revocable Trust and trainer Gary Thomas was received by the Louisiana Racing Commission on Tuesday. It will be heard at the panel's meeting in New Orleans on Friday, said Charles Gardiner, executive director of the commission.

NEW ORLEANS - Costa Rising had his connections celebrating and hoping for bigger things as he wired the field in Saturday's Louisiana Champions Day Classic. Running 1 1/8 miles, Costa Rising won by 15 1/4 lengths, and the $90,000 in purse earnings sent his lifetime earnings over $871,000.

"Just lucky. I feel so lucky," said owner Charles Castille. "I'll never have another horse like him. I'm going to enjoy every minute of it."

"He was comfortable the whole time," said jockey Robbie Albarado. "It was almost a gallop for him."

NGLEWOOD, Calif. - Entries for the Grade 2, $150,000 Dahlia Handicap on Sunday will be taken at Hollywood Park on Thursday morning, and it looks like trainer Carla Gaines is going to tiptoe right up to the deadline to decide whether or not to run Nashoba's Key in the 1 1/16-mile race for female turf runners.

"The first time she was going to run on Cushion Track, I waited until 11 that morning," Gaines said Tuesday morning at Hollywood Park. "I'm a woman. I change my mind." She paused, laughed, then said, "It's probably why I'm not married."

MIAMI - Revved Up is the marquee name on Saturday's outstanding Grand Slam II program at Calder. But anybody planning to come watch the amazing 9-year-old close out his 2007 campaign in the Grade 2 W.L. McKnight Handicap is advised to check the weather before leaving the house.

"If the going is not firm, he won't run," trainer Christophe Clement warned shortly after entries were drawn for all four Grand Slam races on Monday.

On Tuesday, the long-range forecast for the weekend called for a 30 to 40 percent chance of rain in the Miami area.

Keeneland Race Course on Tuesday released the stakes schedule for its 2008 spring meet with little variation from recent years but with a record total of $4.3 million in purses.

Sixteen of the 18 spring stakes at the Lexington, Ky., track are graded races, including four Grade 1 events. The highlight, as usual, will be the Grade 1, $750,000 Blue Grass Stakes, to be run April 12.

The only changes, and they are minor ones, involve raises in graded status, purse hikes, altered distances, and date changes.

Tampa Bay Downs in Florida plans to continue to ban seven riders, including the track's two-time leading jockey, Terry Houghton, the track's top official said Monday, citing an ongoing investigation by a security service.

Peter Berube, Tampa's general manager, said that Tampa has not changed its policy to ban the seven riders. The initial ban was issued last December, after Tampa officials were informed by the Thoroughbred Racing Protective Bureau that an investigation had uncovered links of more than 10 active riders to suspicious betting patterns in the summer of 2006.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Thus far, Giant Moon has put out only the minimum effort required to get the job done. Whether he can step up that effort against anything more than New York-breds will be one of the ontrack storylines of the winter on the New York Racing Association circuit.

Santa Anita will not resume full training on its synthetic main track until next Monday or Tuesday while work continues to repair a drainage problem, the track's president, Ron Charles, said on Sunday.

Horses have not trained on Santa Anita's main track since Dec. 5, a day after the renovation project began. The track had drainage problems with its Cushion Track brand synthetic track through the fall. The course was installed last summer.

With a good chunk of graded change now under their belts, the top three finishers from Friday night's Grade 3, $1 million Delta Jackpot will be freshened before targeting a variety of Kentucky Derby preps. Z Humor and Turf War, who dead-heated for the win, each earned $400,000 on Friday, while Golden Yank, who was a neck back in third, picked up $100,000.