NEW ORLEANS - There was a time when Larry Jones ran a modest stable out of sleepy venues like Ellis Park. That time is long past.

Thrust into the national spotlight this season with the wickedly good Hard Spun, Jones has seen his stable swell to a career-high 70 horses this winter - which is why he has taken out 30 stalls at Fair Grounds, his first meet-long foray into racing in New Orleans.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The Cigar Mile lost one of its major players on Wednesday when trainer Pat Kelly said that Tasteyville would not be running in the Grade 1 race because of an ankle injury. Kelly said he would substitute Naughty New Yorker instead.

"He wrenched an ankle,'' Kelly said of Tasteyville. "You can't run if you can't train.''

Four horses who competed in last month's Breeders' Cup program are among eight older sprinters entered Wednesday for Saturday's Grade 1 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash at Laurel Park.

Talent Search and Benny the Bull, third and fourth in the BC Sprint, head the $250,000, six-furlong Dash, one of four stakes on Saturday's Fall Festival of Racing program. The card also features a pair of $125,000 stakes for 2-year-olds and the $50,000 Maryland Million Starter Handicap.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Cosmonaut doesn't do much dodging. After taking on some of the best middle-distance turf horses in America for much of the year, the hard-trying 5-year-old will be the topweight and solid favorite in the Grade 3 River City Handicap on the Friday undercard at Churchill Downs.

The crack turf sprinter Nicole's Dream took trainer Larry Rivelli to stakes races all over the eastern half of the United States during an excellent career that concluded last year. Now, Rivelli has a good turf horse of an entirely different character. This one is named Strait of Mewsina, and he could hardly be more different than Nicole's Dream.

Where the filly was quick on her feet and deadly at five to 5 1/2 furlongs on the turf, Strait of Mewsina is a big, raw long-distance horse from Ireland.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Mark Casse is enjoying a career year, and will finish the Woodbine meeting as the leader in both races won and money won.

But Casse won't be resting on his laurels this winter as he will be running a 25-horse stable at Fair Grounds, where his son and assistant, Norman, already has set up shop with about a dozen runners.

A full-fledged winter campaign represents a departure for Casse, who in recent years has trained his stock in Florida while racing sparingly during the offseason.

MIAMI - Yesshecandance and Wonderous Glory were among the leaders of their respective divisions at Calder as 2-year-olds in 2006. Unfortunately, neither has made an impact yet at 3, a situation trainer Jose Pinchin hopes to remedy when he brings both horses back from lengthy vacations about 30 minutes apart on Friday's 12-race program.

Illegal Memories, a Quarter Horse who was purchased for $5,500, could go favored next month in the richest race in Texas. He was the fastest qualifier for the $1,069,297 Texas Classic Futurity during trials run for the race last Saturday night at Lone Star Park. The finale will close out the track's Quarter Horse meet on Dec. 1.

Tuesday was a bit of an anomaly for trainer Phil Hawkins. It was the first time since the beginning of Beulah Park's fall meet that Hawkins did not run a horse.

Hawkins, 38, started 65 horses in the first 26 days of the meet, placing him second in the number of starters behind Reid Gross.

After completing his education, Hawkins took a job at Pin Oak Stud in Kentucky. He soon found himself headed towards farm management.

"If you would have asked me 15 years ago what I would be doing now, I would have said managing a farm somewhere," Hawkins said.

The Woodlands in Kansas City, Kan., which is scheduled to open a slots casino in April or May, has requested a 32-date meet for Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses in 2008, said Jayme LaRocca, the track's general manager.

The proposed season would run from Sept. 20 to Nov. 2. The request is expected to be heard by the Kansas Racing and Gaming Commission on Dec. 6.