OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Channing Hill is off to an excellent start at Aqueduct.

Through Thursday's weather-shortened two-race card, Hill had booted home 10 winners from 69 mounts, good for a fourth-place tie in the jockey standings.

Hill, who enjoyed terrific success as an apprentice, seems to have secured a solid foothold as a journeyman rider. He has been getting steady business from trainer Mike Hushion and is looking forward to the upcoming winter in New York.

"It gets cold here, but with the races you can win, you can buy a nice jacket," Hill said.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Nashoba's Key, who suffered the first loss of her eight-race career when fourth in the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Monmouth Park, may run at Hollywood in the $150,000 Dahlia Handicap on Dec. 16, trainer Carla Gaines said.

Nashoba's Key, 4, is in training with Gaines at Santa Anita. The Dahlia Handicap is a 1 1/16-mile turf race. The main goal over the next few months is the $500,000 Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Turf over 1o1/8 miles at Santa Anita on Jan. 26.

"I wanted to give her a little break, but she wants to do more," Gaines said.

Racing was canceled at Aqueduct after two races Thursday on a sloppy, sealed track.

The jockeys met after the second race, during which the 4-5 favorite, Silver Paradise, was eased, and decided they could not continue.

"The guys came back and said the track was unsafe," said jockey John Velazquez, who didn't ride in either race Thursday. "It's unfair and unsafe for the horses and the jockeys, and unfair to the public."

Three horses were eased in the stretch in the first race and Silver Paradise took a bad step in the second while rolling along on the lead.

Finger Lakes has added two days to its 2007 schedule, Monday and Tuesday Dec. 3 and 4 . Post time both days will be 12:15 p.m.

Two of the top four horses from last month's Breeders' Cup Sprint are likely to run in next weekend's Grade 1, $250,000 Frank De Francis Memorial Dash at Laurel Park.

Talent Search, who finished third in the BC Sprint, and the fourth-place finisher, Benny the Bull, are among 26 horses nominated to the Dash, which headlines the Nov. 24 Fall Festival of Racing card.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Criminologist has improved so much this year that her Hall of Fame trainer can hardly believe it. A major contender in the Cardinal Handicap on Saturday at Churchill Downs, Criminologist seems on the threshold of crashing the elite of North America's filly and mare turf division.

"She's certainly been a pleasant surprise," said Shug McGaughey, who put Criminologist on a Louisville-bound charter flight Thursday in New York.

ALBANY, Calif. - X-rays of jockey Francisco Duran's right hip were negative after he fell from his mount, Ashby Hill, who collapsed in the stretch during the first race at Golden Gate Fields on Thursday.

Ashby Hill, a 5-year-old gelding, collapsed and died just inside the eighth pole on the main track.

Duran fell over the rail and rolled under the outside rail on the turf course.

Duran suffered bruises and contusions in the right hip area. He was undergoing further testing at Highland Hospital in Oakland.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Racing was canceled at Aqueduct after two races Thursday on a sloppy, sealed track.

The jockeys met after the second race, during which 4-5 favorite Silver Paradise was eased, and decided they could not continue.

"The guys came back and said the track was unsafe," said jockey John Velazquez. "It's unfair and unsafe for the horses and the jockeys, and unfair to the public."

When asked about the decision, Velazquez, who didn't ride in either race Thursday, said "it was pretty obvious."

STICKNEY, Ill. - It was the sixth race here at Hawthorne last Saturday afternoon, and to many eyes, Alone at Last was running off with jockey Randy Meier. Down the backstretch of a two-turn turf race, Alone at Last opened up an eight-length lead, speeding through a half-mile in a seemingly suicidal 46.99 seconds.

"I passed the outrider at the half-mile pole, I looked at him, and he was laughing at me - laughing!" Meier said in a Wednesday morning interview at the Hawthorne track kitchen.

Shirreffs did not specify the injury, which was detected after Imagine returned to training following a victory in the California Cup Distance Handicap at the Oak Tree at Santa Anita meeting on Nov. 3.

Owned by Marty Wygod and John Spohler, Imagine, 4, won 5 of 9 starts and $267,059. She was expected to start in graded stakes for fillies and mares on turf next year before the injury was detected.

"It's so disappointing," Shirreffs said. "We'll probably retire her. We didn't notice it until she went back to the track."