Obviously it was the level of competition and not the sloppy track that caused Prop Me Up to lose by more than 52 lengths in the Breeders' Cup Distaff.

Racing over a similarly sloppy and sealed surface, Prop Me Up ($8) rebounded from her 12th-place finish in the Grade 1 Distaff two weeks earlier by scoring a 4 1/4-length victory over 6-5 favorite Lexi Star in the $60,000 Red Cross Stakes at the Meadowlands.

It was the fourth win in 12 starts this season for the 5-year-old Prop Me Up, trained by Greg Sacco and ridden by Jose Lezcano.

MIAMI - Citing declining handle and attendance figures, Calder management has announced that overnight purses will be cut 7 percent effective with Thursday's program. The 2007-2008 Tropical at Calder meet runs through Jan. 2.

Two stakes races, the $100,000 Kris S. and $100,000 Cherokee Frolic, have also been canceled. Both 2-year-old events were scheduled to be run on Dec. 8. Purses for all remaining overnight stakes and handicaps will be reduced from $50,000 to $35,000.

Hastings opened its temporary slot-machine floor Saturday morning after final approval was given by the city of Vancouver on Friday afternoon.

The temporary area holds 150 slot machines and will help fund a $40 million renovation to the facility.

Construction of a permanent slots area, intended to house 600 slot machines, is expected to begin next week. The project will take up to 10 months to complete.

Golden Yank remained undefeated and stamped himself as a prime contender for next month's Grade 3, $1 million Delta Jackpot with a smooth, 5 3/4-length win in Friday night's $150,000 Jean Lafitte at Delta Downs. The one-mile race for 2-year-olds is a prep for the Dec. 7 Jackpot.

Golden Yank ($5.60) stalked the pace in fourth Friday as Harlans Fortune and Carson's Legacy dueled through fractions of 22.58 seconds for the opening quarter and 46.90 for a half-mile. Golden Yank advanced, was angled out, then pulled away from the field, covering the distance in 1:40.29.

Golden Hare won his 12th race of 2007 on Friday night to become the winningest horse so far this year in North America.

Them There Eyes kept trainer Kathleen Feron on a major roll this season at Aqueduct by rallying down the center of the turf course to win Friday's $78,500 Scoot Stakes by 1 3/4 lengths over Unspoken Word.

It was the fourth win from six starts at this meet for Feron, who also captured her first stakes victory in the Scoot. Feron trains Them There Eyes for John Hettinger's Akindale Farm, which also bred the 3-year-old New York-bred daughter of Holy Bull.

STICKNEY, Ill. - With two powerhouse winners here on Thursday, the horses trained by Dale Bennett are heating up at Hawthorne. They're also on the way out. Bennett said he is shipping all but perhaps one of his 28 horses to winter quarters at Tampa Bay Downs this weekend, part of the ongoing annual winter exodus that will deplete the local horse population.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Jockey Joe Talamo, the leading contender for the Eclipse Award as the outstanding apprentice jockey of 2007, is going international for the first time later this month.

Talamo has been booked to ride Artiste Royal in the Japan Cup at Tokyo Racecourse on Nov. 25. For Talamo, 17, a native of New Orleans, it will be his first trip outside the United States.

Talamo said he had thought about going to Dubai some day, but never to Japan.

"I'm really excited," he said.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - After 46 years of training racehorses, T.V. Smith is ready to call it a career.

"Every year, I have less and less horses to train," said Smith, who has five horses at Churchill Downs. "It's time, and I think I can afford to do it."

Smith said closing day of the Churchill fall meet, Nov. 24, will be his last in a training career that dates to the early 1960s. Smith, who turns 70 on Nov. 19, plans to spend more time with his wife, Ann, and family in Louisville.

Peppers Pride, a 4-year-old filly who has been racing since July 2005, still does not know defeat. A winner of all 12 of her starts, she is the star of the New Mexico-bred program and the horse to beat Sunday in the $170,000 Fillies and Mares Championship at Zia Park.

The six-furlong race is one of 11 statebred stakes worth a cumulative $2 million on the New Mexico Cup card. Seven of the stakes - worth a total of $1 million - are for Thoroughbreds and the other four are for Quarter Horses.