Cowtown Cat, winner of the Grade 3 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct, appears headed to Hawthorne Race Course for the $500,000 Illinois Derby this coming Saturday, where he is expected to face Cobalt Blue, Bold Start, and at least five or six other prominent 3-year-olds.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - F. Jack Liebau, president of the Bay Meadows Racing Association, dimmed any hopes that the track would race next year by rejecting on Friday the possibility of a compromise with the California Horse Racing Board over a requirement to install a synthetic surface by Jan. 1.

After meeting with Northern California horsemen on Thursday, Richard Shapiro, chairman of the racing board, said he would ask the board to consider a one-year exemption for the track if Bay Meadows guaranteed it would remain open for racing in 2008.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - There are still another 3 1/2 weeks remaining in the 2007 Gulfstream Park meet, but after this weekend there is only one more race on the stakes schedule, Saturday's $100,000 Artax Handicap. The 7 1/2-furlong dash for older horses lured 17 nominations, led by Park Avenue Ball, High Finance, and Istan.

High Finance, who has not started since finishing fourth behind Keyed Entry in the Grade 3 Deputy Minister Handicap on Feb. 3, worked a half-mile for trainer Rick Violette in 48.60 seconds at Palm Meadows on Friday.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Ketchikan's connections confirmed Friday that he is headed to Oaklawn Park for the Grade 2, $1 million Arkansas Derby, one of several Racing Festival of the South stakes that are beginning to take shape.

The festival consists of nine stakes worth $2.8 million, run over the final six days of the meet. It opens on Friday with the Grade 2, $250,000 Fantasy.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Liquidity's status among trainer Doug O'Neill's Kentucky Derby hopefuls faded after a sixth-place finish in the Louisiana Derby at Fair Grounds on March 10.

Liquidity needed a win in that race to keep up with other O'Neill-trained 3-year-olds such as Cobalt Blue, Great Hunter, and Notional, all stakes winners this year.

O'Neill is taking the blame for Liquidity's failure, and looking for redemption in next Saturday's $750,000 Santa Anita Derby.

"I got too confident," O'Neill said.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - After watching Summer Doldrums breeze a sharp five furlongs Friday morning at Aqueduct, trainer Rick Violette is confident his 3-year-old can rebound from a disappointing performance in last month's Gotham Stakes and get back on the Kentucky Derby trail.

Del Mar will offer the richest stakes schedule in its history this summer, 30 races worth $7.25 million, seven of which are Grade 1 stakes. The meeting runs from July 18 to Sept. 5.

The 2007 Del Mar meeting will be the first run on a synthetic surface.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Field size fuels wagering, which of course helps to boost the bottom line for racetracks and horsemen.

So, it's no surprise that field size has been an ongoing priority for the Woodbine Entertainment Group, and with the installation of Polytrack here last year the outlook is brighter on that front.

In the first two days of the 2007 meeting, 175 horses were entered for the total of 20 races on Saturday and Sunday, an average field size of 8.75 horses per race.

Collier Hill, who would have been among the favorites in the $5 million Dubai Sheema Classic Saturday at Nad Al Sheba Racecourse, has been taken out of the race for undisclosed reasons by his English trainer Alan Swinbank. Collier Hill had trained without incident this week, but was removed from the race early Friday afternoon here. A 9-year-old, Collier Hill captured Grade 1 races in Canada and Hong Kong in his last two outings.

ARCADIA, Calif. - At a glance, Medici Code would seem severely overmatched in a race such as the $750,000 Santa Anita Derby on April 7.

Imported from England in late February, Medici Code has won his last three starts, all on England's all-weather circuit. Those races came against opposition of lower quality than he will meet in the derby, and none of them was a graded stakes.

In the Santa Anita Derby over 1 1/8 miles, Medici Code will give new owners Bill and Donna Herrick and trainer Darrell Vienna a quick answer of where he belongs among California's 3-year-olds.