ALTOONA, Iowa - Looking to bolster field size and increase handle, Prairie Meadows will run fewer races per card and switch its racing days during the 2007 Thoroughbred meet that begins Friday night.

ARCADIA, Calif. - The last time trainer Niall O'Callaghan and jockey Larry Melancon teamed together at Santa Anita, they won the 2001 San Antonio Handicap with Guided Tour.

"I told him to stay to the left," O'Callaghan wisecracked on Wednesday about his instructions to the jockey.

Melancon and O'Callaghan will be back at Santa Anita on Sunday to start Embossed in the $250,000 San Juan Capistrano Handicap. It is the longest stakes in California, and a race with a rich history.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Since he still has two more dress rehearsals before the big dance, Nobiz Like Shobiz's slow half-mile breeze Wednesday morning at Belmont Park is hardly cause for alarm. But, it did demonstrate that his connections still have some fine-tuning to do to be ready for the May 5 Kentucky Derby.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Patrick Biancone sent out the one-two finishers Wednesday in the $108,600 Doubledogdare Stakes at Keeneland, with the victorious and heavily favored Asi Siempre having a much smoother journey than when she ended her 2006 campaign in the Breeders' Cup Distaff.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Slot machines have been operating at Gulfstream Park for the first time during the 2007 meeting, and while overnight purses have never been better the new casino was certainly not the instant panacea the local racing industry had expected.

Through April 1, average daily ontrack handle was even with last year. Handle was up slightly on imported signals and down approximately 10 percent on the Gulfstream simulcast signal. The meet closes Sunday.

CHICAGO - Perhaps the only thing standing between Todd Pletcher and another sweep of Hawthorne's two graded stakes for older horses is a van that on Wednesday was headed west from Laurel Park bound for Chicago. Its equine passenger, Sweetnorthernsaint, has made the drive before, traveling here about a year ago to bury the field in the Illinois Derby, and on Saturday, he and the Pletcher-trained Master Command are the stars of the show in the National Jockey Club Handicap

There will be a sense of deja vu when trainers Dan Francisco and Paul Jones run Quarter Horses in the two Grade 3 stakes at Los Alamitos this weekend, Friday's $50,000 Miss Princess Handicap and Saturday's $25,000 Kaweah Bar Handicap.

In the Miss Princess for fillies and mares, Francisco saddles Romanticist while Jones sends out Strength in Numbers. Romanticist and Strength in Numbers have faced each other in their latest two starts and drew side-by-side in posts 4 and 5 for the Miss Princess.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Constant Montpellier will serve a suspension of 12 calendar days and has been fined $2,500 following an appeal hearing at the Ontario Racing Commission offices this Monday and Tuesday.

Brent Stone, supervisor of Thoroughbred racing for the Ontario Racing Commission, said Montpellier's suspension began Tuesday.

Montpellier originally was suspended for 150 days and fined $5,000 by the stewards following a confrontation with fellow jockey Patrick Husbands here last Nov. 11.

ARCADIA, Calif. - The dazzling 3-year-old filly Magnificience will be sidelined until next year because a chip was discovered in her left front ankle that requires minor surgery.

Magnificience burst to prominence with a breathtaking debut March 11 at Santa Anita, and followed with a five-length win April 1 in the Grade 3 Santa Paula Stakes. But soon after she won the 6 1/2-furlong Santa Paula with a 109 Beyer Speed Figure - highest of the year by a 3-year-old of either gender - Magnificience developed heat in an ankle.

Pimlico will package 20 stakes into three major-event days and introduce twilight racing during its 31-day spring meet that begins Thursday.

The eight-week season should get off to a fast start when six stakes, topped by the $125,000 Federico Tesio Stakes for 3-year-olds, will be contested Saturday on a program billed as the Spring Festival of Racing.

The Tesio, which occasionally produces a Preakness starter, is expected to attract Extude, a highly promising Maryland-based colt who has won his last three starts.