Ellis Park has released its 2007 stakes schedule, featuring the Claiming Crown series and the "Big Four" program anchored by the Gardenia Handicap.

The $575,000 Claiming Crown, normally held at Canterbury Park in Minnesota, is being run for the first time in Kentucky. The seven-race program is scheduled for Aug. 4.

The Grade 3, $150,000 Gardenia, the lone graded race at the Henderson, Ky., track, is one of four stakes to be run Aug. 18.

The 2007 meet runs from July 4 through Sept. 3 and will be the first under new owner Ron Geary and new racing secretary Dan Bork.

ALBANY, Calif. - Consistent blue-collar horses take the spotlight on Golden Gate Fields's early card on Super Bowl Sunday.

A field of five $25,000 claimers will go 1 1/16 miles in the first race on a card that begins at 11:15 a.m. Pacific.

The runners in the field are the offensive linemen of racing, getting few headlines but providing the backbone of the industry.

NEW ORLEANS - Four Grade 3 stakes, topped by the $300,000 Risen Star for 3-year-olds, highlight next Saturday's Louisiana Derby Preview Day. The stakes are the final local preps for Louisiana Derby Day on March 10 when the New Orleans Handicap, Mervin Muniz Memorial, and Fair Grounds Oaks serve as supporting features.

Two of the nation's most powerful stables will be well represented on the Preview Day card.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Jockey Jose Santos will be out a minimum of four to six weeks after suffering two compressed vertebrae, two cracked ribs, and a possible broken nose as a result of a spill he was involved in at Aqueduct on Thursday.

Meanwhile, fellow rider Ramon Dominguez - who was involved in the same spill - will miss at least two weeks because of swelling in his right knee. Jockey Eddie Martin, a third rider involved in the spill, was uninjured and expected to ride his five mounts at Aqueduct on Friday.

Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., has canceled its Thursday through Sunday programs because of winter weather that has left the track unsuitable for racing, officials announced Thursday morning.

Racing is scheduled to resume on Thursday, Feb. 8.

Sleet hit Hot Springs on Wednesday night, and temperatures were in the 20's on Thursday morning. Despite crews working the track around the clock, Oaklawn was unable to open for training on Monday, Wednesday, or Thursday.

Dozens of wagering sites across the United States were prohibited from offering betting on the signal from Aqueduct racetrack beginning on Thursday because New York's regulatory board had not completed a review of Aqueduct's simulcast contracts, according to racetrack officials and regulators.

OLDSMAR, Fla. - Summer Cruise, who unleashed a strong late rally to capture the Minaret Stakes here in her last start, takes on several stakes-caliber runners from out of town on Saturday when she seeks her fourth win from seven career starts in the seven-furlong Manatee Stakes.

Summer Cruise, a 4-year-old Vicar filly trained by Mike Zwiesler, is 3 for 3 at Tampa. She started her career in eye-catching fashion here a year ago, winning her first two outings, a maiden race and an allowance.

NEW ORLEANS - Purim turned in one of the most impressive performances by an older horse on the Fair Grounds turf this meet when he won the Col. E.R. Bradley Handicap last month. It was only his second race since he just missed to the classy Rush Bay in the June 3 Opening Verse at Churchill Downs, yet he turned in a dead game performance, arguing the early pace and then tracking the leader, taking command in the stretch, and coming again after being headed inside the sixteenth pole to best Fort Prado by a head.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - What can Miesque's Approval do for an encore?

After capping off a sensational and surprising 7-year-old campaign by winning the Breeders' Cup Mile and earning the Eclipse Award as the top male turf horse of 2006, Miesque's Approval returns at 8 for yet another season beginning Saturday at Gulfstream Park in the $100,000 Canadian Turf Handicap at 1 1/16 miles on the grass.

By MARCUS HERSH

The owner Evelyn Benoit, who races as Brittlyn Stables, was according to her trainer Victor Arceneaux dealing with some butter beans in her kitchen one day when her roving mind struck upon a name: Mean Butterbean. There are no accounts of other Louisiana-bred equines poking fun at the 5-year-old bay gelding, especially since Mean Butterbean is the only Louisiana-bred of late to strike fear into Costa Rising, the pro tem leader of the Louisiana-bred older horse division.