Beulah Park's Fortune 6 wager was hit Tuesday for $364,589.50, a North American record payoff on a wager less than $1.

The Fortune 6 is a 25-cent pick six wager in which the jackpot carries over until there is a single ticket containing all six winners. The current jackpot began building on Nov. 29 last year. Beulah received permission from the Ohio Racing Commission to carry over the jackpot from the conclusion of its fall meeting on Dec. 22 to the beginning on the winter-spring meeting here on Jan. 6.

Trials to the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Winter Derby and the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Winter Championship will be held on Friday and Saturday, respectively, and there will be mixed emotions in the Be a Bono camp during the Championship trials.

Spencer Childers, 95, owns Be a Bono, the 2004 world champion who begins his fifth racing season in the Championship trials. That's the good. The sad is that the race comes just nine days after the death of Florence Childers, the owner's wife.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer John Ward Jr. would have loved to have won the Grade 3 Hal's Hope Handicap with Strong Contender on Jan. 6. As things turned out, Ward was just glad that his horse escaped a potentially disastrous bumping incident after the start and is able to return for Saturday's Grade 1 Donn Handicap.

It will be the long-term results, not the short-term ones, that Ward is most interested in when Strong Contender goes up against Horse of the Year Invasor in the Donn - a race he may use as a prep for the $1 million Santa Anita Handicap on March 3.

Fans had to wait five extra days for the Rattlesnake Stakes to be run, but based on the performance of 9-1 shot Tie Rod, it was worth the wait.

The $45,000 Rattlesnake, a mile event for 3-year-olds, was originally slated to be run Jan. 21, but was postponed when that day's card was canceled due to inclement weather. It was brought back last Friday, and while most of the attention went to the likes of Ourtickethome, Waltz Time, Derouin, and Mr Charlypotatoes, it was Tie Rod who dominated the proceedings.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Last week, jockey Alex Solis got a call from a friend relating the latest racetrack rumor. The friend asked if Solis was about to announce his retirement after a 26-year career.

"I said, 'I didn't know I was retiring,'" Solis said Wednesday morning.

Game of Skill served notice that he may merit a start in the 2007 WinStar Derby by marching home a nine-length winner over maidens here Jan. 23.

A son of Wild Again, Game of Skill is trained by Chris Hartman. Based in Southern California prior to this start, Game of Skill races for the Turf Express Inc., Mark Cornett, and other partners. Game of Skill finished second twice as a 2-year-old in maiden races at Hollywood Park and Santa Anita Park.

The $600,000 WinStar Derby, at 1 1/8 miles, will be run March 18.

ALBANY, Calif. - One racing superstition is that horses should not be named after friends, but trainer Bill Morey Jr. thought it nice when breeder Martin Bach named a filly after his longtime friend, the late Bart Heller.

Thisonesforbart meets five rivals in Friday's Golden Gate Fields feature, a $40,000 starter allowance at 1o1/16 miles.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Red Raymond comes out of one of the most productive races run anywhere this winter. Second in that race, he should start as a strong favorite in Friday's featured ninth race at Oaklawn Park.

Red Raymond can become the sixth horse to exit a Dec. 10 optional claimer at Fair Grounds and win his next start. He will face eight other rivals in a 1 1/16-mile optional claimer here Friday, among them Codasco, an allowance winner at Churchill Downs, and the Grade 3-placed Woody's Apache.

Canterbury Park in Shakopee, Minn., has scheduled 32 stakes worth more than $1.5 million for its 2007 meet, which will run from May 5 through Sept. 3.

The highlights of the schedule are the $100,000 Lady Canterbury, a one-mile turf race for fillies and mares on July 14, and the Minnesota Festival of Champions on Aug. 19. The Festival of Champions offers seven stakes for Minnesota-breds worth a combined $335,000.

Canterbury has held seven of the first eight editions of the Claiming Crown, but that event will be held at Ellis Park in Kentucky this year.

Tiny slots-fueled Delta Downs annually hosts one race worth

$1 million, the Delta Jackpot, but on Saturday night the track spreads a million bucks out over 10 races, all of them for horses bred in the state of Louisiana.

On tap for Louisiana Premier Night are six stakes races, worth between $100,000 and $200,000, and four starter-allowance races with purses between $45,000 and $55,000. For one day at least, it is Delta, not Fair Grounds, offering the best winter racing in Louisiana.