Jockey Ted Gondron has been noticeably absent this meet at Sam Houston Race Park. The track's all-time winningest rider, he is healing from leg and back injuries sustained in a spill in October. Gondron plans to resume riding this meet at Sam Houston, and said Wednesday he hopes to be back getting on horses in January.

CHICAGO - Hawthorne will cut purses by 7 percent when its final condition book begins Dec. 17, Hawthorne general manager Jim Miller said Wednesday. The purse cut comes in the face of handle figures that are struggling to keep pace with last season's numbers, and an ongoing problem with an overpaid purse account.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Like a Tiger fell a neck short of pulling an upset in an optional claimer at Hollywood Park on Nov. 23, a frustrating loss for his backers and trainer Beau Greely.

Redemption may arrive in the eighth race at Hollywood Park on Friday, when Like a Tiger starts as a top contender in an optional claimer over 1 1/4 miles.

The race, which has a $50,000 purse, is a furlong longer than the Nov. 23 race and should better suit Like a Tiger, a 5-year-old gelding who races for Columbine Stable.

Slots-rich Sunland Park has made a number of key improvements to its racing program for its 79-date meet that opens Friday. The changes include increasing purses to a record $255,000 a day and moving the date of its richest race, the $600,000 WinStar Derby, back two weeks to March 18.

Sunland, which operates a mixed meet for both Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses, has also made $3.7 million in improvements to the facility during its downtime, expanded its simulcast network, and is introducing a 50-cent pick four on its final four races each day.

Tampa Bay Downs has corrected the margin of victory Dreams of Angels was credited with following Saturday's Inaugural Stakes. The winning margin, first disseminated as 14 1/4 lengths, has been shortened to 6 1/2 lengths.

According to the track's publicist, Margo Flynn, the incorrect margin was the result of an "isolated incident of operator error" on the part of a racing official.

The chart of the Inaugural Stakes has been updated to reflect the new winning margin, as have the past performances of the 11 runners in the race.

The path trainer Patrick Biancone has chosen for Belgravia is one he has been down before. Get an expensive youngster, win first time out, capture the Hollywood Prevue, then take aim at the Hollywood Futurity, and beyond.

Three years ago, Lion Heart won his first two starts, including the Prevue, then took the Futurity. He went on to finish second to Smarty Jones in the 2004 Kentucky Derby.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Through Sunday, trainer Jeff Mullins had 17 wins at the Hollywood Park fall meeting, good enough for third in the standings behind Doug O'Neill and John Sadler, who were tied with 20.

With the meeting ending on Monday, Mullins would theoretically have time to catch the leading pair, but he says that is not his focus for the final days. He says he will not "throw the barn" at the entries in an attempt to take the lead. Instead, Mullins is hoping to end the meeting with a victory in the Grade 1 Starlet Stakes on Sunday with Mystic Soul.

Del Mar received approval from the California Coastal Commission on Tuesday to install a synthetic surface in 2007, a vital stage in the track's plan of having a new surface in place for the start of its annual race meeting that begins in July.

The Coastal Commission, which regulates land and water uses in areas near the coastline, approved the track's proposal at a meeting in San Francisco. The project has already received support from the city of Del Mar and the 22nd Agricultural District, which owns the racetrack's land.

The Tom Amoss barn has shipped south with its usual stock of astute claims from the Kentucky circuit, horses like Smoke Mountain, who was taken by Amoss for $30,000 on Sept. 22 at Turfway Park, and who comes into Thursday's featured ninth race at Fair Grounds after a pair of explosive wins at Mountaineer Park.

But it's worth noting - it's a long way from Chester, West Virginia, to New Orleans.

As finales of drawn-out statebred-restricted stakes days go, the finish of last Saturday's Louisiana Champions Day Classic was not bad. Heavy favorite Costa Rising shrugged off a couple of different challengers, including upstart stretch-out sprinter Mean Butterbean at the head of the stretch. But there in the final 50 yards Mean Butterbean crept back closer to Costa Rising, and wound up missing by a head.