Rain has recently ruled New Orleans, but a timely break in the clouds could allow Fair Grounds to conduct turf racing Friday. Thursday’s forecast calls for partly cloudy skies, Friday’s for sun, and Kindling just might get to make her intended start in the Friday feature, a second-level filly and mare allowance race carded for about 7 1/2 furlongs on Fair Grounds’s grass course – wet grass course, that is.

“You don’t have to go out and walk the turf course to know that,” said Merrill Scherer, Kindling’s trainer. “You just walk in someone’s front yard.”

Shake Em Fever, winner of two stakes in her last four starts, is part of a full field in the $30,000 Harrah's Distaff on Saturday at Louisiana Downs. Shake Em Fever showed her quickness at Sam Houston on July 28, defeating Texas-breds in the 250-yard Barnmaster Sprint. Two starts back she won at 400 yards in the AQHA Members Plus Stakes at Lone Star Park.

Chiselled in Glory, stakes-placed at 400 yards, will stretch out to 550 yards against fellow 3-year-olds in the $20,000 Super Bowl Handicap on Saturday night at Los Alamitos.

Chiselled in Glory has made one start at Los Alamitos, a second-place finish in the 400-yard Corona Chick Handicap on Nov. 11. He then finished third in the Grade 3 AQRA Turf Paradise Futurity, also at 400 yards, as the odds-on favorite.

The 2007 class to be inducted into the Racehorse Hall of Fame at Ruidoso Downs will comprise Clarence Scharbauer Jr., a successful Quarter Horse and Thoroughbred owner; Danny Cardoza, a leading jockey turned trainer, Charles "Bubba" Cascio, a trainer of world champions; and Vandy's Flash, a world champion gelding.

They will be inducted during ceremonies on a June date to be announced.

ALBANY, Calif. - Hall of Fame trainer Neil Drysdale sends the well-bred Startale north for a one-mile maiden race Friday at Golden Gate Fields. Startale is a 4-year-old gelding by Coronado's Quest, who won both the Grade 1 Haskell and Grade 1 Travers, and out of the stakes-placed Starlore, who earned $225,516. He's a half-brother to Quest, who won the Grade 2 Clark and was second in the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup.

Change Up, one of the top 3-year-old fillies wintering in New Orleans, has been sidelined with a bone chip in her right knee. The injury was detected last Friday, the day after Change Up had a five-furlong breeze, and Change Up already has undergone surgery in Kentucky to the remove the chip, co-owner Richard Klein said Tuesday.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Bettors clever enough to find the winner of the seventh-race feature on Thursday at Santa Anita will be paid generous odds.

A diverse field of eight older horses entered the third-level optional $80,000 claiming race at about 6 1/2 furlongs on turf, and a case can be made for every one.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - It's a routine Thursday at Aqueduct in winter, but true racing fans will still find plenty to interest them.

Race 3 is a starter handicap restricted to those who ran for $14,000 in the last three years, but it may still take a triple-digit Beyer Speed Figure to win. Golden Man, Lucky Gamble, and Sir Gallant have run 98 or better recently, and deep closer Letters rolled past $50,000 sprinters with a 96 two back.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Scott Lake, who earlier this week completed serving the second of two consecutive 30-day suspensions for medication violations, starts his first horse at the 2007 Gulfstream Park meet on Thursday. Lake's return coincides with the comeback of his multiple stakes-winning speedster Tacirring, who has not raced since finishing second to Bordonaro a year ago in the Sunshine Millions Sprint.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Commander Buck eagerly chowed down on a sweet potato with his lunch earlier this week, and the antioxidants in such a treat sure do agree with him. The picture of health for his first start of the year, Commander Buck is one of eight older horses who will meet in a competitive $100,000 optional claimer at Oaklawn Park on Thursday.

The 1 1/16-mile race should produce starters for the Grade 3, $100,000 Essex Handicap here Feb. 10. Others in the field are Absent Friend, Joey Carson, Sampson's Son, Go Now, Shaky Town, Silver, Haze, and Rotary.