CHICAGO - Rain soaked the last days of Arlington Park's 2006 season. Some would contend a cloud hung over the track for most of a 95-day meet that concluded Tuesday. Attendance fell, handle declined markedly, and Arlington was plagued by negative publicity over a rash of catastrophic breakdowns.

Arapahoe posted a strong increase in handle for its 39-day 2006 meet, which ended on Sept. 4.

The total average daily handle on live races at Arapahoe was $116,870, a 24 percent increase over the $94,236 bet daily on Arapahoe races last year.

A release issued by the track Wednesday attributed the increase in handle to a switch from Friday racing to Mondays, giving the Aurora, Colo., track an increased simulcast presence. The 2006 meet was Arapahoe's first under the ownership of BLB Investors LLC, which acquired the track in July 2005.

MIAMI - Turf racing during the summer months in south Florida is always an iffy proposition at best, with many horses managing to bang out a pretty good living in races that were taken off the grass.

Several members of that particular club have been entered for Friday's $28,000 allowance feature at Calder, which is carded for turf but no cinch to actually be run on the grass.

Greeleylikealady, Silver Charity, Wicklow Vamp, Vue de Chat, and stablemates Meadow Ashlee and Your Quote have all profited from surface changes during the current meet.

CHICAGO - An ongoing dispute involving the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, Television Games Network, Youbet, and Hawthorne Race Course could lead to a blackout of Hawthorne races on TVG and Youbet when Hawthorne's fall racing season begins Friday.

Catlaunch cuts back to a sprint at Thistledown on Friday when he goes in quest of his seventh win of the year from nine starts while facing seven fellow Ohio-bred rivals in the $50,000 Honey Jay Stakes at six furlongs.

BOSSIER CITY, La. - Ponopaan, the solid third-place finisher in the $100,000 Cajun Stakes for trainer Cole Norman in his last start, should rate a strong favorite in Friday's optional claiming feature at Louisiana Downs. The first race on the 10-race card also drew Tee El, who will be putting a two-race winning streak on the line, as well as veteran Cort's P. B., a four-time winner locally who is coming off a troubled fifth-place finish in the Cajun after winning the $75,000 J. Delahoussaye Memorial Stakes at Evangeline Downs earlier in the summer.

ALBANY, Calif. - For trainer Ellen Jackson, the decision was a no-brainer.

After Don Schnell privately purchased the 3-year-old filly Lemon Fresh Tide earlier this summer, he and Jackson opted to run her on the turf. She ran so well that Jackson says she will remain on grass, where she figures to be a strong contender in Friday's Golden Gate Fields feature, a $25,000 claimer for 3-year-old fillies at one mile.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Few would be surprised if they ever decided to rename the Woodbine Mile the Drysdale Mile. It would only be appropriate, since trainer Neil Drysdale has won three of the nine runnings of the $1 million turf race, if you include the 1999 edition, in which Hawksley Hill was disqualified and placed fourth because his rider's whip struck a rival in the stretch.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Excepting some serious devotees of Southern California racing, it would be surprising if the name Melody Conlon rings a bell.

But Conlon, 53, will be looking to make some serious noise when she sends out Captain Kurt, a 4-year-old gelding owned by John Liviakis, in Sunday's Grade 1, $1 million Woodbine Mile.

Conlon, based at Hollywood Park with a string of 10 horses, will not only be looking for her first stakes win but also will be represented by her first stakes starter in the Woodbine Mile.

AUBURN, Wash. - Coker Road will be trying for two wins in a row on Thursday when he heads a field of six in the Emerald Downs feature, a mile race for older $10,000 claimers.