What's new at Arlington Park in 2006? Try another approach - what isn't.

There is a new starting date - a week earlier than usual - new president, new director of racing, new in-house television talent, and even some new wagers on the horizon. But you'll still recognize the ship and her captain.

Arlington, the jewel of a racetrack in the northwest Chicago suburbs, still offers up its same classy panache. And you will still find circulating energetically through the crowd on a busy day its 84-year-old chairman, Richard Duchossois.

The Massachusetts Handicap will return in 2006 after a one-year hiatus, Suffolk Downs announced Wednesday. The Grade 2, $300,000 Massachusetts Handicap will be run on Sept. 30, far from its traditional late-spring date, in an attempt to make it a prep race for the Breeders' Cup Classic.

The Mass 'Cap was canceled last year when slow simulcasting business prompted Suffolk to redistribute funds from its major stakes events into day-to-day races. It was last run in 2004 when Offlee Wild upset Funny Cide. The race had also been canceled in 2003.

From staff to stakes, a number of changes have been made to the racing side of operations at Louisiana Downs, the Bossier City, La., track and slots casino that will open for a 93-date meet on Friday. The season will run through Oct. 21.

Louisiana Downs, following last year's meet, hosted an abbreviated Fair Grounds season that ended in January, and since then, change has swept through the plant. Mark Midland was named the new vice president of racing operations following the February resignation of Ray Tromba.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - A rematch of Oonagh Maccool and Grade 1 winner Sweet Symphony in the $300,000 Louisville Breeders' Cup Handicap highlights the undercard for Friday's 11-race Kentucky Oaks program. The Grade 2 Louisville Breeders' Cup Handicap is the richest of the five undercard stakes, which also include two Grade 3's, the Crown Royal American Turf and the Aegon Turf Sprint, plus the ungraded Edgewood and Alysheba stakes. The last four of those each has a purse of $100,000.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Is California's fastest horse on dirt also the fastest horse on grass? The idea is plausible after Lava Man ran 1 1/8 miles in a course-record 1:44.26 on Sunday in the $150,000 Khaled Stakes at Hollywood Park, earning a 108 Beyer to equal the year's top grass figure. Lava Man earned a 113 Beyer in the Santa Anita Handicap, the second-highest route dirt figure of 2006.

ALBANY, Calif. - Trainer O.J. Jauregui knows better than to do a lot of second-guessing. So as he prepares to send out Cut the Mustard in Thursday's Golden Gate Fields feature, he's simply looking ahead rather than dwelling on Cut the Mustard's last race, a third-place finish in the mud, a race from which Jauregui had considered scratching her.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Bushfire won the April 8 Ashland Stakes at Keeneland by 6 1/2 lengths, but even if she had won by 36 1/2, Eddie Kenneally knows the filly would still have her skeptics.

"Certainly Keeneland makes some horses look very good," said Kenneally, who trains Bushfire, one of the main players in a field of 14 fillies drawn Tuesday for the 132nd Kentucky Oaks on Friday at Churchill Downs.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Purses for the Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships were increased from $14 million to $20 million, officials with the series announced Tuesday afternoon.

The Classic, the signature event of the eight-race series, received a $1 million boost to $5 million. The Turf, Filly and Mare Turf, Sprint, and Juvenile Fillies also had their purses increased by $1 million. The Mile and the Juvenile each received a bump of $500,000. The Distaff, which had its purse increased to $2 million in 1998, did not receive an increase.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - On Tuesday morning Todd Pletcher was hoping to work a bunch of his horses pointing stakes races this weekend. But the Churchill Downs main track was such a mess that he only sent out English Channel, who went four furlongs in 51.80 seconds in the slop in preparation for Saturday's $400,000 Woodford Reserve Turf Classic at 1 1/8 miles on the turf.

Pletcher said he worked only English Channel "because he's running in a Grade 1 on Saturday and the others aren't."

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Horseplayers looking for a little help in their wagering endeavors when the $150,000 Kentucky Breeders' Cup Stakes rolls around Thursday at Churchill Downs will get no help from trainer Steve Asmussen, who will send out four of the 12 starters.

"It's pretty hard to separate the four of them, it really is," said Asmussen.