Tommie Morgan has been a leading trainer on the Texas racing scene for more than a decade, but he has not started a single horse at the Sam Houston Race Park meet. In fact, Morgan has not saddled a horse since Oct. 15 at Retama Park.

It is a rare situation for the horseman, who earlier this year had one of his best meets ever at Lone Star Park.

"I had some medical problems that I needed to tend to, so I needed some time off," said Morgan, 59.

Morgan was in the hospital on Tuesday recovering from surgery. He expected to be released either Wednesday or Thursday.

The Remington Park Quarter Horse Futurity and Heritage Place Quarter Horse Futurity will each be worth an estimated $750,000 next year. They will be the richest races during a 50-date Quarter Horse meet at Remington Park.

The season will start March 10 and run through June 4. There are 37 stakes scheduled, with their purses totaling about $4 million.

The Remington Park Futurity, upgraded for 2006 from a Grade 2 to a Grade 1, will be run April 30. The Heritage Place is scheduled for June 4.

There has been a lot of activity lately at Will Rogers Downs in Claremore, Okla., which last conducted live racing in 2001. Earlier this month, Will Rogers opened a 250-machine electronic gaming casino, and revenue from it will help fund purses during a 42-date race meet scheduled to open on Feb. 24.

The mixed meet will feature Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses.

MIAMI - When it comes to five-furlong turf specialists, it doesn't get any better than Whenthedoveflies, who will be heavily favored to defeat nine rivals in Thursday's five-furlong My Melanie Stakes at Calder. The $40,000 My Melanie, an overnight stakes, will be decided under allowance conditions on the grass.

Thursday marks the beginning of the sixth racing week at the Fair Grounds meet at Louisiana Downs. And as with any other human endeavor, something that at first seems strange over time becomes routine. But there are regular reminders that this is not Fair Grounds. No flocks of ibis fly up from the turf course, and turf races themselves have been exceedingly rare here by Fair Grounds standards. And as of Sunday, trainer Tom Amoss had started only 14 horses at the meet.

Happy Ticket took another step on her road back to the races, breezing for the first time since she had surgery to repair a breathing problem that stopped her cold in the Breeders' Cup Distaff.

Happy Ticket worked Sunday at Louisiana Downs, going three furlongs in 36.60 seconds, and though Happy Ticket was just cruising, her work was the third-fastest among 18 at the distance.

"It was an easy blowout for her," said Andy Leggio, who trains Happy Ticket for owner Stewart Madison.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Lacking a turf course that would have boosted the quality of racing and mutuel handle, Hollywood Park ended its 27-day fall meeting on Monday with declines in attendance and handle compared with the corresponding meeting in 2004.

On the track, jockey Martin Pedroza won his first riding title at a major track, while Jeff Mullins led the trainer standings.

Brass Hat, a convincing winner of the Prairie Bayou Stakes last weekend at Turfway Park, will make his next start in the Grade 2, $400,000 New Orleans Handicap, said trainer Buff Bradley.

"He came out of the race in great shape," said Bradley, who trains Brass Hat for his father, Fred. "After the race my father and I started to figure out what to do next, and we said, 'Let's go for the big money.' He's earned a shot to at least try."

CHICAGO - At the start of the Hawthorne fall-winter season, Frank Kirby's stable was exceedingly slow, but as the weather has gotten colder, Kirby has gotten warmer.

On Dec. 1, Kirby's Hawthorne record stood at 5 for 87, but Kirby has since saddled 5 winners and 5 place horses from only 35 starters. He has won with maidens, layoff horses - and in Thursday's featured first race at Hawthorne, Kirby will try to win a dirt race with a grass horse.

The pace looks perfect. The post is not. That is the story for Dee Dee's Diner in the $50,000 , a 5 1/2-furlong race for fillies and mares to be run on the lone Thursday card of the Sunland Park meet in Sunland Park, N.M.

Dee Dee's Diner is a stalker and she will break from post 10 in the Bold Ego.

"There's a ton of speed, which is good," said her trainer, Henry Dominguez, who leads the standings at Sunland. "The only thing is, hopefully we don't have to lose too much ground going around the turn."