Boosted by a record-setting Preakness Stakes at Pimlico and a new turf course at Laurel Park, handle figures for Pimlico Race Course and Laurel Park in Maryland increased in 2005 from 2004, according to figures released on Thursday by the Maryland Jockey Club, the owner of the two tracks.

Total wagering on races at Pimlico and Laurel was $499.8 million in 2005, compared with $485.2 million in 2004, an increase of 3 percent, according to figures provided by the MJC. The Maryland racing calendar had two fewer live racing days in 2005 than 2004, the MJC said.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Rock Hard Ten is retired. Congrats is about a month away from a comeback. So, trainer Richard Mandella, who dominated the stakes races for older horses at Santa Anita one year ago, is searching for replacements.

Mandella last year won the San Pasqual Handicap, Strub Stakes, and Santa Anita Handicap. He will take aim at this year's San Pasqual on Saturday with two runners, Spellbinder and Turnbolt, both of whom are racing in good form but have yet to win a graded stakes race.

Bettors didn't notice Skeleton Crew when he made his debut at Turfway Park on Dec. 11, but he soon made his presence felt. Dismissed at odds of over 25-1, Skeleton Crew dueled for the lead, turned back a pair of challenges on the turn, and drew clear in the stretch to win by 5 3/4 lengths.

OLDSMAR, Fla. - Travelator, who lost her rider at the start of the Garland of Roses at Aqueduct in her most recent start, heads a well-matched field of 12 older fillies and mares in the $60,000 Minaret Stakes at six furlongs Saturday at Tampa Bay Downs.

will be making her first start for trainer Kathleen O'Connell. Travel-ator faces several strong challengers, including Emerald Earrings, a stakes-placed runner in middle-distance stakes last season who is shifting back to a sprint, and Running Bobcats, who won the Sophomore Fillies Stakes here on Florida Cup Day last meet.

Rather than risk running his unbeaten filly Celestial Legend over a muddy track in the one-mile Maryland Juvenile Filly Championship on Dec. 26, trainer Dale Capuano chose to scratch her.

Instead of stretching out for the first time, now will stick to sprinting as the heavy favorite in Saturday's $75,000 Marshua Stakes at Laurel Park. The 5 1/2-furlong race drew a field of seven 3-year-old fillies, including three stakes winners.

Skip and Go attempts to defend his title in Saturday's $50,000 Winsham Lad Handicap at Sunland Park. The one-mile event for 3-year-olds and upward lured a field of six, and Skip and Go will carry high weight of 120 pounds.

Strategically has gone from being a mere claimer to the leading turf horse on the grounds, and he looks to affirm his status in Saturday's $40,000 Cotton Fitzsimmons Handicap at Turf Paradise. The one-mile turf race, which goes as the fifth race on a nine-race card, has lured a field of nine.

The Cotton Fitzsimmons is named after the late former coach and executive of the NBA's Phoenix Suns who was also an avid horseplayer and fixture in the Turf Paradise Turf Club. Fitzsimmons's widow, JoAnn, will make the trophy presentation.

Apollitical Time, winner of the Los Alamitos Super Derby, is one of three mares coming out of the Grade 1 Champion of Champions to return in the Grade 1, $110,550 Charger Bar Handicap for fillies and mares on Saturday night at Los Alamitos.

The other Champion of Champions competitors in the 400-yard Charger Bar, which attracted a full 10-horse field, are Texas Chatterbox and Apollos Favorite.

PORTLAND, Ore. - Trainer Jonathan Nance says he believes in striking while the iron is hot, and the iron couldn't be much hotter than it is right now.

Nance, the defending training champion at Portland Meadows, won three races here on Monday, giving him five wins during last week's three days of racing. One of his recent winners was Cascades Express, who captured the six-furlong Jane Driggers Debutante on last Saturday's Oregon Championship Day program, and Nance plans to run her right back in this Saturday's one-mile Mt. St. Helens Stakes for 3-year-old fillies.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Construction workers mingled with early arrivals, performing whatever last-minute chores were necessary to have Gulfstream Park's work-in-progress grandstand ready Wednesday for opening day of the 2006 meeting. And from all indications, it was a job well done.

Unlike the 2005 Gulfstream opener, which was conducted under tents and had two races canceled, Wednesday's eight-race card came off about as smoothly as could be expected under the circumstances.