Mountaineer Race Track has increased its catastrophic insurance coverage for jockeys riding there from $100,000 to $1 million in a new one-year policy.

Mountaineer was the site of a July 2004 spill that left jockey Gary Birzer paralyzed from the chest down. Birzer has said that he has since incurred more than $500,000 in medical bills he is unable to pay.

MIAMI - There are many reasons why Scott Lake's name is regularly listed at or near the top of the national trainer rankings for races won each season, not the least of which is his ability to read a condition book and place horses where they have the best chance to win.

MIAMI - Trainer John Ward, who has five stakes-caliber 3-year-old fillies under his care in south Florida, will have his work cut out keeping the group separated when all return for their 4-year-old campaigns in 2006.

MIAMI - Manoel Cruz, the leading jockey during the Tropical at Calder meeting, was asked to leave the Calder grounds by track management shortly after riding El Quixote to victory in Wednesday's third race. He will not be permitted to ride here again during the remainder of the meet, which runs through Jan. 2.

BOSSIER CITY, La. - The featured $41,000 allowance race at the Fair Grounds meet at Louisiana Downs on Friday is going to make someone a nice early Christmas present. The big question is, who?

An evenly matched field of 11 fillies and mares will line up in the 6 1/2-furlong race, which is for nonwinners of two races.

The Northampton, Mass., Fair will not hold horse racing next year, the first time in 150 years racing has not been part of the event, fair officials told the Associated Press.

Competition from casinos and the state lottery has cut into the racing handle to the point where staging the sport was not financially viable, according to the fair's president, Alan Jacque.

Monmouth Park in 2006 will once again be the site of the NATC Futurities, a pair of $100,000 races for horses who have passed through the year's 2-year-olds in training sales.

The races, sponsored by the National Association of Two-Year-Old Consignors, are restricted to graduates of 2-year-olds in training sales who were consigned by an association member who also contributes to the group's advertising fund. They were held at Delaware Park for the first three years of their existence and moved to Monmouth in 2005.

It looked at one point, when he was a 3-year-old in 2002, like Onthedeanslist was going to be a pretty tough 4-year-old horse in the dirt handicap ranks. Sometimes things don't develop exactly as one plans, but turn out all right after all.

CHICAGO - Her trip to Hong Kong ended with a whimper, and Nicole's Dream has returned home to the States, but exactly what lies in her future is uncertain.

Nicole's Dream, one of the better turf sprinters in the Midwest the past two seasons, finished 12th and last in the Hong Kong Sprint on Dec. 11. Her trainer, Larry Rivelli, said Nicole's Dream had shipped well enough, but was done in by Hong Kong's zero-tolerance policy on race-day medication. A regular Lasix user, Nicole's Dream raced without the anti-bleeder medication, and bled in the race.

As soon as the holiday meet at Turfway Park ends Dec. 31, jockey Jesus Castanon will move his tack to Tampa Bay Downs, where he has been the leading rider the last two seasons.

Castanon, who is having the best year of his 17-year career, holds a slim lead atop the Turfway standings. His agent, Danny Gargan, confirmed Wednesday that Castanon will begin riding at Tampa on Jan. 1.