EDMONTON, Alberta - Halting a trend of recent years, the 2005 Thoroughbred season at Northlands Park enjoyed an increase of nearly 3 percent in total handle.

The 72-day meet saw a total of $20,821,859 wagered from all sources on Northlands races, compared to $20,249,751 for the same number of days in 2004. This year's daily average worked out to $289,192.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Southern California racing has been thrown into late-season disarray with the announcement from Hollywood Park Tuesday that turf racing has been canceled for its 31-day autumn meet, which begins next Wednesday.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - is getting her act together and taking it on the road. Though it's only about nine miles from Belmont to Aqueduct, whether she really does have her act together for this little day trip could prove the key to Thursday's featured eighth race at Aqueduct, a six-furlong sprint with third-level allowance conditions and an optional claiming price of $75,000.

Broadway Gold is drawn on the outside with Javier Castellano, and is the lone 3-year-old in a field of five fillies and mares.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - has racked up the kind of numbers that would seem to make him very tough to beat in the Thursday feature at Churchill Downs: 8 for 20 overall, 5 for 10 at Churchill, and 2 for 2 when he has raced for a claiming tag.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Stakes-placed Top Notch Lady will likely be favored in Thursday's Woodbine headliner, a 1 1/16-mile allowance for 2-year-old fillies.

Top Notch Lady, owned by Robert Wilson and trained by Mark Casse, has run solid races in all four of her starts. She won her debut in a turf sprint after closing wide from mid-pack, and then finished fourth behind Knights Templar in the Ontario Debutante Stakes on the main track.

ARCADIA, Calif. - has not raced in nearly eight months, so when he runs 6 1/2 furlongs in the first of the two turf allowances Thursday at Santa Anita, is it just a prep race?

"First time back, down the hill, I think he'll probably run pretty good," said trainer Richard Mandella. Loosely translated, the analysis means "go to the window."

ARCADIA, Calif. - Irish Bar will be a deserving favorite for trainer Dan Hendricks on Saturday in the $125,000 California Cup Juvenile, while the best California-bred 2-year-old trained by Hendricks will aim for a bigger pot next month. Brother Derek, a creditable fourth in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile on Saturday, runs next in the Grade 3, $1 million Delta Jackpot on Dec. 2, or the Grade 1, $250,000 Hollywood Futurity on Dec. 17.

ALBANY, Calif. - The eight-horse field for Thursday's Golden Gate Fields feature, an optional $25,000 claiming sprint at six furlongs, is evenly divided between 3-year-olds on the way up and older claiming types.

Trainer Steve Specht may have the one to beat in Playin the Niners, a 3-year-old colt claimed for $32,000 in his debut. In five starts for Specht, Playin the Niners has won his last two races and finished second three times before that. But Specht knows that Playin the Niners has his work cut out for him on Thursday.

Handle was down marginally while attendance nearly set a record at the 17-day fall meet that ended Saturday at Keeneland in Lexington, Ky.

All-sources wagering grossed more than $124.9 million, down less than 1 percent from last fall, when nearly $125.8 million was bet at a 17-day meet. The per-day average handle was $7,348,363.

Ontrack handle, including imported simulcasts, grossed more than $26.7 million, for an average of $1,517,313, which was down 2.5 percent from last year.

The longtime chief of Philadelphia Park's gate crew has resigned after an incident on Sunday in which the starting gate failed to open for four of the seven horses in the race.

Russell Downes, 65, submitted his resignation on Monday, according to Hal Handel, the chief executive officer of Greenwood Racing, the owner of Philadelphia Park. Downes had worked at Philadelphia Park for "at least 20 years," Handel said.