Prairie Meadows has reached an agreement with the Iowa Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association over the purse structure and dates for 2006.

Under the agreement, which must by approved by the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission, Prairie Meadows will conduct 90 days of live racing in 2006. A 45-day Thoroughbred meeting beginning in April would be followed by a 45-day mixed meeting from July to mid-September.

Bart Evans's success as a breeder, owner and trainer is not limited to racehorses like Almost Certain, with whom he won the $100,000 Ketel One El Joven last Saturday night at Retama. Evans also raised and rode polo star Chicaboom, who in 2000 was inducted into the National Museum of Polo and Hall of Fame.

Evans, inducted in 2001 for his playing skills, has retired from riding in polo matches and now operates a racing stable. He has 14 horses at Retama, including homebred stakes winners Almost Certain and Wishingitwas, who are half-brothers.

Some of the best older sprinters in Ohio will battle in Friday's $40,000 Honey Jay Stakes at Thistledown.

Ben's Reflection is the one to beat in the six-furlong stakes. Trained by Michael Nance for M.Y. Stables Inc., Ben's Reflection has a 2-2-1 record from six starts this year. He most recently beat open starter handicap horses here Aug. 19, coming from just off the pace while being timed in 1:10 for six furlongs.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - A Bit O'Gold has become accustomed to being the center of attention in the Catherine Day Phillips shed row.

But following last weekend's racing action, the 4-year-old A Bit O'Gold finds himself upstaged by his younger stablemate Jambalaya, the winner of the Grade 3,$111,900 at Saratoga on Sunday.

WINNIPEG, Manitoba - Total gross receipts at Tuesday's Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society Manitoba yearling sale increased to $111,100 from $93,200 in 2004.

The number of horses sold also increased, from 23 to 30, while the average price dropped 8.6 percent, from $4,052 in 2004 to $3,703 this year.

The sales-topper, a bay gelding by Jambalaya Jazz out of the restricted-stakes-placed mare Marcy Jo Ann, was bought by Dave Champion for $13,000.

Anderson-trained Speers exacta

SASKATOON, Saskatchewan - Celtic Dance goes in search of her third straight victory when she faces the province's top older fillies and mares in Friday's $6,000 City Centre Bingo Handicap at Marquis Downs.

A winner of the Graceful Klinchit in her latest start, which came at 1 1/16 miles, Celtic Dance cuts back in distance to a mile. She looms the favorite in the field of six for the City Centre.

Celtic Dance had been on the fringes of this division but became a handful as they stretched out in distance.

The head of the Louisiana Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association, the major Thoroughbred horsemen's group in the state, has proposed an alternative plan to the one informally introduced by Churchill Downs Inc. concerning a replacement meet at Louisiana Downs for the upcoming Fair Grounds racing season.

CHICAGO - Perfect Drift, who won the Washington Park Handicap at Arlington before finishing second in the Pacific Classic, will make his next start Sept. 24 in the Hawthorne Gold Cup.

"That's the spot we're going to use to go into the Breeders' Cup if all goes well," trainer Murray Johnson said Tuesday morning.

CHICAGO - Even when Take D'Tour was going two turns on turf this summer at Arlington Park, her trainer, Tony Granitz, had his eye on a different kind of race.

"I ran her long three times, and I'd been wanting to run her a one-turn mile, the way she'd trained on dirt," said Granitz.

That chance came Aug. 19, and Take D'Tour was all that Granitz had hoped for, maybe even a little bit more. She battled on a hot pace, put away the other speed, and drew off to an eight-length win in an entry-level allowance, getting her mile in 1:35.60.

OCEANPORT, N.J. - The pace should be brisk in the $38,000 allowance race feature Thursday at Monmouth Park. Slam Bammy, Bound for Victory, Punch the Odds, and Attila's Storm have abundant early speed. Each member of that quartet has shown he needs to control the pace to be most effective.

With a fierce early battle in the offing, Jay's Suave could be sitting pretty in the second-level allowance at six furlongs.