BOSSIER CITY, La. - Royal Saint, who has made great progress since coming under the care of leading trainer Cole Norman, will attempt to take another step through his conditions in Friday's third-level allowance headliner. The race will be run at a mile and 70 yards and drew a field of 10.

SANTA ROSA, Calif. - The best thing about Puff of Smoke's debut was that trainer Greg Gilchrist was in Florida and didn't see the race.

Breaking from the rail as the 3-5 favorite in a $25,000 maiden claimer at Pleasanton on July 6, Puff of Smoke was bothered at the start and ending up clipping heels and falling.

He returns Friday at the Sonoma County Fair in a $32,000 maiden claimer against five rival 2-year-olds.

Gilchrist has been careful in bringing Puff of Smoke back to the races.

OCEANPORT, N.J. - Larry Walters, who had been running trainer Richard Dutrow Jr.'s Monmouth Park division, is sidelined with neurological injuries suffered in a fall at a nearby resort.

Walters doesn't know when, or if, he can resume working.

"I guess things could always be worse," he said. "Some of these things clear up over time. In the meantime, I have nobody funding me. I got children to feed and I've got rent that's due.

"The racetrack is my home and that's gone. I don't have a home. It's pretty bad."

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Roger Attfield has been mulling over his options with Palladio, the Kentucky-bred 3-year-old who captured the Ohio Derby at Thistledown in his last start, July 2.

"He had a little viral infection after that race," said Attfield, "but he's coming back well."

Attfield is leaning toward the Grade 3, $750,000 West Virginia Derby, a 1 1/8-mile race at Mountaineer Race Track on Aug. 14, for Palladio's next start.

WINNIPEG, Manitoba - Your Excellence, a beaten favorite three times this season, faces his easiest test of the year in Friday's restricted $20,000 North Dakota Stallion Stakes for 3-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles.

Your Excellence has raced five times this year, facing first-level allowance company in his first three starts. After running third as the favorite in his first start of the year, Your Excellence finished second behind Prime Time T.V. as the second choice. He finished fourth as the favorite in his third start of the year on June 10.

NORTH RANDALL, Ohio - Thistledown's recent post time change on Fridays has resulted in handle soaring higher than anyone expected.

On May 27, Thistledown and River Downs, which alternate their races under the 7&7 format and sell their combined product as a single simulcast signal, moved their starting Friday post time to 2:30 p.m. Eastern. This didn't work out well for Thistledown, which experienced a significant drop in handle.

After Mr. Mabee's convincing 5 1/2-length victory in the $122,500 Emerald Claiming Crown at Canterbury Park on July 16, his connections are pointing the 4-year-old toward the $150,000 Sea O'Erin Breeders Cup Mile on the Arlington Park turf on Aug. 6.

Jockey Paul Nolan, a Canterbury Park mainstay since the track re-opened for live racing in 1995, has been recuperating from an injury sustained in a fall on July 8.

Pepper Lang turns back off a victorious route effort and rates a slight edge when she faces six others in the $10,000 Inaugural Stakes at six furlongs as Columbus begins its stakes schedule on the meet's second night of racing Friday.

The wait for Saturday's inaugural Louisiana Legends Night appears to be well worth it.

Originally scheduled for July 2, the eight-race program highlighting Louisiana-breds was rescheduled after racing operations were suspended from mid-May to the end of June in order to resurface the track. Purses for the eight events total $425,000, including the meeting's marquee event, the D.S. "Shine" Young Futurity. Each of the stakes has been named for a "legend" of horse racing in Louisiana, including several trainers and political figures who left an indelible mark on the sport.