DEL MAR, Calif. - Del Mar is on pace for a record mutuel handle this summer.

Through Monday, the 12th day of the 43-day meeting, all-sources handle had increased 4.5 percent, handle from simulcast locations in California was up 5 percent, and ontrack handle had improved 4 percent, according to chief financial officer Mike Ernst.

"The wagering side of the business has been extremely strong," Ernst said. "We were thinking we would be up 1 or 2 percent. Field sizes have been real strong. Through two weeks, we're very pleased."

DEL MAR, Calif. - With the Torrey Pines Stakes on Sept. 2 her goal, Two Times Won will try for her third career win in Friday's seventh race at Del Mar, a $60,000 allowance race over a mile.

Trainer, co-owner, and breeder Lewis Cenicola is starting Two Times Won just 13 days after she finished fourth in the Fleet Treat Stakes for statebred 3-year-olds. The one-mile distance on Friday is attractive to Cenicola.

Remington Park in Oklahoma City will open its 66-date meet Friday as a track in transition. A referendum passed last year has paved the way for Remington to offer electronic gaming, and construction has begun on a second-floor casino scheduled to open just before the meet closes on Nov. 28.

Retama Park has slashed its minimum wagering prices for its 43-night meet that opens Friday. And the lower minimums have come at an opportune time. Retama is filled to the rafters with horses, and the new minimums in place will make it easier for players to spread out on all sorts of wagers offered by the San Antonio-area track, which will race through Oct. 15.

Beginning Thursday, patrons at Hastings will be able to bet directly into the Emerald Downs mutuel pools, marking the first time that Canadians have been able to bet directly into Thoroughbred pools in the United States. Betting into some harness racing pools began last month.

Previously, Hastings ran a separate pool for Emerald, which averaged roughly $13,000 a day.

Management at Hastings is hoping that betting directly into a much larger pool will increase the local handle significantly.

FLORENCE, Ky. - Turfway Park, which will become the first North American track to conduct racing over a Polytrack surface when its fall meet begins Sept. 7, opened its new surface for training Wednesday morning. More than two dozen horses jogged and galloped, and afterward participating horsemen praised the surface.

OCEANPORT, N.J. - Add Palladio to the lineup for the Grade 1, $1 million on Sunday at Monmouth Park.

Trainer Roger Attfield confirmed Wednesday that Palladio, winner of the Ohio Derby, will ship from Woodbine to the Jersey Shore along with the filly Noble Stella, who will run Sunday in the Grade 3, $150,000 Taylor Made Matchmaker Stakes.

Attfield was not certain Palladio could make the Haskell after the colt contracted a virus after his one-length victory in the Ohio Derby on July 2.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Seven horses were entered Wednesday for Saturday's $150,000 Sea O'Erin Handicap. The favorites are the New York-based Remind and the Chicago-based Fort Prado. Gin and Sin, Old Deuteronomy, and Parker Run call Louisville, Ky., home this summer, while Gondolieri, like Fort Prado, has been training in Chicago.

SANTA ROSA, Calif. - Athletes come in all shapes and sizes, as trainer Armando Lage knows.

When he sends Lake Merced out for her California debut in Friday's Solano County Fair feature, a first-level allowance race for fillies and mares at six furlongs, he is hoping that he has a Charles Barkley.

"She's pretty," he said.

He admits, though, "She's a little heavy."

Lage believes in steady works as preparation for a horse coming off a layoff. He doesn't push hard, which may explain his low percentage with horses coming off a long layoff.

Talk about staying power. Trainer Danny Pish will begin his quest for a seventh straight Retama Park title on Friday, when the San Antonio area track opens. The meet will run through Oct. 15.

Pish has a 90-horse stable that is divided between Retama and his training center in San Antonio. The numbers make him tough to beat, but to keep a streak going for so long is also a testament to his work ethic. It takes quality horses, but also intense diligence to maintain the top spot.

"Hopefully I can get the lucky seven," said Pish. "I don't want to take anything for granted."