OMAHA, Neb. - Summer racing in Nebraska heats up several degrees this weekend as Horsemen's Park begins its four-day Summer Festival of Racing on Thursday. The festival is the only live racing of the year in Omaha, former home of Ak-Sar-Ben, Nebraska's largest racetrack before it went out of business in 1996.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - With Wholelottabourbon on the shelf, the Nick Gonzalez stable needed a new pick-me-up.

That role has been adequately filled by Wannatalkaboutme, who recorded her second straight stakes score here in last Sunday's $162,850 .

Wannatalkaboutme, like Wholelottabourbon, is owned by M.A.D. Racing Stable and Martha Gonzalez, Nick's wife and assistant.

Born with a breathing problem that could ultimately limit her career, Wannatalkaboutme ran for a $40,000 claiming price in her opener and was an easy winner over 4 1/2 furlongs.

AUBURN, Wash. - Trainer Ben Root saddled three winners from six starters at Emerald Downs last week, improving his record at the meeting to 12 wins from 54 starters for a 22 percent success rate.

That is a gratifying run by anyone's standards, but this season's success is especially sweet for Root, who took a beating here at the last two meetings. Despite coming off highly successful stints at Portland Meadows, Root was just 2 for 29 here in 2003 and 3 for 87 last year.

DEL MAR, Calif. - The loudest cheer on opening day of the 2005 Del Mar meet will be for - ahem - $25,000 maiden claimers. Is that such a bad thing?

California racing will accept whatever cheers it can get, and if the biggest roar from the crowd happens to be for maiden claimers, then so be it. As long as the first race of summer is two turns - it starts in front of the grandstand and close to an estimated 40,000 raucous fans - nothing spoils this beach party.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Singletary, who won last year's Breeders' Cup Mile, has been fed a steady diet of one-mile races, nine in a row, since failing at 1 1/8 miles in the Del Mar Derby in September 2003. But on Sunday, Singletary will again stretch out to nine furlongs on turf when he runs in the Grade 1, $400,000 Eddie Read Handicap at Del Mar.

Don Chatlos, who trains Singletary, said the decision was not an easy one. Also under consideration was the Grade 2, $350,000

DEL MAR, Calif. - When the Del Mar meet opened one year ago, jockey Garrett Gomez was nearing the end of a self-imposed exile from the sport that had lasted nearly two years. It was not until the end of the meeting that Gomez even began to come around to the track and reacquaint himself with horsemen in preparation for his return to riding at Fairplex Park.

DEL MAR, Calif. - The start of the Del Mar meeting on Wednesday marks the unofficial launch of the Breeders' Cup prep season.

Maiden races over the seven-week meeting will produce candidates for the Del Mar Debutante for fillies on Aug. 27 and the Del Mar Futurity on Sept. 7 as well as other top stakes around the country in September, and, ultimately, the Breeders' Cup at Belmont Park on Oct. 29.

Even though it is only late July, there is little margin for error for a championship prospect. An illness or sore shins will derail even the best-laid plans.

OCEANPORT, N.J. - Jim Ryerson worries a lot. It comes with the territory as a horse trainer.

Ryerson had a couple of concerns for Park Avenue Ball heading into Saturday's Long Branch Breeders' Cup Stakes at Monmouth Park: How would the colt respond to a layoff, having not run since finishing second to the eventual Preakness runner-up, Scrappy T, in the Withers Stakes at Aqueduct on April 30? Could he win a two-turn race?

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Lone Star Park closed out its 67-date meet Sunday with declines in average daily attendance and handle from the corresponding meet a year ago, but an increase in purses. The track raced 63 spring dates last year, then held a special fall meet to host the Breeders' Cup.

SHAKOPEE, Minn. - Canterbury Park president Randy Sampson has left open the possibility that the track could give up the Claiming Crown, at least for next year, in the wake of disappointing business results for the seventh running of the series Saturday.

Sampson said Monday that he was "frustrated" by a sharp drop in wagering handle and that "the floor is open" for discussing whether Canterbury should host the Claiming Crown next year.