NEW ORLEANS - Neil Howard is extremely pleased with the way Alumni Hall has come to hand for him at Fair Grounds this winter. A 6-year-old A.P. Indy horse, Alumni Hall won the biggest race of his career last Saturday, the $100,000 Maxxam Gold Cup at Sam Houston Race Park, and has finally begun to live up to his regal breeding.

"He came back from that race very well," said Howard on Thursday morning at Fair Grounds. "It was kind of turning the corner for him, but believe me, nothing surprises me with this horse. He was meant to be a good one right from the start."

PORTLAND, Ore. - Owner and trainer Dave Runyon felt he had Chancy Chancy back to her best form when she defeated divisional leader Quiz the Maid in a one-mile invitational handicap at Portland Meadows on Jan. 8, but he couldn't be dead certain.

Gulfstream Park began prerace testing for milkshakes on Thursday, drawing blood samples from each of the nine horses in the afternoon's first race. The policy will remain in effect throughout the meet, with the track testing horses in all Grade 1 and Grade 2 races as well as up to three randomly selected races per card.

In an effort to avoid a repeat of a situation that occurred Wednesday night, when jockeys refused to ride the last seven of nine scheduled races on the card because of extremely cold weather, Penn National Race Course has called off live racing indefinitely.

"With the weather report calling for lower temperatures tonight through the weekend, there would seem that there is a possibility that the same scenario could arise on a daily basis," Richard Schnaars, Penn National's general manager, said Thursday.

Richard Kohnhorst has been working around racehorses since he was a teenager, so something like a canceled race isn't enough to shake him too badly. Still, the 51-year-old trainer would really like for Turfway Park to remain open Saturday, when Kohnhorst plans to saddle Deer Lake in search of a second straight stakes victory.

Special perks to mark the long-awaited reopening of Laurel Park, along with the meet's first stakes race, were postponed by some brutal winter weather last weekend.

Fans who show up Saturday will get the freebies that were to be offered last week, along with two stakes races for fillies and mares instead of only one.

The $75,000 Nellie Morse at one mile will be preceded by the rescheduled $50,000 What a Summer at six furlongs on a 10-race live card that begins at 12:35 p.m. Eastern.

Blazing Exploit can become the latest colt to win a stakes following a start in last month's $60,000 Sugar Bowl when he takes on probable favorite Goes in the $40,000 Bucharest at Sam Houston Race Park.

The six-furlong race for 3-year-olds drew a field of eight, including the promising Dwight Polite, Count the Bucks, and Through the Storm.

The $50,000 Super Stakes could turn out to be aptly named, as Super Fuse makes his seasonal debut in the seven-furlong headliner for older sprinters.

Super Fuse, 5, was the first stakes performer for Alpha One Stable, which was managed by the late Chris Thomas. Now trained by Kathleen O'Connell, Super Fuse was purchased by Thomas, a popular local radio and television personality, and won his first stakes here when he captured the Pasco as a 3-year-old.

PHOENIX - Many of the best sprinters on the grounds are among seven gunning for Saturday's $40,000 Swift Stakes at Turf Paradise. The six-furlong event features Palmerton and Flying Supercon, one-two finishers in the Jan. 11 Answer Do here; Newark, maybe the top sprinter on the circuit, who returns from an unsuccessful Southern California invasion; and Bold Merit, who was fifth in the Answer Do but has been among the elite here in the past two years. The Swift is a stepping-stone to the $100,000 Phoenix Gold Cup on March 19, the marquee event of the meet.

Hecamefromaclaim, a fast son of In Excessive Bull, has found success against both Quarter Horses and Thoroughbreds, and is the horse to beat in Saturday's $53,400 Budweiser Handicap at Sunland Park.