NEW ORLEANS - The transition between the private ownership of the Krantz family and Churchill Downs Incorporated, which bought Fair Grounds in October, hit a speed bump last week, when former Fair Grounds executive vice president Vicki Krantz told the New Orleans Times Picayune she quit, saying, "It just didn't work out."

Former Fair Grounds president Bryan Krantz, Vicki's husband, has been retained as a consultant for a three-year, $4 million deal. He explained that Vicki never actually worked for CDI.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Front-runners Angel's Wisdom and Tetherette will try to hold off closers Chivas and Dashing Monty in Friday's wide-open Woodbine feature, a seven-furlong allowance for Ontario-sired runners.

Angel's Wisdom and Tetherette finished second and third in a six-furlong Ontario-sired allowance for nonwinners-of-three on Nov. 18.

NEW ORLEANS - Horse racing dreams can be as fragile as late-summer flowers on a frosty December morning. But for the Fair Grounds horticulturist, Alice Stevenson, watering those dreams is a reason to live. Stevenson personally tends to every single flower at Fair Grounds and lavishes the same attention on the star of her two-horse stable, Alto Maestro, a French-bred turf specialist entered in Friday's eighth race at Fair Grounds, a mile starter allowance on the grass that drew a field of nine.

PORTLAND, Ore. - Beluga Star and In Search of Fame, the top two finishers in the 350-yard Autumn Handicap on Oct. 23, will have a rematch at 400 yards in Friday's $6,000 Columbia River Handicap, which has drawn a field of 10 older Quarter Horses.

An 8-year-old trained by James Jr., In Search of Fame was favored at 4-5 in the Autumn Handicap and pushed Beluga Star throughout, but yielded late to be beaten a half-length in 17.91. It was a rare local defeat for In Search of Fame, who has won 25 of his 31 outings at Portland Meadows.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Ginger Gold, a Canadian champion and a winner of more than $1 million, has been retired to the breeding shed at age 5.

Mel Lawson, owner and breeder of Ginger Gold, had hoped to have the mare make her farewell appearance here in last Sunday's Bessarabian Stakes.

But the track condition, which was sloppy, plus the fact that an old ankle problem had flared up slightly led to Ginger Gold being a race-day scratch.

Aqueduct canceled Wednesday's card, scheduled to be the opening of the inner track, because of forecasted high winds.

Heavy rains pelted the New York metropolitan area Wednesday morning. The rain and clouds gave way to blue skies and sunshine by early afternoon, but the forecast called for wind gusts between 40 and 50 miles per hour. In November 2003, Aqueduct canceled on consecutive days because of high winds.

ALBANY, Calif. - There was disappointment but no real hand-wringing at Golden Gate Fields when word was received that the Golden Gate Derby and Brown Bess Handicap had lost their graded status.

They were two of the 20 stakes nationwide that lost graded status. The decision strips the current meeting of its only graded races.

Northern California did retain nine graded stakes, headed by the Grade 2 San Francisco Breeders' Cup Mile.

Both the Golden Gate Derby and Brown Bess were worth $100,000 in 2004 and were scheduled to be run for the same value in 2005.

STICKNEY, Ill. - When the trainer Larry Rivelli lost Shakesperean Story through a $17,500 claim on Oct. 16, 2003, he quickly considered taking the horse back. As it turned out, Rivelli would have to wait, and wait some more.

Almost 13 months passed before Shakesperean Story raced again. Claimed out of a $25,000 maiden victory, the 3-year-old colt ran back in a $17,500 nonwinners-of-two claimer here Nov. 10. Shakesperean Story was ready, and so was Rivelli, who claimed Shakesperean Story for himself, and watched him gallop to a 5 1/2-length victory.

Anne Sanguinetti, an apprentice who had been riding in the Northwest, scored her first win at Sam Houston last Friday night aboard Grey Foot, who paid $117.40. Sanguinetti rode the winner for trainer Robin Powers.

Sanguinetti came to Sam Houston from Portland Meadows for this meet, and she is being represented by Travis Church. Church also books mounts for Larry Taylor and Amanda Crandall, who was the leading apprentice in Texas before her apprenticeship was completed on Oct. 31.

A pair of half-siblings to George Taylor, who won his fifth race of the Remington Park meet last week, will start in separate races Friday. Ulzana will move back to the overnight ranks in the first race after facing stakes foes last out, while Belva Casey will shoot for her fourth win of the Remington meet in the 10th.