Attendance and ontrack handle were down at New York Racing Association tracks while total handle was up in 2004, according to figures released Friday by the association.

Ontrack handle on NYRA's live races in 2004 was $342,129,176, down 4 percent from $356,441,637 in 2003. The average daily ontrack handle was down 4.8 percent to $1,357,655.

Overall, however, total handle on NYRA's races rose 3.2 percent to $2,684,183,690 from $2,602,103,288. The daily average total handle on NYRA's races was $10,651,523, up 2.3 percent from 2003.

PORTLAND, Ore. - Beluga Star will shoulder an impost of 128 pounds when he heads a field of eight older Quarter Horses in Sunday's $6,000-added Directors Handicap at 350 yards.

Under jockey Tim Neal, Beluga Star will attempt to win his fourth straight stakes for owner Juan Leon and trainer Gary Klinger. The 8-year-old Beluga Star is coming off a track-record performance in the Candy Cane Handicap on Dec. 17, when he sped 880 yards in 46.06 seconds. He won the 350-yard Autumn Handicap and the 400-yard Columbia River Handicap in his two previous starts at the meeting.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - If Friday's fourth race at Gulfstream Park is any indication, trainer Mike Mitchell is going to enjoy his first season in south Florida.

Mitchell, among the leading trainers on the Southern California circuit, was given 17 stalls at Palm Meadows for the 2005 season. He ran his first horse, Primitive Man, on Friday and was rewarded with the easiest of victories as the 3-year-old breezed home nine lengths the best in the maiden race for $62,500 claimers.

ARCADIA, Calif. - It may rain on the rest of Southern California on Sunday, but David Flores will be feeling like the sun is on his back when he climbs aboard Sweet Catomine for the $100,000 Santa Ysabel Stakes at Santa Anita.

NEW ORLEANS - Mountain General owns the track record for six furlongs at Fair Grounds, 1:08.03, a mark he set in the 2003 Thanksgiving Handicap. But he is not the horse he used to be, a fact trainer Steve Asmussen acknowledged when he decided not to enter him in Sunday's Colonel Power Handicap against the best sprinters at Fair Grounds.

"It's a tough race, and he's not the same horse he was two years ago," said Asmussen. "He's an older horse and he's taking it easy on himself."

Mountain General, 7, didn't fire in his last start, the Thanksgiving Handicap.

ALBANY, Calif. - Art Sherman was understandably happy Thursday at Golden Gate Fields after Mountain Mustang provided him with the 1,500th victory of his training career.

"I can remember my first winner as a jockey, Nick's Brigade at Caliente, but I can't remember my first winner as a trainer," said Sherman, who has been saddling horses since 1979.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Churchill Downs stakes schedules for the 2005 spring and fall meets were released Friday with more revisions than usual. The changes are attributable to the announcement last week that the purse for the 131st Kentucky Derby has been doubled to $2 million.

A total of $375,000 was reallocated from other stakes to help fund the higher purse for the May 7 Derby. Still, Churchill will be paying out more than $10 million in stakes purses in 2005, the first year the track has exceeded that threshold.

The changes caused by the new Derby purse include:

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The top four finishers from the Queens County Handicap have left town for other races or a vacation. The winner of the Gallant Fox Handicap has left the country. Needless to say there is a void in New York's handicap division this winter.

ARCADIA, Calif. - The California Horse Racing Board was to meet Friday to discuss a ruling by an administrative law judge that supported jockey Patrick Valenzuela's contention that he was unjustly suspended. The administrative law judge, H. Stuart Waxman, ruled in November that the Del Mar stewards were in error when they suspended Valenzuela in August for failing to submit to a hair follicle test at Hollywood Park in July.

The decision was released by the board Thursday evening through the California Public Records Act.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Dynever is a Grade 3 stakes winner and millionaire and finished third in the 2003 Breeders' Cup Classic. Purge has won a pair of Grade 2 stakes. Badge of Silver is a Grade 3 stakes winner and finished second in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile. Added Edge won the Sovereign Award as Canada's champion 2-year-old.

Despite the strength and class of the competition, all eyes will be on the undefeated and still untested Commentator in Saturday's $100,000 Hal's Hope Handicap at Gulfstream Park.