All race entries for Thistledown's upcoming meet will be required to be made via telephone, the track's director of racing, Bill Couch, announced Thursday. The new policy will ensure that all entry information "remains completely confidential," according to Couch.

The average all-sources handle for Laurel Park's races and imported simulcasts dropped more than 5 percent during the track's recently completed 62-day live meet, according to figures released by Laurel on Wednesday.

The average handle, which includes betting on Laurel's live races in Maryland and at out-of-state locations, along with bets made by patrons at Laurel on out-of-state simulcasts, dropped to $3.41 million per day, compared with $3.61 million last year.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla - Even trainer Kiaran McLaughlin admitted he was a bit surprised to see Seattle Fitz start as the favorite in a field that included Peace Rules and Funny Cide in the Grade 2 New Orleans Handicap. No one will be the least shocked, however, if Seattle Fitz were to be even money or less when he takes on only six rivals in Saturday's $300,000 Gulfstream Park Handicap.

The Grade 2 Gulfstream Handicap will be decided at 1 1/4 miles.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Saturday's $250,000 Aventura Stakes is being billed a Kentucky Derby prep by track management, although until the race becomes graded, that is not likely to be the case. But the final major 3-year-old stakes of the 2004 Gulfstream Park meeting could prove to be a springboard to bigger and better things for several members of the field, including the vastly improved Humorously.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - A good old-fashioned New York rivalry could be born Saturday when Funny Cide and Evening Attire - geldings who have both surpassed $2 million in earnings - meet in the Grade 3, $200,000 Excelsior Breeders' Cup Handicap at Aqueduct.

The two geldings met in last year's Breeders' Cup Classic, but neither was a factor, with ninth behind Pleasantly Perfect. Saturday, however, they appear to be the two main protagonists in the Excelsior, which drew a field of six, including the beaten favorites of the last three runnings of this race.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Fourteen stakes worth $1,135,000 will be offered at the Bay Meadows spring meeting, which begins April 7 and runs through June 20.

The total marks a reduction of one stakes race from last year's meeting and a purse decrease of $135,000 from last year.

ALBANY, Calif. - Although there are no local stakes scheduled Saturday at Golden Gate Fields, northern California race fans still have a rooting interest in one of the day's major stakes races.

Three horses with local ties will be running in the Illinois Derby at Hawthorne Race Course - El Camino Real Derby winner Kilgowan, Golden State Mile winner O.K. Mikie, and Gold Rush and Golden Gate Derby winner Skipaslew.

PORTLAND, Ore. - Two-year-old maidens sometimes win stakes races at Portland Meadows, as Belle Fourche did in this year's Jane Driggers Debutante, but 3-year-old maidens rarely do. And a maiden has never won the track's premier race for 3-year-olds, the $20,000 Oregon Derby, which will be run for the 53rd time on Saturday.

Either Santiam Top Jazz or Dig That Rhythm just might be the first maiden to do so.

CARENCRO, La. - Most thoughts regarding 3-year-olds this time of year are of longer and longer distances at scale weights, so how about a sprint handicap for a little change of pace.

Saturday night's $50,000, six-furlong Inaugural Handicap at Evangeline Downs drew a field of nine 3-year-olds headed by 123-pound highweight Britt's Jules, a three-time stakes winner at the recently completed Delta Downs meeting.

GROVE CITY, Ohio - Barnsy, unraced since finishing second in the Best of Ohio here last October, heads a field of 13 Ohio-bred 3-year-old fillies in Saturday's $40,000 Royal North Stakes at Beulah Park.

Barnsy began her career last May at Churchill Downs with a gate-to-wire victory against special weight company at 4 1/2 furlongs. She then finished fourth in the Fashion Stakes over a muddy track at Belmont in June.