OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Thunder Blitz, the winner of last month's Grade 3 Queens County Handicap, will be forced to miss Saturday's $100,000 Aqueduct Handicap after trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. discovered filling in the horse's left foreleg.

Dutrow said he noticed something amiss with Thunder Blitz on Tuesday morning, one day after the horse worked a bullet five furlongs in 1:00.86 over Aqueduct's inner track. Dutrow had yet to take X-rays of the leg, but said that Thunder Blitz would miss the Grade 3 Aqueduct.

Last year began as a breakout year for Royal Spy. Three races into his campaign, Royal Spy was one of the top turf milers in the Midwest, with stakes victories in the Col. E. R. Bradley Handicap at Fair Grounds and the Grade 2 Maker's Mark Mile at Keeneland.

ALBANY, Calif. - Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer admits the move is a bit unorthodox, but on Thursday he is prepping graded stakes winner Eye of the Tiger on the turf for a dirt stakes.

Eye of the Tiger makes his turf debut in an $80,000 optional claimer at Golden Gate Fields. Eye of the Tiger drew the outside post 8 in the one-mile race.

Hollendorfer expects Eye of the Tiger to run well in this race, his prep for the Grade 2 Strub Stakes, a 1 1/8-mile dirt race on Feb. 7 at Santa Anita.

Beginning Thursday, Fair Grounds will impose an early cutoff on bets placed on Fair Grounds races at a wagering hub in Lewiston, Maine. Fair Grounds president Bryan Krantz said the track would stop accepting bets from there at zero minutes to post. A Fair Grounds race typically starts about one minute after that, and bets usually are taken up to the time the horses leave the gate.

BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Barclay Tagg stood just outside Funny Cide's stall while accepting congratulations from several passersby during training hours at Palm Meadows on Sunday morning.

A day earlier, , the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner trained by Tagg, opened his 4-year-old campaign with an impressive five-length victory in a seven-furlong allowance race at Gulfstream Park.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Silver Wagon got his first feel for the Gulfstream Park racetrack when he worked five furlongs in 59.40 seconds shortly after the first renovation break on Monday morning.

, winner of the Grade 1 Hopeful at Saratoga, will make his 3-year-old debut in Saturday's Grade 3 Holy Bull Stakes. The 1 1/16-mile Holy Bull is the first major test on the road to the Grade 1, $1 million Florida Derby on March 13.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Indy Dancer and Formal Attire had Kentucky Derby aspirations when they stepped into the starting gate for the 2003 Florida Derby. Ten months later, they square off again, this time under more modest second-level allowance conditions in Wednesday's $36,000 feature at Gulfstream Park.

Indy Dancer and Formal Attire finished third and sixth behind Empire Maker in last year's Florida Derby, and their careers have been pretty much on hold ever since.

ARCADIA, Calif. - The 3-year-old debut of Action This Day, the 2003 Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner, has been postponed from Saturday's $150,000 Santa Catalina Stakes at Santa Anita to the $75,000 Sham Stakes on Feb. 7, at the earliest.

Trainer Richard Mandella on Sunday said that he was not satisfied with the way Action This Day had performed in recent workouts. Sunday, Action This Day worked five furlongs in 59.80 seconds, which tied for the 10th fastest of 74 recorded works at the distance.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Ticker Tape trailed so badly on the backstretch of the Grade 3 Miesque Stakes at Hollywood Park on Nov. 28 that she seemed to lose touch with the field. Behind by 24 lengths with a half-mile remaining, Ticker Tape produced a remarkable rally to finish second in her first start in the United States.

When Ticker Tape returns in Wednesday's $75,000 Blue Norther Stakes at Santa Anita, trainer Jim Cassidy and jockey Kent Desormeaux are determined not to spot the other seven 3-year-old fillies in the field that much ground early.

Out-of-state handle on Gulfstream Park's signal has dropped 14 percent this year compared to last year through the first seven days of the meet, a sign that Gulfstream's aggressive new policy of policing who has access to its signal has so far had a negative impact on wagering.