Spurred on by nearly 1,500 slot machines, the once tiny Delta Downs in Vinton, La., is rapidly becoming one of the top tracks on the Louisiana-Texas circuit. Last year, slot machines enabled Delta to quadruple its purses and introduce the Delta Jackpot, a $500,000 race for 2-year-olds.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - For a stretch of nine or 10 months, San Dare got some kind of good. Having labored without winning so much as an entry-level allowance, she suddenly became a major player in filly-mare turf stakes, and her career peaked with back-to-back Grade 3 wins at Gulfstream Park last winter.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Gulchie has been the exacta player's friend and a win bettor's nightmare since May.

Racing in allowance races and optional claimers, Gulchie has finished second in four consecutive starts, a streak that may end in a $48,000 optional claimer over 1 1/4 miles at Santa Anita on Friday.

"He kind of has seconditis," said trainer Kristin Mulhall. "He always wins the battle, and something comes on the outside and catches him."

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - One Only Knows and My Real Quiet Lady are both getting significant class relief in Friday's Woodbine headliner, an $80,000 allowance/optional claimer for fillies and mares.

One Only Knows, a 3-year-old trained by Bob Tiller, has won 4 of 10 starts at the meeting, while earning $223,039 in her first year of competition. She won four consecutive dirt allowances in the spring and early summer and was second as the favorite in the Sept. 27 La Lorgnette Stakes.

PORTLAND, Ore. - The Gray Ghost Starter Handicap, which is restricted to gray- or roan-coated runners, will be run at Portland Meadows on Friday's Halloween night card.

The Gray Ghost lured six older runners to vie under $3,200 starter allowance conditions at six furlongs.

EDMONTON, Alberta - The 2003 summer Thoroughbred meet came to a close last Sunday at Northlands Park with plenty of questions still to be answered concerning the long-term stability of the industry in Alberta.

Originally, the meet was scheduled to conclude in early September to make way for construction crews to begin a $40-million renovation to expand the track to 6 1/2 furlongs, but after those plans were scrapped, Horse Racing Alberta and Northlands Park agreed to extend the meet by six days.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Trainer Elliott Walden thought enough of Quest Star that he briefly flirted with the idea of sending him to California for either the Breeders' Cup Classic or the Turf.

"When all those defections were being announced, we thought about running in either one," Walden said. "I think he'll dirt; it's something that I'm going to try with him next year. Anyway, we decided not to do that. Better judgment prevailed.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Dennis Manning, the trainer of Valid Video, returned from his first trip to California with mixed feelings.

Manning appreciated the hospitality of the Breeders' Cup staff at Santa Anita. But he said that an injury to Valid Video's left stifle, suffered in the Breeders' Cup Sprint, denied the 3-year-old gelding the opportunity to show his talent.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Highweight and likely favorite Urban King is set for Saturday's Grade 3 Bay Meadows Derby, according to Humberto Ascanio, top assistant to Urban King's trainer, Bobby Frankel.

An Irish-bred colt, Urban King has run five times since arriving in the United States and has two seconds and three thirds, all in stakes.

"One of these days, he's going to run a big one," Ascanio said from the Frankel barn at Hollywood Park. "I think the course up there will help him when he makes his late run."

Last year, the slots-rich Delta Downs wanted to attract attention and get the racing industry to think of it as a major track, so it introduced the $500,000 Delta Jackpot. That having been accomplished, officials are taking the race a step further this year, and increasing the purse to $1 million, increasing the distance to 1 1/16 miles, and moving the date up to Dec. 5.

"It's no different than running a casino business, you have to do things to build excitement," said Jack Bernsmeier, senior vice president of Louisiana properties for Boyd Gaming, which owns Delta.