Emerald Downs in Auburn, Wash., closed its 92-day 2003 meeting on Monday with declines in its overall handle and its handle on live racing.

The meeting's total wagering, which includes all betting on Emerald's races and on incoming simulcasts, averaged $1,180,841 a day, down 5.8 percent from last year's average of $1,253,521.

The handle on Emerald's own races averaged $751,582, down 16 percent from the 2002 average of $895,355. That decline was due largely to a decrease in the sale of Emerald's simulcast signal.

ELMONT, N.Y. - First Blush, a graded stakes winner, and Bishop Court Hill, returning to the dirt after an unsuccessful foray on the grass, are the main contenders in Thursday's eighth race at Belmont Park.

First Blush and Bishop Court Hill are the only 3-year-olds among six male sprinters entered in the third-level allowance race, which has a $51,000 purse and will be run at 6 1/2 furlongs.

CHICAGO - Kickboard is a maiden in an overnight stakes race, a three-time starter who has never gotten within six lengths of winning a race. But when Kickboard sets foot on Arlington Park's turf course Thursday afternoon, it might feel like home.

The 2-year-old Kickboard is by the top stallion Kingmambo, and his mother is a daughter of the world's best grass sire, Sadler's Wells. After three races on dirt tracks, Kickboard finally switches to turf, the surface for which he is bred, in the $45,000 Manila Stakes.

CHICAGO - Eusebio Razo Jr. has had the best Arlington meet of his career this season. But to put an exclamation point after it, he has to leave.

Instead of riding closing day at Arlington, Razo will spend Saturday at Belmont, where he rides Ajedrez in the Grade 1, $500,000 Vosburgh Handicap.

MIAMI - Hall of Fame jockey Jerry Bailey has committed to ride at Calder for the rich Festival of the Sun program on Oct. 11.

Bailey's agent, Ron Anderson, said Bailey will ride Chatter Chatter in the $400,000 My Dear Girl Stakes. Chatter Chatter finished second behind the undefeated French Village in the seven-furlong Susan's Girl Stakes, then returned last Friday to dominate a field of maiden fillies by 23 lengths. Chatter Chatter's final time of 1:40.20 for one mile earned her a 92 Beyer Speed Figure.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Multiple stakes winner Stage Classic will get some class relief Thursday at Woodbine when he competes in the featured sixth race, a $100,000 optional claimer scheduled for the grass.

Stage Classic, a 5-year-old Sky Classic gelding, captured the Grade 2 Manitoba Derby at 3, before trainer Dave Cotey began to campaign him almost strictly on the grass. He won the Grade 2 Sky Classic Handicap in September 2001 and won his third stakes last fall in the 1 1/4-mile Chief Bearhart Stakes here over yielding ground.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - There has been a change of plans for Wando, but if all goes well his campaign will still wind up with a Breeders' Cup appearance at Santa Anita Oct. 25.

Wando's road to the Breeders' Cup is about to take a rather unlikely turn with an appearance in the Grade 3, $400,000 Indiana Derby, a 1 1/16-mile dirt race at Hoosier Park on Oct. 4, next on his agenda.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Trainer Ron McAnally made official on Monday what he had hinted at over the weekend, saying that Candy Ride, the Pacific Classic winner, would not race again this year and would miss the $4 million Breeders' Cup Classic on Oct. 25 at Santa Anita.

BOSSIER CITY, La. - The morning after his win in Saturday's Grade 2, $500,000 Super Derby, Ten Most Wanted looked like he had never even run in the race. He was alert and energetic, seemingly ready to tackle his next assignment, the $4 million Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita on Oct. 25.

"He walked me this morning," said Wally Dollase, who co-owns and trains Ten Most Wanted. "He came out of the race really good. That's one thing about him, he's got tremendous constitution. He ate up last night and these are signs that the race didn't faze him that much."

ELMONT, N.Y. - Trainer Neil Howard didn't really need the reassurance, but he had to ask the question. Back at his barn, following Mineshaft's five-furlong workout Monday morning at Belmont Park, Howard asked exercise rider Annie Finney, "Were you happy?"

"Ecstatic," Finney said, breaking into an ear-to-ear grin.