Seeking to increase the number of betting interests in races to counterbalance a shortage of horses, the operators of Laurel Park and Pimlico received permission Tuesday from the Maryland Racing Commission to ease restrictions on uncoupled entries in some types of races.

Under existing rules, trainers who enter two or more horses owned by different clients in the same race are required to run the horses as a coupled entry, except in stakes races. Under the new rules, the trainers would be able to run the horses as independent entries.

JAMAICA, N.Y. - A rite of spring took place at Aqueduct when racing switched from the inner to the main track on March 13. Handicappers and horsemen can now look forward to the return of 2-year-old racing in New York on Wednesday and turf racing, weather permitting, the following week.

Mike Lakow, the New York Racing Association's racing secretary and handicapper, included a pair of 2-year-old races in the newest condition book, released this week. The book also features seven grass races, with the first scheduled for April 10.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Mutuel handle from telephone and Internet betting, implemented in California in late January, surpassed $13 million in mid-March, and has amounted to 3.5 percent of state handle, the California Horse Racing Board was told at its monthly meeting on Thursday.

Three companies have been approved by the CHRB to take bets via telephone and internet - Xpressbet, TVG, and Youbet.com. Xpressbet and TVG were launched in California on Jan. 25; Youbet.com started on Feb. 21 after receiving approval at the CHRB's February meeting.

If horseplayers at Sportsman's Park have a sense of deja vu about the Illinois Champions Day program, that is understandable. In four of the six races for statebreds, last year's winner remains eligible. And in something of an upset, all four are back.

Foremost among the returnees is Chicago Six in the Milwaukee Avenue Handicap. The others are Classic Appeal in the Chicagoland Handicap, Puny in the Governor's Lady Handicap, and Faccia Bella in the Peach of It Handicap.

Tap Your Feet, who closed out her 2001 campaign by winning the Illinois Princess Handicap at Hawthorne, makes her seasonal debut Saturday at Sportsman's Park in the $100,000 Peach of It Handicap for older fillies and mares. The Peach of It is one of six $100,000 stakes on the Illinois Champions Day card.

The Racing Association of Central Iowa, which manages Prairie Meadows Race Track and Casino in Altoona, Iowa, has reached a three-year agreement with horsemen that will set purses for the 2003-2005 seasons at approximately $15 million per year.

Both the Iowa Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association, which represents Thoroughbred horsemen, and the Iowa Quarter Horse Racing Association signed the purse contract Wednesday.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Next Saturday's $125,000 Star Shoot is billed as the first local stakes stepping-stone to the Woodbine Oaks June 8.

But Ginger Gold, Canada's champion 2-year-old filly last year after winning the Princess Elizabeth, Natalma, and Shady Well stakes, was among several key Oaks hopefuls who were not nominated to the six-furlong Star Shoot. Instead, Ginger Gold will run in the $150,000 Fury, a seven-furlong race for Canadian-bred 3-year-old fillies on May 5.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Trainer Bob Holthus's homebred colt, Perfect Fantasy, is the one to catch in the $50,000 Rainbow, one of two six-furlong stakes for 3-year-old statebreds Saturday at Oaklawn Park. Also on the 11-race card is the $50,000 Rainbow Miss, which drew the undefeated Supreme Discovery.

Holthus, who is in his 50th year of training, raises a limited number of horses at his Kilkerry Farm in Royal, Ark., which was established in 1969.

Louisiana Downs has shortened the distance of its Grade 2, $500,000 Super Derby from 1 1/4 miles to 1 1/8 miles for its 2002 running on Sept. 21. The race is the richest of 45 stakes scheduled for the in Bossier City, La., track's Thoroughbred meet, which runs 80 days, from June 28 to Nov. 10.

Total stakes purses for the meet are $2.6 million.

"If you pull out last year's stakes schedule and compare it to this one, there is very little difference," said Pat Pope, director of racing at Louisiana Downs. "The big difference this year is, really, purses."

PHOENIX - So far Turf Paradise agrees with Genie Magic. Now it's a matter of finding the right level.

A 3-year-old filly, she may have it Saturday, in the featured seventh race, a $20,000 claiming race for a field of nine 3-year-old fillies going 5 1/2 furlongs.

Genie Magic, trained by Eric Kruljac, figures to go favored mainly because of the company she has been keeping, as opposed to her form.