Trainer Bret Thomas, best known for sending out Zarb's Magic to win the Grade 2 Arkansas Derby in 1996, won four races from six starters last week at Delta Downs in Vinton, La., to move into third place in the standings behind leader Don Cormier Jr.

Thomas is new to Delta. He moved his 27-horse stable to the track because of its improved purse structure, which was boosted to $80,000 a day this meet in anticipation of a slots casino opening at the track. Thomas's main clients are multiple Eclipse Award-winning owner John Franks, and Bill Boorhem of Foxwood Plantation.

Manor Downs, a Class 2 track near Austin that recently expanded its oval from four furlongs to 7 1/2, will offer five stakes during its inaugural Thoroughbred meet, which is set to run 10 days from April 27 to May 26 after receiving final approval from the Texas Racing Commission on Monday.

The track has also planned two starter series for the meet, one for sprinters, and one for route horses.

ALBANY, Calif. - Russell Baze, gunning for his seventh national riding title, could make up ground on current leader Ramon Dominguez in Friday's feature at Golden Gate Fields.

Baze will be aboard Flying Alibi as a field of six fillies and mares compete in a one-mile race for a $32,000 claiming price.

Average price fell 13 percent from last year, to $3,811, at Sunday's Washington Thoroughbred Breeders Association's winter mixed sale, where 233 head sold for a total of $888,050.

Bill Feeley of Roscoe, Mont., purchased the sales topper, a yearling colt by Devil's Bag from the consignment of Northwest Farms, for $37,000. The colt is a half-brother to 2001 Emerald Express Stakes winner Melcapwalker. Both are out of the Greinton mare No Extra Charge.

Chicks Charger Easy comes off a stakes win at 870 yards in the Truly a Pleasure Handicap to try the seldom-raced distance of 550 yards in the $25,000 Paul Ford Handicap for 3-year-olds at Los Alamitos on Friday night.

JAMAICA, N.Y. - 'Tis the season for apprentice riders to excel in New York. Lorenzo Lezcano already has a jump on the competition.

Coming off a wildly successful main track meet at Aqueduct - and with leading apprentice Julian Pimentel a week away from reaching journeyman status - Lezcano is in position to be the leading apprentice rider this winter at the Big A. The inner track meet runs through mid-March.

JAMAICA, N.Y. - It appeared to be a good plan at the time. After being forced to miss most of her 3-year-old season because of injury, Raging Fever would get her winter campaign started in Saturday's $75,000 Garland of Roses, an ungraded sprint for fillies and mares that typically comes up light.

Except for this year.

Raging Fever, away from the races since April, will have to make her return against Xtra Heat, the top sprinting filly in the country in Saturday's Garland of Roses at Aqueduct.

NEW ORLEANS - Louisiana Champions Day is here again Saturday, which means Doris Hebert, tucked away at his Evangeline Downs training base in Lafayette, La., is preparing some unusually fast 2-year-old colt for the $100,000 Juvenile, which Hebert has won three times in its 10-year history.

MIAMI - Any notion the winter racing season in south Florida does not begin until Gulfstream Park opens on Jan. 3 was put to rest Wednesday when entries were drawn for Saturday's Grand Slam I program. Four stakes worth $100,000 apiece will be run, including the Grade 3 Tropical Park Turf and My Charmer Handicaps.

Jockey Sidney LeJeune Jr., who was aboard Balkan in the Groovy, is making an impression in his first season at Sam Houston. The rider has won with 29 percent of his mounts this meet to top the standings with 16 wins, two more than second-leading rider Roman Chapa.

LeJeune came to Sam Houston to ride primarily for Asmussen, who leads the trainer standings. LeJeune said he learned of the opportunity to ride for Asmussen through his wife's uncle, jockeys' agent Shawn Bergquist.