ALTOONA, Iowa - Trainer Fred Falldorf gave up his license last Friday after allegedly punching a jockey at Prairie Meadows three days earlier.

Falldorf, trainer of 2000's Iowa-bred 3-year-old filly champion, Nut N Better, surrendered his license at a hearing with Prairie Meadows stewards pending the resolution of criminal charges against him. He is accused of punching apprentice jockey Benjamin Marcial in the barn area following the races on July 24.

Turfway Park will cut the purse for the centerpiece race of its fall meet, the Grade 2 Kentucky Cup Classic, from $500,000 to $400,000 this year, track officials said Wednesday.

Turfway is also cutting the purse of the Turfway Park Breeders' Cup Stakes from $250,000 to $200,000, the track said. Both the Classic and Turfway BC will be held on the same day, Sept. 22, when Turfway hosts five stakes races designed as stepping-stones to the Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships.

Day after day, at racetracks throughout the United States, racehorses owned by Richard Englander compete amid little fanfare. That's partly because of the sheer volume of his stable, but mostly because most of Englander's horses compete in the claiming ranks.

This routine yet understandable oversight is why the Claiming Crown, which will be run for the third time Saturday at Canterbury Park in Shakopee, Minn., is a great gig for an owner such as Englander. Modeled after Breeders' Cup-type programs, the Claiming Crown and Englander are a perfect fit.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - He's 2 for 2 over the track and 1 for 1 at the distance. And, he'll be a price in Saturday's Grade 1 Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga.

Windsor Castle, last year's Remsen winner who was forced off the Triple Crown trail because of illness, finally gets to challenge some of the 3-year-old division's best in the nine-furlong Jim Dandy, the traditional prep for the Grade 1 Travers on Aug. 25. Among those Windsor Castle will face are Preakness and Belmont Stakes runner-up A P Valentine and Kentucky Derby and Preakness third-place finisher Congaree.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - It appears that none of the top European horses in any of the pertinent divisions are coming for Arlington's three Grade 1 races on Arlington Million Day - the Million, the Beverly D. for fillies and mares, and the Secretariat for 3-year-olds.

Instead, U.S.-based horses probably will be favored in all three races: Bienamado in the Million, Astra in the Beverly D., and any one of several East Coast-based 3-year-olds in the Secretariat, which is shaping up as a great race.

DEL MAR, Calif. - When Godolphin started racing 2-year-olds in the United States with private trainer Eoin Harty last year, much of the focus was on preparing colts for an assault on the Triple Crown.

This year, the best product of Harty's stables at Arlington Park and Del Mar may be Tempera, a filly who starts in Saturday's $150,000 Sorrento Stakes at Del Mar.

Of course, many of the Godolphin-owned colts have yet to start this year, and may develop into classic contenders. For now, Harty is excited about Tempera's progress, going so far as to call her his best filly.

Boots on Sunday can get trainer Danny Pish off to a fast start at Retama Park near San Antonio this meet with a win in Friday's opening night feature, the $35,000 J.R. Straus Memorial Stakes. Pish, seeking his third consecutive title at the track, said the race will serve as the colt's springboard to the $100,000 Arlington Sprint at Arlington Park on Aug. 25.

If you build purses, they will come. That's been the mantra at Retama Park near San Antonio, which will offer its richest purse structure ever when it opens for its seventh season of racing Friday night. The 51-day meet runs through Oct. 27.

MIAMI - Juggernaut and Pure Precision met for the first time in the Criterium Stakes at Calder on July 7, with Juggernaut registering a major upset rallying from dead last to win at 11-1. For the rematch, the two youngsters will travel 1,000 miles due north, to Monmouth Park, where they likely will meet again one week from Saturday in the $150,000 Sapling Stakes.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - There may have been a few raised eyebrows here last week when Robert Rose claimed Premier's Turn for $40,000.

On the one hand, Rose had experienced success with Premier's Turn in the past. But the facts were that Premier's Turn now is 7 years old and in suspect form, which he underlined by faltering to finish last of seven that day.

While sentimentality was a factor in Rose's decision, there is much more to the story.