ARCADIA, Calif. - Tiznow has been given the green light to resume training next week, after a nuclear scan taken Thursday of his lower back came back clean. Tiznow, the 2000 Horse of the Year, strained his lumbar vertabrae in a workout April 20 at Santa Anita, and has not been to the track since.

Fairplex Park will offer one Thoroughbred stakes per day during its upcoming meeting at the Los Angeles County Fair on Sept. 7-24.

The fair runs 18 consecutive days, and has shifted its meeting by one day this year. In recent years, the fair opened on a Thursday and ran for 18 days before finishing on a Sunday. This year, the fair opens on a Friday, leaving one dark day after the closing day at Del Mar.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - At this time last year, Gallop'n Gold was struggling on the Queen's Plate trail for owners Patrick and Paul Boissonneault and trainer John DiMarco.

As a stakes winner of $183,146 as a

2-year-old, Gallop'n Gold had entered his 3-year-old season with high expectations but disappointed badly in four starts before being withdrawn from Plate consideration.

"He wound up with three quarter cracks and a blood disorder," said DiMarco. "We spent all year fighting that. It was a nightmare."

FORT ERIE, Ont. - Trainer David Schmidt, a fixture in the top 10 of the Fort Erie standings, is an uncharacteristic 0 for 8 as the track heads into its fourth weekend of racing.

"I've had good years, year after year," he said. "I'm just getting started. I haven't run an A-member horse yet. I've run the lower tier so far. If I'm not doing well by the end of May I'll be awful disappointed."

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Lone Star, which has been advising Keith and Marilyn Asmussen on their plans to convert their El Primero Training Center in Laredo, Texas, into a Class 2 track, has bowed out of the project for now so as not to compete with another Texas track looking to move into that market, said Lone Star president Corey Johnsen.

Retama Park near San Antonio is in negotiations with county officials in Laredo about resurrecting and managing an old fair track in Laredo, L.I.F.E. Downs.

STICKNEY, Ill. - In this, the Lasix age, it's not surprising to see a whole field of horses racing on the hugely popular anti-bleedermedication. Before this weekend, McHenry County Kid had raced clean throughout his career, but after bleeding in his last start, McHenry County Kid will start on Lasix in Sunday's featured ninth race.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Casino King, who finished third in the Grade 3 Inglewood Handicap at Hollywood Park on April 21, looks tough to beat against five foes in the $50,000 Foster City Handicap at 1 1/16 miles on the turf at Bay Meadows on Sunday.

BALTIMORE - Monarchos was the forgotten horse at the Kentucky Derby, but after his victory at an overlaid 10-1 two weeks ago, he is now the focal point of Saturday's 126th Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course.

"When you win the Derby, there's a big, red X painted on you," said John T. Ward Jr., who trains Monarchos. "We're a target. We're aware of that."

A victory will send Monarchos to New York's Belmont Park with a chance to become the 12th Triple Crown winner by capturing the June 9 Belmont Stakes.

SHAKOPEE, Minn. - Following its most profitable season since reopening for live racing in 1995, Canterbury Park commences its 2001 race meet with a dilemma many racetracks would like to have.

More applications (2,200) were filed than Canterbury has stalls (1,600), and for the first time in more than a decade the track has a backstretch filled beyond capacity.

STICKNEY, Ill. - There is no cell phone on trainer J.R. Smith's hip pocket, no laptop in his barn office.

He does not attend high-powered yearling sales with an entourage in tow. Late Tuesday morning in his Hawthorne barn, a groom and an exercise rider held down a goat while Smith clipped the animal's overgrown hooves.