STICKNEY, Ill. – Struggling to attract sufficient entries almost from the outset of a meet that began Feb. 15, Hawthorne Race Course concluded its winter-spring season Sunday with total average daily handle falling 22 percent compared to the winter-spring 2012 meeting.

Even with a modest rally during the meet’s final two racing weeks, average daily all-sources handle during the 40-day season was just $1,748,804, a drop of more than one-fifth compared to the $2,246,582 Hawthorne averaged during a 41-day 2012 meeting.

Falling Sky displayed a bit of eagerness during his Tuesday morning training session, galloping at a brisk clip under exercise rider Cassie Garcea. Trainer John Terranova would have been surprised if he hadn’t.

“He’s into it. He likes to move along but he’s comfortable doing it. That’s him,” Terranova said. “He covers the ground fantastic. He’s really a nice horse, I just don’t know about the distance. He’s going to give his all for us.”

[bc_video_id:290940:]LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The major work has been done. All that remains for the trainers of the 20 prospective Kentucky Derby starters is to maintain their horses’ form over the next several days and hope fortune smiles down upon them during Wednesday’s post-position draw.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Trainer Eddie Plesa Jr. had his hands full simply trying to walk his Kentucky Derby hopeful Itsmyluckyday around the shed row at feed time on Monday. His exercise rider, Peter Shelton, had a similar problem trying to keep the Florida Derby runner-up from running off during  training hours the following morning.

Plesa said Itsmyluckyday couldn’t have adapted any better to his new surroundings at Churchill Downs or, even more important, the racetrack itself, following his arrival from Calder on Saturday.

The city of Pleasanton seeps racing tradition. It has the oldest one-mile track in the United States, the track where 1922 Kentucky Derby winner Morvich trained before heading east. The town was known for its horse farms before urban sprawl swallowed up land.

The people of Pleasanton, naturally, are excited about the Kentucky Derby, and on Saturday they will be able to relive a season when one of their own made a big impact on the Triple Crown.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – When racing programs change, some stakes disappear. It happened to the Grade 3 Inglewood Handicap, a turf route at Betfair Hollywood Park that was eliminated from the track’s spring schedule during a recent round of cuts.

But elimination of an early-season stakes does not kill the program.

Pimlico Race Course will ban duffel bags, backpacks, and all but a specific size of clear-plastic coolers for this year’s Preakness Stakes on May 18 under a new set of policies similar to those adopted by Churchill Downs for the Kentucky Derby this year.

The bans on the items were recommended by law-enforcement officials following a review of the track’s policies in the wake of the bombings at the Boston Marathon in April, Pimlico officials said. Law-enforcement officials have recommended stricter carry-in policies for all large events since the bombings.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – In any other year, Sal Santoro and his stable star, Rose to Gold, might be here at Churchill Downs as major players for the Kentucky Oaks.

But in a year when the Oaks shapes up with arguably one its toughest fields in years, Santoro has a 15-1 shot on the morning line – despite Rose to Gold having won four stakes and five of seven starts overall.

“It’s all pretty darn scary from where I’m standing,” a smiling Santoro said before a field of 11 fillies was drawn Tuesday for the 139th running of the Grade 1, $1 million Oaks.

Most people’s recollections of school field trips involve museums and much yawning.

The young men and women from the North American Racing Academy were treated to something far more engaging Monday. On the Churchill Downs backstretch while awaiting the works and morning training of Kentucky Derby and Oaks competitors, they listened to retired Hall of Fame jockeys Chris McCarron and Pat Day recount their Derby experience from 1987.

Even people not in the NARA group stopped by to listen, taking in the comments of the two Derby-winning riders.

Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Fort Larned, who had been considered a possible starter in the Grade 2 Alysheba on the Kentucky Oaks undercard at Churchill Downs on Friday, has been withdrawn from the race and will be pointed toward the Grade 1 Stephen Foster on June 15 at Churchill, trainer Ian Wilkes said Monday.

“The horse is fine,” he said. “I worked him a half [April 23], but he just didn’t really bounce out of it like I wanted.”