EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - The shortest meet in the history of The Meadowlands Racetrack could be one of the greenest.

The Big M opens Thursday night for a 28-day meet through Nov. 8. The track will race Tuesdays through Saturdays. Post times Wednesday through Saturday will be 7:30 p.m. with 1:10 p.m. matinees on Tuesday.

The New Jersey Sports & Exposition Authority, which owns both tracks, transferred The Big M's traditional September dates to Monmouth Park this year to gauge post-Labor Day interest in live racing on the Jersey Shore.

A thorough, post-race checkup of Azeri on Tuesday revealed a high white cell count in her blood, indicative of an infection, which may have caused Azeri's lethargic performance in Sunday's Lady's Secret Breeders' Cup Handicap at Santa Anita's Oak Tree meeting, according to her trainer, Laura de Seroux.

"It shows there's something brewing," said de Seroux, who had Azeri examined by Dr. Joe Cannon at the San Luis Rey Equine Clinic, adjacent to San Luis Rey Downs.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Five older fillies and mares running 1 1/16 miles on the turf for a $32,000 claiming tag will meet in Thursday's Bay Meadows feature.

Claiming races are a double-edged sword for trainers, who place horses where they can win - but also where they may be attractive to rival trainers to claim.

Chuck Jenda, who trains Hazen, and Jerry Hollendorfer, who trains No Peso No Dance, are loath to talk about their runners, who appear to be the ones to beat in the race.

CHICAGO - While War Emblem's stallion career languishes in Japan, his little sister, named My Sweet Heart, is struggling to find herself in Stickney, Ill. War Emblem has displayed a lack of interest in breeding mares. My Sweet Heart may be too interested in running fast.

Running fast is what racing's all about, but there is a time and a place, and My Sweet Heart hasn't yet discovered her "off" button.

"She's a little backward," trainer Frank "Bobby" Springer said Tuesday. "If you reach out and grab a hold of her, she'll take off on you."

ELMONT, N.Y. - Having ruled out running Funny Cide this weekend, trainer Barclay Tagg is now down to two options for the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner's return to the races. The choices are either the $250,000 Empire Classic at Belmont Park on Oct. 18 or the $100,000 Discovery Handicap at Aqueduct on Oct. 29.

"I'll probably enter him in the Empire Classic and if I don't like the post or I don't like the weather or I don't like the competition or I don't like the surface I won't run him,'' Tagg said Tuesday morning. "Then I'll go to the Discovery. We'll see how it works.''

ELMONT, N.Y. - Congrats, looking to bounce back from a poor performance in the Grade 1 Travers in August at Saratoga, faces six older horses in Thursday's feature at Belmont Park.

The third-level allowance race, which has a purse of $52,000, will be run at 1 1/8 miles on the main track.

The regally bred Congrats, a son of A.P. Indy out of the Mr. Prospector mare Praise, finished fifth in the Travers, beaten 18 1/2 lengths, after hitting the rail on the first turn. The Travers was preceded by a solid third-place finish in the Grade 2 Jim Dandy.

Wacky Patty will run at Santa Anita next month, but not in the $1 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies as originally planned. Her connections have changed directions with the filly, who will start instead in the track's $75,000 Anoakia Stakes on Oct. 19.

The decision was made after Wacky Patty finished a distant fourth as the 1-5 favorite in the $40,000 Delta Miss Stakes at Louisiana Downs on Sunday. The consistent filly, who was 3 for 4 going into the race, had an apparent excuse for her poor performance.

MIAMI - Trainer Marty Wolfson is getting used to havng mixed emotions when it comes to his handicap star Aeneas.

Aeneas turned in yet another strong performance against two of the top members of the handicap division, Perfect Drift and Tenpins, in Sunday's Grade 2 Hawthorne Gold Cup in Stickney, Ill., only to come up empty once again. Aeneas's third-place finish in the Gold Cup is the fourth time in his last five starts that the Calder-based Aeneas has been stakes-placed in graded company, yet he remains winless this year.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Five older fillies and mares running 1 1/16 miles on the turf for a $32,000 claiming tag will meet in Thursday's Bay Meadows feature.

Claiming races are a double-edged sword for trainers, who place horses where they can win - but also where they may be attractive to rival trainers to claim.

Chuck Jenda, who trains Hazen, and Jerry Hollendor-fer, who trains No Peso No Dance, are loath to talk about their runners, who appear to be the ones to beat in the race.

Lone Star Park plans to construct a permanent 8,000-square-foot dining hall off the second floor of the grandstand that will accommodate additional patrons for the 2004 running of the Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Champion-ships, which the track will host on Oct. 30, 2004.

The hall, with a projected cost of more than $1.3 million, is a major part of $8 million in improvements to be made for the Breeders' Cup at Lone Star, which is in Grand Prairie, Texas. Including its existing 12,000 seats, the track will have an estimated 50,000 seats available for the championship day.