Here and There...

Average daily attendance at the recently-concluded 52-day Tropical meet at Calder Race Course held steady with that of last year's 49-day season. This year's average daily attendance was down 1.6% to 4,828 per day. Total handle from all sources of $209,414,590 was also slightly off last year's figure of $210,414,452. An additional $67,118,105 was wagered on-track and at ITW locations on whole-card simulcasts (on non-simulcast-only days) of other tracks. Whole-card betting totaled $56,096,737 last year. This season's leaders were jockey Javier Castellano, trainer Bill White, and owner Monarch Stables (Frank Bertolino)...Stewards of the Hong Kong Jockey Club have levied a one-month suspension to three-time German champion jockey Andrasch Starke, who was found to be above the allowed limit for alcohol when failing a breathalyzer test at Sha Tin's meeting Dec. 26. A subsequent blood test found Starke to have been above the legal limit for driving of 50 milligrams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood. Starke, who turned 27 Thursday (Jan. 4), was suspended until Feb. 5.