Jay Hovdey

Oh yeah. They're about to start this Breeders' Cup thing, Day 1, and before they do, a promise: You will not hear a peep from this spoiled, sun-drenched Californian about the weather, which is brisk, but there are a lot of fine folks who must deal with frozen toes and noses who do not have the diversion of watching Zenyatta, Lookin at Lucky, Goldikova and Workforce perform for their pleasure. I feel obligated to explain, however, that because I can't feel my fingers I am typing this with a pen clenched in my teeth. There, I went and complained.

Try as he might, Gary Stevens will never forget his experience in the 1986 Breeders' Cup at Santa Anita, when he had the lights-out best day of his fledgling California career and went to bed that night an unhappy young man.

As advertised on its website, the Halloween evening edition of "60 Minutes" was determined to take on the question of whether or not Zenyatta, six days shy of her defense of her title in the Breeders' Cup Classic, should be referred to as "the best horse ever."

The real mystery about the movie "Secretariat" is why it took so long for it to be made. Mystery is perhaps the wrong word. Abject confusion is more like it.

Alonso Quinonez, welcome to the club. Jumping off Hollywood Oaks winner Switch after the Lady's Secret on Saturday at Hollywood, Quinonez uttered those words now becoming familiar. "I thought I had her beat," he said, figuring everyone would know who "her" was. There was an echo, though, variations on a theme, from the lips of jockeys who for an intoxicating few moments, deep in the stretches of Santa Anita, Hollywood or Del Mar, thought they would be the one to deliver the blow that knocked Zenyatta off her pedestal.