So I approach Travers Week as my closing week, my last-chance saloon, and it doesn't disappoint: three separate carryovers in six days, bizarre upsets, intriguing streaks and more intrigue than I've ever seen about who was in or out of a Travers. Funny Cide highly unlikely. Empire Maker rumored coughing. Funny Cide 75 percent to run. Empire Maker declared healthy. Then on Thursday, Empire Maker out. On Friday, Funny Cide out A meeting that had been scripted to reach a historic crescendo with an Empire Maker-Funny Cide showdown would end up with a signature race lacking both.

The world did not come off its axis, and people still turned out in swarms to play all week, including a record crowd on Travers Day for a race lacking its advertised stars. I got plenty of last chances to make a success of a fascinating but frustrating meet. It all seems so long ago already÷.

WEDNESDAY, August 20

Race 1: Drastic ($75k to $35k) dropper Showdown ($9.70) settles behind the cheap speed and draws away at will to score by 3 1/4 over 14-1 Schneider.

Race 2: Five-time loser Sovereignoftheseas ($10.00) finds a field of statebred filly maidens thin enough that she wires them with ease, extending her early lead to 6 3/4 at the wire over 11-10 On The Bus. Winner is no bargain at 4-1 but favorite is a classic Saratoga bet-against: a second-time starter with a seemingly dominant grass debut figure switching to dirt. They always seem to lose at short prices.

Race 3: Very intriguing N3x sprint despite just five starters. California invader Omega Code, unraced since winning San Miguel Jan. 12, is hammered to 11-10 but is never a factor and trails badly. Don Six leads to the stretch, then First Blush and Sunray Spirit pass him and hook up for a furlong, but finally rank outsider Pinch Hitter ($25.20) runs by them all to beat First Blush a neck. Exacta of 11.60-1 winner and 3.80-1 third choice comes back a very short $63.00, as if Omega Code was pounded to win only and/or exacta players had him more like 3-1.

Race 4: Two of these 2-year-old colt firsters take real money: Cat Buster, Asmussen-trained half-brother to Housebuster, at 3-2 and Relato Del Gato, bullet-working Linda Rice trainee at 5-2. Cat Buster proves the fleeter feline, stalking for a half and then pouncing to win by nearly three. Breakaway, Farish/Howard firster cold on board at 37-1, finishes strongly for second, two lengths ahead of Relato del Gato.

Race 5: Was someone trying to get even for Omega Code? Alexi Dancer, Motion/Prado filly beaten combined 35 lengths in two dirt starts, is pounded to 9-5 in wide-open field of juvenile fillies trying turf. She runs fifth. Four other starters who have already been to the races run 6-7-8-9. It's a firster festival as the only four making their debuts run 1-2-3-4, led by Galloping Gal ($16.20) for McPeek/Samyn, followed by 21-1 Miss Bergdorf for Penna/Bridgmohan. Box of the only four firsters yields $251.50 exacta, $803 tri. Winner, by Victory Gallop, scores by 2 1/2 lengths.

Race 6: Saintly Action ($7.40), track/distance winner last season and coming off a fourth to promising Double Scoop in season debut, takes over halfway through and holds Cloak of Vengeance safe by 1 1/2 for Mott/Bailey in this older filly N2x.

Race 7: Technically top-fig (two back) Lojo ($18.20) rallies from far back to collar favorites Voodoo Lady and Pieria in midstretch and win by three. Vinthea runs up on Supposedly's heels on the stretch turn, unseating Samyn, who heads for surgery the next day.

Race 8: Albany Stakes for 3-year-old New York-breds does not attract Funny Cide but field of five includes first four finishers from recent New York Derby at Finger Lakes. They run in the same fashion and finish in the same order they did that day, with Traffic Chief ($4.70) leading throughout for Hushion/Santos. Field's lone new face, second-choice Acceptable Venture, chases winner from outset, falls two lengths short.

Race 9: Saint Stephen, dropping from third in G2 stakes to N1x condition, looks like cinch on paper, looks homefree after getting easy lead through modrate splits, but can't hold off Rowans Park ($14.40), exiting Virginia Derby that already has yielded Secertariat winner Kicken Kris. Saint Stephen, 4-5, barely lasts for second over Mott/Bailey Rayon. Pricier sequences have been hit at the meeting but no one picks six today. Carryover÷but tomorrow looks very tough.

THURSDAY, August 21

Race 1: Steeplechase.

Race 2: If it looks too good to be true÷well, at nearly 4-1 it might be worth betting it's true. Handsome Gent is clearly the fastest horse and comes off a trapped-behind-slow-pace second, but since he's still got all his statebred conditions left, why is Robert Terrill dropping him to $25k? Answer apparently is to win front end of $27k purse and perhaps cash a wager. Handsome Gent ($9.90) drowns field by nearly three and Scott Lake claims him.

Race 3: Very odd race, written for fillies nominated to Friday's Personal Ensign who are tired of chasing Frankel killers. Four who could have gone Friday against 1-9 Wild Spirit go here instead, three of them coming off distant placings behind Sightseek. Best of those is She's Got The Beat($3.70), second by 11 1/2 to Sightseek in the Go For Wand and a 4 1/2 length winner over Pocus Hocus here.

Race 4: They're off, you lose. Here comes Swifty, there goes fifty. Pick Six begins here and ends for me immediately as I decide card is too tough and play cheap, a single $240 caveman ticket that does not include Lost in The Woods ($37.20) or, for that matter, runner-up Malagash in this statebred N1x turfer. My two, Rosie's Big Boy and High on Madison, close best of all for third and fourth but there's a special window to be rewarded for that, one that sits atop the trash can.

Race 5: Maybe I could have gone deeper in the first leg had I singled Grace Course ($4.20) here, but I had no confidence the maiden colt would stretch out from seven to nine furlongs. He does, lasting by three-quarters of a length o Mott/Bailey over must-use second-choice Discover The Glory.

Race 6: Lady Gwen owns this maiden older-filly field's two top grass figures but also sports an 0-8 record, thus 10-1 on her vs. 9-5 on 0-4 Pletcherite Proud Beauty. Lady Gwen ($23.20) moves last and best to nail the favorite by half a length at the wire.

Race 7: Exchange Bay and Beebe Lake, idle since winning statebred N1x races four days apart in June, run 1-2 against veteran N2x field here. Exchange Bay ($5.50) and Beebe Lake both shoot past 48-1 leader Bound On Bi in the final sixteenth.

Race 8: Ana's Lady Bird ($3.80) is good but not "spectacular" as racecaller claims, dueling through fast half in 44.61 and then drawing off by 9/12 over very weak field in decent 1:10.46 for Asmussen/Day.

Race 9: Seemingly wide-open older $35k grass filly turfer (I used six of them) goes to second-choice Russian Sweetiepie ($8.70) by 1 Ê lengths over 9-1 High Post. My two consos are worth an unconsoling $155.50 each, with 6-of-6 worth a far tastier $20,811 to those who played bigger and/or smarter. Do I have it if I put in a bigger ticket? I truly don't know and I truly don't want to know.

FRIDAY, August 22

Race 1: Bombs away. Quiet Challenge, dq'd from a three-length win against a better bunch oif statebred maiden routers than these in the Aug. 8 opener, is a legitimate 3-5 but neglects to run a step. That opens the gate to Chaos, in the form of Ferraro/Fragoso turf-to-dirter Arjay's Flag ($95.50), with 13-1 Warning Signal and 40-1 Olympic Contender rounding out an $18,842 triple.

Race 2: Lake/Velazquez favorite So Social ($4.50), a winner of her last two at the $20k level in Delaware, finds the Saratoga older $20k fillies no tougher and wins on the engine by 2 1/2. Five of the eight starters leave for new homes after the race, including the winner, who goes from Lake Gorham. Unclaimed is second choice Shamrock Blues, who is pulled up and vanned off.

Race 3: Darley Stud is still a long way from even on Alajwad ($4.70), but the $5.5 million Storm Cat-La Affirmed colt does escape the maiden ranks in his fifth start, dueling early and drawing away late by 3 1/2 against these 3-and-up maiden turfers.

Race 4: Sisti's Pride ($19.40), well behind favored Forty Moves in two previous starts, shows vast improvement to win by 4 3/4 for Pletcher/Velazquez while Forty Moves beats one horse. Pretty amazing that Pletcher 2-year-olds are still paying 8-1 at this meet but this was a hard one to like an anything but blind faith.

Race 5: 2-year-old N1x confirms quality (not that it needed much) of Chapel Royal's Sanford when third-place finisher Flushing Meadows ($4.90) leads all the way to score for Darley/Eoin Harty. Grand Slam colt Wins by 2 1/4 over early-meet maiden graduates Lissau and Pollard's Vision in 1:10.06.

Race 6: When's the last time you saw a horse with six career victories in a maiden race? Team Valor purchase Palique was 6 for 7 in native Uruguay but all starts came in unsanctioned races. 4-year-old is pounded to 7-10 but fails to beat a horse. Meanwhile, Cherokee Park ($19.60), first Lasix, leads all the way for Zito/Castellano.

Race 7: Layoff master Mott has Motives ($17.20) more than ready to wire these N2x turf fillies in her first start since January. Turf course,, truly firm and approaching hard for the first time at the meet, is starting to carry speed: Winner goes 1:10.38 early, holds on.

Race 8: Devotion Unbridled ($3.40), second to stakes-class Stellar here Aug. 3, stalks 29-1 Perfect Lady (sixth that day) early and takes over to win a laugher by 7 1/4. Perfect Lady holds second over Captiva Cat, fourth in the same race and tri of only three fillies exiting that heat comes back $232.50.

Race 9: Upset of the meeting finally gives clich»-meisters chance to call this garden of chalk a graveyard of favorites. Bonus clich» opportunity as you-know-what-killer Jerkens springs the upset. Victory of Passing Shot($24.20) over 1-5 Wild Spirit in Personal Ensign Handicap, however, is a clear case of the favorite not running her race. Bailey and Frankel blame 122 vs. 114 weight spread for defeat but Wild Spirit wins this by a dozen if she shows up. She's bottled up at the rail most of the way but a hole the size of the Lincoln Tunnel opens at the top of the stretch, she goes through it and seems poised to win by daylight, but never accelerates and lets Passing Shot come back to nail her at the wire. Between this performance and the scratch of Empire Maker, it seems reasonable to wonder if there's a bug or a chill in the Frankel barn, which will be sending out seven here on Travers Day and contesting six Grade 1 races over the weekend.

Race 10: Ex-Pletcherite Blakelock ($31.60), now trained by ex-Pletcherite George Weaver, duels and draws off on the turf, scoring by three over Gold Explorer and the rest of these $50k 3-year-olds. Runner-up goes to Paulino Ortiz. Blakelock caps $5,586 Pick Four and ensures that not a soul picks six. Carryover of $82k into Travers Day - yes! But what to do with all those Frankel horses?

SATURDAY, August 23

Race 1: Travers Day dawns with an overdue break in the weather. After a sweltering week, the temperature drops into the 70's you remember why people come to the Adirondacks in August, and by noon it's clear that the place is going to be paked today despite the absence of Empire Maker and Funny Cide. Terrific card of full and competitive fields begins with a revealing victory by Limone Forte($14.40) in N1x statebred sprint: Winner is chronic quitter whose desperate nose victory over 53-1 Stars Aligned suggests speed may do very well today.

Race 2: There was a tip out opening day on Distressed Debt but Violette firster was beaten 13 in the mud with no apparent excuse. Those who kept the faith are rewarded to the tune of $65.50 today as the Smoke Glacken colt drills these maidens by 2 3/4 on the front end to complete a $579 double.

Race 3: Warleigh ($4.10), Pletcher 5-year-old turfer who was so impressive winning for $85k July 28, has field of $100k claimers over a barrel and wins by two. Pair of six-digit claims: Winner for $100k to Asmussen and sixth-place Abreeze, 8-year-old with $399k bankroll, to Lake.

Race 4: First Frankel runner of the day does not bode well: Summer Scene, off since November, is 8-5 but beats just one. First-time LaBocetta angle, 27-for-90 over last 19 months, works again as Hope For Love ($14.20) rallies from midpack to win filly N2L by 3.

Race 5: He's Crafty, narrow N2x turf winner for Mott/Bailey July 28, becomes lengthy N3x turf winner today as Bailey goes to front, hugs rail, opens 7 in stretch and lasts by 3 3/4 over favorites Thefull Circle and Frankel trainee Epicentre.

Race 6: Pick Six, which attracts $541k pool on top of carryover, begins reassuringly as favored Pretty Wild ($5.00), last year's Hopeful and Futurity runner-up, returns from a 10-month layoff with a front-running 4 3/4-length score over Frankel second-choice Special Rate. Tab winner's time of 1:21.50 for comparison with 3-year-olds in King's Bishop later on the card. Nice to see last year's Hopeful 1-2-3 finishers all on Travers card a year later.

Race 7: Chavez on Country Romance and Prado on She's Zealous hook up from the start and slug it out to the wire, with Country Romance ($23.80) prevailing by a half to win the $75k Victory Ride Stakes and end many a Pick Six dream including my own. Favored Ebony Breeze and second-choice Double Scoop show too little too late and run third and fourth.

Race 8: Frankel filly Sea of Showers, away since winning Keeneland's Jenny Wiley April 13, is pounded down to 6-5 and runs dead last. Longshots run 1-2-3 to stretch when closest legit contender, Stylish($19.40), accelerates to lead and holds off Snow Dance's late charge by half a length to win $200k Balston Spa Breeders' Cup. Runner-up, who broke five lengths behind field in Diana, breaks in air again today.

Race 9: Frankel colt War Zone, 7-2 second choice, runs ninth throughout $200k Fourstardave Handicap as favored Trademark, second to War Zone in the Poker and then an explosive winner of the Baruch here opening week, enjoys a perfect trip just off the speed and wins by two from Quest Star. Ridiculous trip for third choice Patrol, off slowly, rushed up into hot fractions and understandably tired late.

Race 10: Outstanding, intriguing renewal of the Grade 1 King's Bishop. Speed-favoring track makes Zavata an especially heavy favorite at 6-5 off his front-running Amsterdam victory Aug. 2 - question is whether he will get to the front in bigger, better field. He doesn't. Amsterdam runner-up Great Notion blasts off from the rail and sets wild fractions of 21,76, 43.79 and 1:08.67 - and he's still there at the sixteenth pole. Valid Video, coming off a top-fig victory in Calder's Carry Back, gets through inside, then swings out, and prevails by a neck. Time of 1:22.14 is slower than Pretty Wild's allowance romp but blistering fractions have something to do with that. Frankel trainee Ghostbuster, making stakes debut, makes flying finish into 13.47 final furlong, coming up just two necks short. During holds well for fourth after chasing Great Notion early, Posse is a disappointing fifth as the second choice and Zavata is a dull and even eighth.

Race 11: My meet may come down to the Travers. Having sniffed out Stylish and distrusted Zavata, I'm alive in the $1 million guaranteed Pick Four (which draws a North American record $1.4 Pick Four pool) to Congrats ($8,930), Ten Most Wanted ($3,606) and Sky Mesa ($3,207), my theory being that Peace Rules and Strong Hope have no choice but to duel each other into defeat. The race must be won from off the pace and I'm hoping Congrats can take a step forward off his closing third in the Jim dandy. Turns out he can't. Turns out Sky Mesa's going in the wrong direction too. The duel develops, and fortunately Ten Most wanted runs his "A" race, winning by 4 1/2 over an admirably game Peace Rules, with the rest of them strung out from here to Albany. Four people prove smart enough to use Country Romance as well as Pretty Wild and the haveable Pick Four horses for a $128,675 Pick Six payoff. I am not among them but will settle for a mild winning Travers Day to end the serious part of my meet÷.well, unless there's another carryover before I head west.

Race 12: Glad I didn't stay to play the 12th. Assumed Pike Place Gold would be 7-5 and I would have a)bitten at 7-2 and b)been counting my money as he opened a clear lead after a moderate six furlongs in a mild 1:11.63. He's still in front at the eighth pole, but Summer Slew ($16.00), 25-1 Sir Walter Rahy and Patriot's Song all catch him in the final yards.

SUNDAY, August 24

Getawat day for me. Never handicapped the card, still haven't seen the replays. Suspect I would not have had a stellar day with one bomb after another getting the money: Lapis ($103.00) in the first, Spanish Spur ($19.40) in the third, Lonely Groom ($38.80) in the fifth, Crete ($16.00) in the seventh, Inamorato ($18.20, with A Great Team seventh) in the eighth, and Harmony Lodge ($27.80) in the featured Ballerina. Get home to Long Island from six-hour (avoid Sunday afternoons on the Thruway) return from the Spa, see array of boxcar results, notice there's a $67k carryover into Monday. Glad I left the Travers Day loot in my account. Time for a pot of coffee.

MONDAY, August 25

Race 1: Looks like the 2nd race Aug. 10 was better and faster than it first appeared. The victorious Stars Aligned came back and missed by a nose at 53-1 in Saturday's opener and now runnerup Sovereign Salute comes back to score here at $15.40, holding off 20-1 Pert Reply by a neck with 11-10 One Last chance a length back in third.

Race 2: Back to Work ($12.80), beaten 40 lengths in his last two on slop and grass, appreciates being back to fast dirt, turning back early challenges and then lasting by a neck over 20-1 Deerfoot. It's 10 lengths back to Mr. Stone in 4th after he's inexplicably pounded to 6-5.

Race 3: 11-10 Clement entry of Shadow Play and Music Way looks home free in this maiden filly turfer, running 1-2 in deep stretch, but here comes Matz/Day Chic Joy ($10.00) flying to catch them both at the wire.

Race 4: Pick Six begins with a firster fest as 8 of these 10 2-year-old fillies are making their debuts. Pedigree and toteboard agree Smokey Glacken($4.90), half to Smoke Glacken, is the right one and after breaking a step slow she blasts through at the rail and motors away by five lengths in 1:05.06. Second-timer Storm Fleet is up the inside for 2nd with $1.35 million Lukas filly Mystified third. Contessa firster Tuesday Prayer opens at 3-1, takes no further money and is dead in exactas, and runs a dull seventh at 8-1.

Race 5: Two-horse race on paper and the track as Nurey's Thunder($8.20), a winner at this $35k older grass male level July 17, scores by 1 1/4 over Star of the Bay, who won the July 12 rendition.

Race 6: Very competitive filly N2x turf allowance, with half the field sporting stakes experience. Sonata Cosmos opens an early eight-length lead for no good reason and Bailey waits until she starts backing up to move with Dame Sylvieguillem($9.70), cruising by her in upper stretch and then holding off Santos's belated rally with Lady Hellie to win by three-quarters of a length. Winner, a 4-year-old Nureyez filly, is making just her second start in 16 months for Mott, who is having an admirable meet with moderate stock.

Race 7: Evening Attire, coming off a fine third in the Whitney, is the whole world's single in allowance company but how many other people were screaming at Mark Guidry to get going after letting the favorite fall 15 lengths back early? Panic proves unnecessary as Evening Attire again proves what a classy and dependable horse he is, circling the field when Guidry asks and comfortably beating Crafty Shaw and Regal Sanction by 1 1/4 lengths. Don't be fooled when the Beyer comes back in the mediocre 102 neighborhood - this was a paid workout. Perhaps singles of the winner in pick fours and sixes accounts for light win-pool action as legit 1-5 shot pays an arguably generous $3.40.

Race 8: Sixty Seconds ($8.50), New Zealand-bred mare with a Grade 1 Australian victory and an impressive July allowance score in her American debut, just holds off Primetimevalentine and Alternate, both exiting R.G. Dick Memorial at Delaware, to win the Grade 3 Glens Falls. Favored Mariensky again suggests she needs much softer turf to be effective, chasing early and fading late.

Race 9: Alive to five horses so of course the favorite wins. Fortune Writers ($7.50) sits second behind Dontmesswithbill's silly fractions and eight-length early lead, takes first run when the leader stops and opens 4 1/2, lasts by two over second-choice Devil's Peak. Another carryover sequence without a double-digit winner, but the $2,976 payoff beats a poke in the eye with a sharp stick and is a lot better than it could have been.

And so I bid a fond farewell to Saratoga Journal 2003. You won't be hearing from me in this space again until Journal 2004÷unless I hit the closing-day Saratoga pick six from the Sacramento Fairgrounds on Labor Day. See you on the midway.

	COMING IN AUGUST
		Betting on Myself: Adventures of a Horseplayer and Publisher By STEVEN CRIST Read an excerpt from Steven Crist's new book that will be published in August. This selection details Crist's first assignment to cover a horse race for The New York Times, when the paper's regular writer became ill the week of the 1979 Alabama Stakes at Saratoga.