TUCSON, Ariz. - Everyone is climbing aboard the Uniform Medication Rules Express, but two problems loom that can derail the trip.

There is no engineer in the cab, and no wheels on the train.

The National Thoroughbred Racing Association wants better standardized testing.

The American Association of Equine Practitioners thinks it is high time for the industry to get together on medication rules, and that veterinarians can and should lead the way. They hope to get a leg up on doing it at the Racing Symposium in Tucson in December.

WASHINGTON - People of Middle Eastern descent have generally been keeping a low profile in this country since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, but they will be a major presence Saturday in New York. Or at least their horses will.

ELMONT, N.Y. - It is already difficult enough to win the Breeders' Cup Classic two years in a row. To be more precise, it has been impossible.

And it's not like some very good horses haven't tried. Skywalker went from first one year to last the next. Unbridled tried to defend his title in 1991 and could do no better than third. Concern was a mild surprise when he won in 1994, but he was up the track at longer odds in '95, when Cigar walked his beat at Belmont Park.

ELMONT, N.Y. - The other fellow's game.

Racing at the top level is difficult enough when you are playing your own game. When you are playing the other fellow's game, and have to travel far to play it, you are at a decided disadvantage.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Ted Bassett has earned the right to stand down as chairman of Keeneland's board of directors after 33 years of devoted service to the track, in Lexington, Ky., and to racing throughout the world.

NEW YORK - The problem with calling the Breeders' Cup races the World Thoroughbred Championships is that they frequently aren't, a point that may well be illustrated again in their first running under that new banner. While Saturday's eight races look like thoroughly enjoyable and bettable propositions that will certainly determine many divisional championships, the biggest title of all is still likeliest to end up going to the absent and retired Point Given.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Time to pack for the Breeders' Cup. The Weather Channel tells me to prepare for mild, partly cloudy days and seasonal, sometimes chilly nights.

Where I live, chilly means socks with sandals and longsleeves at sunset. For chilly in New York, I must find something thermal, or stop taking blood thinner.

ELMONT, N.Y. - The most impressive 2-year-old winner you've ever seen?

A majority of horsemen would agree that Arazi, in winning the Breeders Cup Juvenile of 1991 by five lengths, was the standout of standouts. He went past the others as if they were tied to a post in a stunning display of talent and youthful exuberance. The runner-up in the Juvenile that memorable afternoon was Bertrando, a gifted young horse struggling to compete on sore shins.

ARCADIA, Calif. - The post parade for next Saturday's $4 million Breeders' Cup Classic should be quite a show. One by one, they will emerge from the Belmont Park grandstand tunnel into the bright autumn afternoon, an all-star cast that will include the defending Classic champion and reigning Horse of the Year, the star of the Emirates World Series, the hero of the Epsom Derby, the overpowering winner of the Jockey Club Gold Cup and - what's this? - the horse who won the 1998 Manitoba Derby.

When Laurel Park belatedly began its fall season Wednesday, racing fans saw two conspicuous changes. One was the repair of the much-publicized cracked windows in the grandstand, and the presence of unsightly scaffolding outside those windows (to protect customers in case one of the panes should shatter). Most horseplayers won't care; they don't expect much in the way of aesthetics from the Maryland tracks, and in the age of simulcasting few sit in the grandstand and look out over the racing strip, anyway.