NEW YORK - Is the Thoroughbred racing industry a professional sport like those whose popularity it envies, or a gambling enterprise like any other room full of slot machines? That question was answered bluntly this week by the industry's response to Tuesday's terrorist attacks on the United States, and it may change forever the way that American racing is perceived.

ELMONT, N.Y. - It's been visible.

The steady improvement of Lido Palace has been there for all of us to, see. His Suburban, in which he finished second to Albert the Great, was a pretty good effort, his Whitney at Saratoga, in which he beat Albert the Great with a nine-pound advantage in the weights, represented progress.

POMONA, Calif. - Isaias Enriquez, just shy of 16 years old and standing on the threshold of his dream, came home one Saturday afternoon and knew immediately that something was wrong. He could see it on the faces of his parents, and he could tell by the way his father quietly told him that his brother, Umberto, had been hurt.

"Is it bad?" Enriquez asked.

"Very bad," he was told.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Though he goes into the weekend second in the national standings for money won by trainers with approximately $9 million to Bob Baffert's $14 million, Bobby Frankel is positioning himself for a serious run at the Eclipse title that he first won in 1993.

Frankel is pointing Flute, winner of the Kentucky Oaks and Alabama Stakes, for the $750,000 Beldame on Oct. 6.

The trainer regards Flute as one of the finest that has come his way during a Hall of Fame career, and her performance in last month's Alabama at Saratoga may have been the best she has ever run.

NEW YORK - A few years ago, Keeneland Race Course was as unlikely a candidate as you could imagine for progressive gambling innovations. The place didn't even have a race caller and betting seemed an afterthought in an atmosphere where patrician breeders raced their pets just down the pike from their white-fenced nurseries.

ELMONT, N.Y. - With the retirement of the swashbuckling Point Given, Tiznow, the Horse of the Year 2000, is once again racing's premier box-office attraction. We should see some indication of his appeal on Saturday when he heads a strong field for the $500,000 Woodward Stakes, a weight-for-age feature at nine furlongs that is a stepping-stone to the Breeders' Cup Classic.

DEL MAR, Calif. - There were two parades at Del Mar on Wednesday. One of them celebrated the past. The other, not by coincidence, was called a futurity.

"I shouldn't have tranquilized him," said Bob Baffert as Point Given was led into the Del Mar walking ring by his groom, Roberto Luna. "I should have let him come in here on his back legs and really given the fans a show."

DEL MAR, Calif. - We've lost him now. Lost him to the glitz, the glamour, the Great White Way. Next thing you know, he'll be calling himself "Francisco" and waxing his moustache. He will drive a Ferrari, shop at Bijan, affect a Castillian accent. He will have "people" who will call your "people" to set up lunch at Elaine's.

WASHINGTON - My life, as I have known it, is over. The rest of it probably won't be worth living.

I refer, of course, to the demise of The Racing Network, which brought horse racing telecasts into the home. I could spend an afternoon at my desk and watch the complete cards from Pimlico, Delaware, Monmouth, and Philadelphia Park, among many other tracks, and phone my wagers into a telephone-betting account. TRN's six channels offered virtually nonstop action, day and night, from Thoroughbred, harness, and greyhound tracks across the country.

TUCSCON, Ariz. - With straight faces and solemn tones, officials of the Kentucky State Racing Commission have announced that they think the rest of the country should adopt their medication rules.

This is funny, but it's not a joke. Tom LaMarra reported it in The Blood-Horse magazine, quoting the commission's executive secretary as saying: "Everybody wants to use the word 'liberal' instead of the word 'progressive' to describe Kentucky. Maybe Kentucky ought to be the model for the United States. We are the template for change."