ELMONT, N.Y. - With the addition of slot machines to its operation at Woodbine last year, the Ontario Jockey Club, as it was then known, experienced dramatic growth. Purses for the combined Thoroughbred and harness meetings shot up from $95 million to $145 million, and there were countless other illustrations of progress.

NEW YORK - There's plenty of difference of opinion on the California Horse Racing Board's order this week to fine and suspend trainer Bob Baffert for a trace-level postrace morphine positive at Hollywood Park 14 months ago. Some have applauded the stewards' courage for strictly enforcing the regulations against a popular and high-profile horseman. Others say the CHRB is on a continuing vindictive witch hunt that has nothing to do with protecting the integrity of the sport.

ELMONT, N.Y. - It may look to you like just another stall in just another barn at Philadelphia Park, but it is home to Jostle, and it means a great deal to her.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - In order to save the village, the California Horse Racing Board seems intent upon destroying it. That is precisely what will happen to the Thoroughbred sport in California if the Board persists in its misguided administration of medication rules and penalties. California will become the Afghanistan of the racing world, a culture ruled by fanatics who maintain order by a cruel, outdated code.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - No, he hasn't won five Kentucky Derbies. And if pressed, he can only carry a passable tune. But even though such luminaries as Bill Hartack, Shane Sellers, Laffit Pincay Jr., and Pat Day will be present Friday night at Lone Star Park, the real star of the evening should be a gentleman named Earlie Fires.

ELMONT, N.Y. - As Canada prepares to open its classic racing season Sunday with the 142nd running of the $1 million Queen's Plate, a lady is stealing all the headlines.

Dancethruthedawn has many captivating charms, all of them turned on in the Labatt Woodbine Oaks two weeks ago. Despite racing four wide, she finished strongly to win the nine-furlong test by an emphatic 1 1/2 lengths in the colors of Sam-Son Farm. Ten years ago, Sam-Son won the Plate with an exceptional filly, Dance Smartly. They also won it last year with a colt named Scatter the Gold.

TUCSON - Unfortunately, they don't give Eclipse awards for courage under fire, but if they did this year's statuettes would go hands down to David Samuel and Tom Ward and Ingrid Fermin, stewards of the California Horse Racing Board.

Last Sunday, after an eight-day hearing in April and contemplation in May, the stewards suspended American racing's poster boy, trainer Bob Baffert, he of the snow white mane and quick and clever sound bite, for 60 days for a morphine positive in Nautical Look, a runner under his custody and control.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Let's not jump the gun.

So far we've got no more than a coincidence. An unraced late-bloomer emerges at Santa Anita as a 3-year-old, shows immediate promise in a handful of starts, then wins the Affirmed Handicap with a dead game effort in his graded stakes debut at Hollywood Park.

ELMONT, N.Y. - She was coming off a smart performance, but these were much better fillies. Actually, her cause looked bleak, for she was head-and-head with the favorite through a punishing first quarter in 21.97 seconds and a draining half-mile in 44.32.

WASHINGTON - Perhaps Thoroughbred racing isn't dead.

Popular response to the Belmont Stakes amazed even the dwindling number of optimists within the sport. Although no horse was in position to sweep the Triple Crown, 73,857 turned out at Belmont Park and television ratings were up 44 percent from last year. The Belmont came amid other positive signs: booming business and television ratings for the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, as well as the presence of a horse racing book, "Seabiscuit: An American Legend," atop the bestseller lists.