It has been 3 1/2 weeks since the Private Terms was run at Laurel Park, but the memory of the last-to-first run by Kid Cruz lingers. Kid Cruz, a son of Lemon Drop Kid, was out of the TV screen for much of the race, his actual presence confirmed because track announcer Dave Rodman kept calling his name.

Upon reading the rapidly spreading news of the PETA undercover video and its controversial behind-the-scenes look at the Steve Asmussen stable, D.G. Van Clief, Jr. experienced a vivid flashback to the morning after the 2002 Breeders’ Cup Championship held at Arlington Park.

It takes a few days to digest bad news. But the sour stomach persists, courtesy of the putrid video meal served up by assistant trainer Scott Blasi and the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, along with their enablers, Steve Asmussen and the New York Times.

There isn’t much marathon racing for horses in the United States anymore, but there are more and more marathon days of racing, with two of the richest and longest on Saturday: A 14-race card at Gulfstream, beginning at noon Eastern and ending with the Florida Derby at 6:48 p.m., and a 13-race card at Fair Grounds that starts at 12:30 p.m. Central and features the Louisiana Derby at 6:10 p.m., ending with a maiden-claiming race at 7:20.

I was not expecting much from the two 3-year-old stakes last weekend and definitely was underwhelmed by the Spiral Stakes at Turfway Park on Saturday. Then, I caught Chitu in the Sunland Derby on Sunday. He looked good all the way and finished like a serious Kentucky Derby contender with a 102 Beyer Speed Figure.

The Laurel Park training race appears as if it may go down to the final day of the meet on Saturday.

Heading into the last week, three trainers – Claudio Gonzalez, Juan Vasquez, and Kieron Magee – had 18 winners each. Hugh McMahon had 17.

Gonzalez, especially, has been hot, going 8 for 25 in March.

“The horses are doing good and I am putting them in the right spots,” said Gonzalez, who is spending the winter in Maryland for the second consecutive year. “I am going to try to enter as many runners as I can to win the title.”

Blame it on the Bird.

No single player is bigger than the game, or at least that’s what we are taught in school. But history has its way of producing exceptions to every rule.

Ayrton Senna was the greatest Formula 1 driver of the 1990s, but he pushed the envelope and drove with an aggressive abandon that antagonized his competitors and tested the safety limits of the sport. His death in May 1994 in a crash during the San Marino Grand Prix inspired changes to the cars and new emergency protocols. No Formula 1 driver has died in a race since then.

In its earliest incarnation, New Mexico’s 87-year-old KiMo Theatre was hailed as “America’s Foremost Indian Theatre,” or at least that’s what was proclaimed beneath its marquee. These days, there is opera, ballet, concerts, and all manner of movies, but there has been nothing at the KiMo – not even the Navajo language premiere of “Star Wars” – quite like what happened Wednesday night.

Having heard in the opening minutes of the latest board meeting of the New York Racing Association Reorganization Board that Aqueduct Race Track is is a “dirty and dangerous” place, I headed out to the Big A last Saturday to see if this is in fact the case.

It is not – but Aqueduct, like NYRA itself these days, is indeed a dysfunctional mess.

Charles Town will not only offer six stakes worth almost $2 million in total on its April 19 Charles Town Classic card, but the track also will offer a $100,000-guaranteed all-stakes pick four on the final four races.

Those races are the $50,000 Webb Snyder Charles Town Dash, the $100,000 Robert Hilton Memorial, the $200,000 Sugar Maple, and the $1.5 million Charles Town Classic.