The San Marcos Stakes – formerly the San Marcos Handicap – has been run since 1952. In that first running, at a mile on the main track, the 1950 Horse of the Year, Hill Prince, made his first start as a 5-year-old and won under a pull, setting himself up as the favorite for the Santa Anita Handicap three weeks later.

Unfortunately, Hill Prince was beginning to show the wear and tear of his 29-race career. He finished fifth in the Handicap, under 129 pounds, and was retired to stud before he had a chance to cool out.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – After Animal Kingdom won the 2011 Kentucky Derby, he lost the Preakness, lost the Belmont Stakes, and sustained a leg fracture that put him on the sidelines. If he had followed the usual practice of the Thoroughbred industry, he would never have raced again.

As far as this year’s most popular Super Bowl ad is concerned, you could play Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham doing “Landslide” over a hobo cleaning his fingernails with a toothpick and most people – as long as they harbor some inner emotional life – would get teary-eyed. It’s that kind of tune.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Big jackpots in the pick six stir more excitement than almost anything else in American racing. The atmosphere at tracks is electric and fans are obsessed when they have a chance to shoot for a six- or seven-digit payoff. But there has rarely been sustained drama quite like the current mania at Gulfstream Park, where the Rainbow 6 – a devilish mutant of the conventional pick six – has thwarted bettors for more than a month. When racing resumes on Wednesday, the jackpot will start at $1,399,086.

That sound you hear is the gnashing of teeth over the state of the older horse division, as represented Sunday at Santa Anita by a five-horse version of the San Antonio Stakes.

Five horses running for a purse of $200,000 seems counter-intuitive, given the costs of running a racing stable these days. The fees for the San Antonio are $3,200, hardly prohibitive, and running third would net an okay profit of about $20,000, which at least could help pay the bills. Then again, there’s nothing easier than spending other people’s money, so let’s go to war with the San Antonio we have.

There were plenty of good reasons for Aqueduct to cut back to a four-day racing week for the rest of the winter – just not the one that the New York Racing Association cited when it announced the reduction Thursday and which is now being widely reported as its reason for doing so.

The three-sentence press release issued by the NYRA on Thursday said that eliminating five Wednesday and one Thursday card over the next five weeks “was one of several equine safety initiatives approved by the NYRA board at its most recent meeting.”

LAS VEGAS – Every year I get the question: “Are you going to the Super Bowl?” (And the other variations for the Kentucky Derby, Breeders’ Cup, etc.)

My answer is always the same: “Nope, I’m staying here. This is where the action is.”

We’ll be joined by 311,000 visitors this weekend, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Bureau, that obviously feel the same way. For comparison’s sake, I’ve seen estimates of 150,000 to 204,000 expected at the actual game site in New Orleans (with just 70,000 game tickets).

Bellbottoms are in. Ditto wide ties and beehives. This must be true because North American turf milers are suddenly all the rage. The geeks have become the new glamour division, no longer merely a sub-category of a sub-category, which is why it is no surprise that 14 of them are lining up on Saturday at Santa Anita Park in the $150,000 Arcadia Stakes, their first major opportunity of the new year.

Every January, the Eclipse Awards ceremony provides a reflective look back at the best of the previous season. For 2012 Special Eclipse Award recipient Nick Nicholson it was an opportunity not only to take stock of a long, distinguished career, but also to dispense some advice well worth heeding.

LAS VEGAS – Welcome to the 13th annual ROI Awards.

The Eclipse Awards were held at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla., last Saturday to honor the best in our sport. While we in Vegas politely applaud the athletic ability of the champion horses, we horseplayers cheer loudest for our money.