The eyes of racing will be focused on the unfinished Thoroughbred 3-year-old products going postward on Sunday in the Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park, as Triple Crown fever begins to boil. And that’s fine. Despite the fact they won’t be fully matured for another two years or so and are roughly the equivalent of college freshmen football stars, they do represent the marquee athletes of the game. Let’s just hope they last.

On a February weekend unusually chock full of appearances by 2011 Eclipse Award winners and contenders – Amazombie, Awesome Maria, Perfect Shirl, Royal Delta, and The Factor are all making their 2012 debuts – the unveiling of greatest interest will come Sunday when Union Rags makes his first start as a 3-year-old in the Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream Park.

LAS VEGAS – I don’t know what the weather is like in your neck of the woods, but here in Vegas it feels like spring has sprung.

There was reason to celebrate the fact that no fewer than eight of the 10 Eclipse Award champions from 2011, including Horse of the Year Havre de Grace, would still be in training in 2012 for the pleasure of American audiences. How has that worked out so far?

Musical Romance, the durable female sprint champ, was first to break cover on Jan. 28 in the $150,000 Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Sprint at Gulfstream Park. She finished fourth while never showing much enthusiasm for the whole idea.

With a key presidential primary just around the corner, the media’s current obsession with all things Michigan is monopolizing the conversation as candidates burrow deep into both the upper and lower peninsulas.

At a time when much of the horse racing industry has been in decline, Tampa Bay Downs has been the sport’s shining success story. The Oldsmar, Fla., track attracted the attention of bettors from coast to coast by offering large, competitive fields with the potential for big payoffs, and its 2010-2011 winter season produced record results. Long regarded as a minor-league operation, Tampa averaged a stunning $4.57 million per day in wagers.

News item of the day:

“Stating that ‘there is no sustaining merit to the request,’ New York stewards have denied Dr. Kendall Hansen permission to dye the mane and tail of his near-white champion colt Hansen for his appearance in the Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct on March 3.”

With the field featuring the high-flying Ellafitz, the reliable Great Hot, and the emergent Miss Mittagong, Kayce Ace will be a longshot to win the $200,000 Santa Maria Stakes at Santa Anita on Saturday. But if that ever bothered owner Bill Casner, he’s way beyond it now.

When last we visited the agonies of Nina Kaiser, she was tearing at her close-cropped hair over the finer points of a life-size sculpture of two-time Horse of the Year and all-around folk hero John Henry. Figuring the eyes of racing history were looking over her shoulder at every turn, Kaiser was appropriately intimidated, but somehow she came through, as anyone will testify who has seen the final product presiding over the north rim of the Kingsbury Fountain in the paddock gardens of Santa Anita Park.

The process by which Thoroughbreds are bred, for private use or for market, and then trained to compete in a setting of parimutuel wagering for personal or corporate profit is woefully inefficient and ultimately wasteful.

This despite the fact that it sounds so glib in theory – breed the best to the best and hope for the best – and in practice can be aesthetically pleasing and downright romantic, at least when orchestrated by individuals who do not care how much money they lose.