Old-timers are trying not to get too excited over the idea of 125-pound co-highweights in the $100,000 Valentine Dancer Handicap at Santa Anita Park on Saturday. After all, handicaps are pretty much going the way of the rotary dial phone, or MySpace. And with the scale of weights trending upward – maiden fillies carry 122 on the same card – the 125’s do not really threaten the memory of Forego and Discovery.

LAS VEGAS – Carmelo Anthony’s trade from the Denver Nuggets to the New York Knicks this past week was big news. Or was it?

Before the high tide of history washes over last weekend’s action, it might be wise to linger just a moment longer on the running of the San Luis Obispo Handicap, won by Champ Pegasus by a nose over Bourbon Bay at the end of 1 1/2 miles. It was one of those races.

TUCSON, Ariz. – You may have read Suzanne Craig’s recent New York Times feature headlined “Taking Risks, Making Odds” on Lee Amaitis, now a power in Las Vegas with his Cantor Fitzgerald gaming subsidiary.

The paper thought enough of the story to start it with a three-column color shot on its main business section page and jump it to another half-page inside.

NEW YORK – There is reason to believe that we may have our first foreign-trained horse in this year’s Kentucky Derby.

Readers of the Agatha Christie classic “Murder on the Orient Express” will recall that the victim, referred to as Mr. Ratchett, was found to have been stabbed a dozen times. As it turned out, the fatal wounds were inflicted by a dozen different culprits. Mr. Ratchett, meet Oak Tree.

Coincidence, trend, or conspiracy – doesn’t matter. One look at the fields for the two major grass races being run in Florida and California on Saturday is enough to bring hope to the darkest heart.

At Gulfstream, 13 have been entered to run 1 3/8 miles for a purse of $150,000 in the Grade 2 Mac Diarmida, named for the male turf champion of 1978.

At Santa Anita, another 13 have been entered to run 1 1/2 miles for a purse of $150,000 in the Grade 2 San Luis Obispo, named for the coastal town halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. You’d like it.

There is a golden cluster of racing books that has continued to inspire and entertain aficionados down through the years. To read them is to ingest the most satisfying, nutritional meal.

Most serious libraries are topped by either “This Was Racing,” Joe Palmer’s collection of columns, with comments by Red Smith, or “The Fireside Book of Horse Racing,” the anthology edited by David F. Woods. To own them is to never need suffer an evening of boredom.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – A bettor playing Gulfstream Park’s races last month cashed a ticket that was almost unprecedented in U.S. parimutuel wagering. He collected $221,677 for a winning combination that cost 10 cents.

The wager, dubbed the Rainbow Six, represents an innovation sweeping the sport: the microbet. Whereas the $2 bet once was the industry’s standard, and most exotic wagers have been sold in $1 units, many tracks have begun to offer smaller bets.

The shutdown of New York City Off-Track Betting two months ago was painful for its employees and has reduced total betting in New York state, but has also had some silver linings: Ontrack business has increased, and a larger share of the remaining handle is going to the tracks and purses. Perhaps the most promising development to arise from the situation is that legislators are finally taking a serious look at consolidating the state’s five remaining regional OTB’s, an overdue move that would fix a fundamental flaw in New York racing.