DEL MAR, Calif. – They fall. They get up. They fall. They get up. After a while, you would think it would get old, and they would just stay down, by their own choice, and find something else to do. But taking such a path seems contrary to their deepest nature, the spiritual equivalent of wrapping themselves in the white flag of surrender. And so they fall. They get up. They fall.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – There has been no dancing in the streets of Saratoga, and the champagne has yet to be uncorked, but maybe – just maybe – the nine-year nightmare of New York racing ended this week with the selection of Genting New York to operate a racino at Aqueduct racetrack as soon as next spring.

There are few immediate consolations for losing a good friend. Having the best racehorse you’ve ever owned run a week after his death helps, but only so much.

So it will be on Saturday when Jerry Moss shares Zenyatta once again with California fans, in the $300,000 Clement L. Hirsch Stakes at a mile and one-sixteenth on the synthetic main track at Del Mar. Zenyatta won the Hirsch in 2008 and then again in 2009, both with her trademark, closing style that would seem to be compromised by the short Del Mar stretch.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Jack Van Berg is on a mission. He is determined that as many people as possible wrap their ears around a song about Zenyatta by country singer Liza G. Fly. Big Jack won’t exactly perform it for you, and it’s not like he’d be downloading Fly’s music video onto his iPad and shoving it under your nose. But he will hum a few bars if pressed, and there is something contagious about his enthusiasm for this latest slice of the evolving Zenyatta phenomenon.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – August already? It doesn’t feel like we’ve had seven months of racing in 2010, and what we’ve had hasn’t settled much or offered a lot of drama. That’s all about to change quickly: The 98 days of racing from Sunday’s Haskell through the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 6 will see 57 of the year’s 113 Grade 1 races decided.

Late on a Friday afternoon, as the sun did its thing with the low coastal light, Arnold and Ellen Zetcher posed beside an iron jockey perched atop a flower bed in the center of the Del Mar walking ring.

In what has become a local tradition, the top half of the statue was decorated in the bright racing colors worn by Zetcher runners, in this case representing Richard’s Kid, upset winner of the 2009 Pacific Classic. For Zetcher, the former chairman of Talbot’s clothing, it was a fashion moment to remember.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Pete Anderson, barrel-chested and bandy-legged, was an accomplished jockey of some repute who also was blessed with a useful arsenal of social skills. Because of this, stories he tells of high times and heady encounters with the likes of Jackie Gleason, Mickey Rooney, Betty Grable, and Rocky Marciano ring entertainingly true.

But then he went too far, when he dropped a very serious name.

TUCSON, Ariz. - The racing disaster in New Jersey - and it is just that - is the clearest demonstration yet of how powerless American racing is in a political environment dominated by casinos. Last week, a panel convened by Gov. Chris Christie recommended that the New Jersey racing industry should no longer receive financial assistance, and the Meadowlands racetrack should be closed or sold for a nominal fee.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Aristotle, that noted handicapper of the human condition, once wrote, “One swallow does not a summer make, nor does one fine day; similarly, one day or brief time of happiness does not make a person entirely happy.”

Nevertheless: Just four swallows into Saratoga 2010, it looks like opening up a few days early was a good idea, and it’s hard not to be optimistic about the 36 days of racing still ahead.

DEL MAR, Calif. – It’s good to be king, but it’s great to be John Sadler, especially at Del Mar.

Sadler has a solid shot this summer to win his third straight training title at the seaside meet. He opened the season with a smash of a race by the emerging 3-year-old star Twirling Candy in the Oceanside Stakes. He’s got his one-two punch of Oaks winners, Switch and Crisp, running Sunday in the San Clemente Stakes. And to top it off, he’s just about ready to move into new digs in tony La Jolla, just down the road.