The last time the Australian star Scenic Blast suited up for battle, he was running for a purse of $1.5 million in the Hong Kong Sprint at Sha Tin last December. On Sunday, he heads the field for the $60,000 Robert K. Kerlan Memorial Handicap at Hollywood Park.

NEW YORK − Here's the easiest bet you'll cash this weekend: Ask almost anyone around the racetrack, even an old-timer, what races make up the filly triple crown.

The Kentucky Oaks, Black-Eyed Susan, and CCA Oaks? This was never a fully organized or official series but was once considered a trio of races roughly parallel to the Derby, Preakness, and Belmont. No one has run that table since Davona Dale in 1979, and the Black-Eyed Susan has slipped in prestige and popularity, now a Grade 2 race that rarely draws a starter from the Kentucky Oaks two weeks earlier.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - If there are any lingering doubts about the hand-and-glove relationship of perception and reality, take a look at the major features being offered Saturday in New York and California.

Mark the day. June 22, 2010. This was the day the scales fell once and for all from the eyes of California's horse racing community.

At least, that's how it felt in the Sunset Room of the Hollywood Park Turf Club shortly after high noon on Tuesday when Frank Stronach, the man who controls Santa Anita Park and Golden Gate Fields through his real estate investment company, MI Developments, began to articulate his vision of horse racing.

The story behind the runnings of the Epsom Derby and the Belmont Stakes two weeks ago were less the tale of two racetracks than the tale of two different worlds.

For the first time in history on June 5, the Epsom Derby was run in a time faster than the Belmont Stakes. [See note at end.]

As both races are run at 1 1/2 miles, that may not sound the least bit surprising, until you take the nature of the two courses into account, at which point, this seemingly arcane bit of clock-watching takes on momentous proportions.

NEW YORK - If there had been future-book betting back in April on the site of the 2011 Breeders' Cup, you probably could have gotten at least 20-1 on the result that was announced Friday morning: Churchill Downs, which had been expected to host the Cup for the last time this year, will instead be the host for both 2010 and 2011.

NEW YORK - When King Edward VII died at the age of 68 on May 6, 1910, England was plunged into mourning for its immensely popular monarch. The man who lent his name to the more socially open-minded Edwardian Era when he assumed the throne in 1901 had been the public face of the Royal Family ever since his mother, Victoria, had withdrawn from the public scene upon the death of her husband Albert in 1861, when Edward was 19. His annual appearances at Royal Ascot reflected his love of horse racing and endeared him to the social set for which attendance at the Royal Meeting was de rigueur.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - With the exception of that flamboyant victory in the 2009 Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita Park, Zenyatta has made her history in small, relatively conventional pieces. Another one of those pieces comes along Sunday at Hollywood Park, when Zenyatta faces five in the $250,000 Vanity Handicap, a race she has won the past two seasons.

There are a few tried and true philosophies that have served Mace Siegel well through the years, in business and horse racing. Surround yourself with smart people. Take control of the meeting. Breed the best to the best and hope for a miracle. And above all, savor the good times but always be prepared for something less.

TUCSON, Ariz. - Thomas Friedman, the twice-weekly columnist of The New York Times editorial section and author of "The World Is Flat" and other influential books on world economics and sociology, is not a usual visitor to the racing pages.

Neither is Dr. Mohamed Abdulla El-Erian, the chief executive officer of PIMCO, the world's largest bond investor with $1 trillion in assets to manage.