WASHINGTON - Experts can cite many possible reasons for the downturn in the U.S. Thoroughbred racing business, which has seen total wagering plunge from $14.7 billion in 2007 to $12.3 billion last year. But almost every racing fan would cite one simple explanation for this phenomenon. The sport's day-to-day product has never been worse.

NEW YORK - The headlines are depressing, at least to anyone who still reads newspapers. Belmont and Saratoga to close. Oak Tree booted out of Santa Anita. The Breeders' Cup homeless. Hollywood Park to become a housing development.

Maybe all of this can be avoided, but the fact that people are discussing the possibilities is very bad news. Can anything be done about it? A more pointed question might be: Why wasn't anything done in the last 25 years to prevent it?

As sometimes happens in the zero-sum world of modern media, proper attention to the deaths of champions Skip Away and Snow Chief was lost in the coverage of the recent Preakness Stakes. These were two remarkable racehorses, among the most dominant of their generations, and vivid examples of exceptional runners coming from absolutely anywhere. Both were victims of heart attacks, and if nothing else, both of the old stallions deserved credit for reaching the end with classic timing.

Ron Charles, in his role as president of Santa Anita Park, boarded a flight from Los Angeles last Friday headed for Baltimore. He was flying first class, but even so he was delighted to discover that he would have interesting company and more than plenty of elbow room for the hours ahead. Martin Garcia was in the next seat.

TUCSON, Ariz. - The men and women who write media reviews of movies and shows are artistic, and also a bit artful at times. They have been known on occasion to stretch the language almost to the breaking point, and they spew superlatives like a popcorn machine gone mad.

When they toss around terms like "Breathtaking, Dazzling. Spectacular," it's time to pause, have a drink, and look for a critical review rather than rely on one-line paeans of praise.

The last time Mike Pegram won the Preakness, the lights went out at Pimlico, there was an electrical fire near the jockeys' room, and folks were wandering around in dark hallways and stairwells, trying to find someplace to bet.

One morning at Tampa Bay Downs, a quarter of a century or so ago, the veteran rider David Penna took a 17-year-old apprentice by the hand and led her from the jocks' room lunch counter into the Florida sunshine and out onto the track.

"What're you doing?" she protested. "My food's coming."

"There's someone I want you to meet," Penna explained. "Been wanting to meet you for a while now. Someone who will be very important to you."

Upon reaching the inside of the track, at about the eighth pole, Penna placed the bug's hand on the white rail.

WASHINGTON - Super Saver was blessed by racing luck when he won the Kentucky Derby, and fortune has continued to smile on him as he awaits the Preakness.

Ice Box, who was badly blocked in the stretch run before finishing second, was probably the best horse at Churchill Downs, and he might have been favored to win at Pimlico on Saturday. But trainer Nick Zito opted to skip the second leg of the Triple Crown and await the Belmont Stakes, sparing Super Saver a challenge by his most formidable potential rival.

NEW YORK - Lookin At Lucky and Super Saver both figured to run the best races of their careers in the Kentucky Derby two weeks ago. Both were making only their third starts of the year off winter freshenings and had been trained more with an eye to peaking on Derby Day than in necessarily winning their preps.

WASHINGTON - Trainer Todd Pletcher has one source of concern as he brings Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver into the Preakness: the calendar. He frets about putting his colt back into competition only two weeks since he ran at Churchill Downs.