ARCADIA, Calif. - There's a show knocking around on reality TV these days called "Undercover Boss," which puts a top executive in the trenches and behind the scenes of his or her own company, many times with enlightening results. Churchill Downs and its COO Bill Carstanjen were featured last week. The format can be entertaining - the show has been renewed - and the bosses have been good sports for giving it a shot.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Sue me if I still like the San Luis Rey. Maybe it's the mission. Maybe it's the bridge. Maybe it's the nearly six decades of history packed with horses like John Henry, Quicken Tree, Fiddle Isle, Sandpit, Interco, Noble Dancer, Bien Bien, Perrault, and Kotashaan.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Ricardo Zamora was not supposed to be a major player in the big day last Saturday at Santa Anita. The day was supposed to belong to Zenyatta, and only Zenyatta, who was making her 2010 debut in search of her 15th victory without a defeat in the Santa Margarita Handicap.

NEW YORK - The news from New York, New Jersey, and Hollywood was mostly bad this week, with purse cuts, canceled stakes races and abridged racing schedules dominating the headlines. Misery loves company, however, so American racing might take some comfort from the problems currently plaguing every racing nation in Europe.

ARCADIA, Calif. - There was a shake-up among jockeys' agents at Santa Anita the other day, when Joel Rosario, one of the circuit's leading riders, left Vic Stauffer for Ronnie Ebanks, who had been repping for Eclipse Award winner Tyler Baze.

There also was sunrise in the east and somewhere a dog bit a man, so nobody spilled any coffee when they heard the news.

ARCADIA, Calif. - At long last, the secret's out. The secret of Zenyatta's success. All those wiseguys and diehards who wax poetic over her scope, her stride, her devastating drive were all around the mark. Mike Smith did drop a hint not long ago when he talked about Big Mama "getting so much more air" these days, but it sounded like something a fitness freak would say, all inside baseball and aerobic. As it turns out, the jock wasn't kidding.

Ann Moss blows in Zenyatta's nose.

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. - Indians gave this lush desert oasis its name almost 200 years ago, and gold prospectors came later by stagecoach, long before realtors and the wealthy discovered it.

This week, almost 100 executives of North American Thoroughbred and harness racing are here, along with some of the world's best tennis players gathered for a major tournament.

The tennis players are seeking fame and fortune.

Up in the stands, Gary Stevens saw it coming.

"Oh, Danny," Stevens said, his eyes glued to the big infield video board."That's the kid in there. Come on, kid. Either get in or get out."

This was all fair warning. Stevens and the Thursday crowd at Santa Anita were witnessing an education on the fly. Tyler Kaplan, all of 16 and riding his first professional race for trainer Vladimir Cerin, was letting his mare, Soldier Betty, probe a narrow space between the rail approaching the three-eighths pole and the filly Too Pink, ridden by the hard-boiled veteran, Danny Sorenson.

NEW YORK -The New York Racing Association finally released the stakes schedules for the Belmont spring-summer and Saratoga meetings this past week, and there are some significant changes to the familiar landscape of major racing fixtures in New York.

The most notable is moving the Coaching Club American Oaks, first run at Belmont in 1917, to the opening Saturday of the Saratoga meet, which has been expanded from 36 to 40 days this year.

ARCADIA, Calif. - The dynamics of a serious, high-quality racing stable usually requires there be one or two runners who carry the financial load while waiting for the rest to come through. In the case of Ann and Jerry Moss, their stable has floated along these past two years on the wings of Zenyatta, but they have got more than one horse. Really, they do. A whole boatload, in fact, or at least sometimes it seems that way, with so many mouths to feed. So, while waiting for Zenyatta's next roll to begin, if one of them would like to step up, they should feel free.