NEW YORK - For most of the last 25 years, the Saturday that Belmont Park presented the Jockey Club Gold Cup and several other major stakes was billed and known as "Breeders' Cup Preview Day." There was a Grade 1 race that corresponded to each of the biggest Breeders' Cup events, and the Belmont races produced most of the favorites and many of the winners of the Cup races.

ARCADIA, Calif. - The Oak Tree Racing Association, now in business a full 40 years, was born into a culture in turmoil. The year 1969 was the time of Richard Nixon, Neil Armstrong, and Charles Manson. There was Woodstock, My Lai, and Chappaquiddick, "Midnight Cowboy," "The Godfather," and the "Age of Aquarius."

NEW YORK - Fair skies have been forecast for the Paris region through Monday with generally fine weather and only a chance of showers expected in the last few days before the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe on Sunday, Oct. 4. This is good news for the connections of Sea the Stars as they prepare their five-time Group 1 winner for the biggest test of his career.

NEW YORK - Dedicated horseplayers may want to use this last Sunday of September, when the biggest race in North America is the Grade 3 British Columbia Derby in Vancouver, to polish off their outstanding domestic chores or stroll in the park. Once October begins, their weekends are about to get a lot busier.

NEW YORK - In the year 2000, Kentucky Cup Day at Turfway Park featured four graded stakes worth a combined $1 million, and each one featured prominent horses who would go on to make serious noise at the Breeders' Cup seven weeks later.

John Gosden did not exactly sneak into town last fall for the Breeders' Cup. When you're 6-foot-4 and possessed of a booming, BBC baritone that can be heard, without amplification, all the way to the back row, heads tend to turn. The fact that he escaped with the biggest prize of all also left an impression.

TUCSON, Ariz. - If you like roller coasters, you'll love what's going on in Ohio.

Gov. Ted Strickland stopped racing from getting slots a year or so ago. Then, faced with a budget crisis this summer, he reversed his field and by executive fiat announced that he was awarding 2,500 slots to each of Ohio's seven tracks - four harness and Thistledown, Beulah Park, and River Downs - and lowering the legal age for gambling from 21 to 18.

The latter move drew public criticism, and last week the governor again reversed his field, saying he was changing the age back to 21.

The only graded stakes races in North America Sunday, and the only Grade 1 races on the continent until October, are north of the border, where Woodbine will stage the $1 million Woodbine Mile and the $750,000 Northern Dancer. While you have to knock down those purses by 6 percent to reflect the current rate of currency exchange between the United States and Canada, don't also mentally knock down their grades: When Canada calls a race a Grade 1, it actually means it.

Since it is one of the weaker aspects of human nature to be able to concentrate on only one thing at a time - pick-six carryovers being the obvious exception - I say thank goodness that Rachel Alexandra's remarkable season has come to an end. Now, it will be possible to take a look at what was missed while she dominated the conversation.

NEW YORK - Last Sunday's Washington Cup Day at Emerald Downs featured seven consecutive $50,000 stakes races for horses sired or bred in Washington State or British Columbia, several of them apparent mismatches, including an odds-on favorite. This did not escape the notice of some out-of-state simulcast bettors who thought it would be better than stealing to bet them to show.