Fans of Tale of Etaki take heed. No fewer than 11 past winners of the Wood Memorial have gone on to take the Kentucky Derby. The Big Brown bandwagon can play a similar tune, since 11 winners of the Florida Derby came back to win at Churchill Downs as well. And never forget the winners of the good old Blue Grass Stakes, running on Saturday at Keeneland. There have been 11 of those young guns gallop right down the road to Louisville and do it again on Derby Day.

ARCADIA, Calif. - One of the sweetest memories banging around inside this reporter's head was that moment during the Nov. 9 running of the 1974 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Aqueduct, in my first taste of New York racing, when Forego, Group Plan, and the rest of the field approached the finish line on their first time around.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Eoin Harty is a reasonable man. He doesn't ask for much. All he really wanted from Colonel John last Saturday in the Santa Anita Derby was a good effort that could translate into an even better one at Churchill Downs on May 3. Then the chips could fall.

There is a sneaking suspicion that ESPN's resident dry wit Kenny Mayne is more than a little familiar with the 18th century English writer William Godwin, who once flatly stated that "nothing is more uncertain, more contradictory, more unsatisfactory than the evidence of facts."

ARCADIA, Calif. - This may sound old-fashioned, but it should be okay to be 18 and still be doing a few things for the first time, like drinking, driving, and operating particular forms of emotionally complicated machinery.

On the other hand, a certain amount of youthful exuberance in a sport like horse racing might come in handy, which is why it is not a surprise to see a handful of noteworthy teenagers scattered throughout the history of the Santa Anita Derby.

NEW YORK - On a Saturday packed with 14 graded stakes, including five Grade 1's and three key Derby preps, the biggest question of all surrounds the 7-5 morning-line favorite in the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct: What can we expect from War Pass?

ARCADIA, Calif. - There have been Santa Anita Derby winners named for a movie character (Skywalker), a baseball coach (Larry the Legend), a western gunfighter (Jim French), and a racing pamphleteer (Indian Charlie) who, by his own admission, tries not to let the truth get in the way of a good story.

ARCADIA, Calif. - The last 29 winners of the Santa Anita Derby have been a mixed bunch, top-heavy with horses still fresh in mind. Sunday Silence, A.P. Indy, and Point Given each went on to become a Horse of the Year. Winning Colors continued in top form to take the Kentucky Derby. Snow Chief and Codex both won the Preakness, while Skywalker came back at 4 to win a Breeders' Cup Classic.

TUCSON, Ariz. - It may be comforting to have the luxury of picking your own poison, but it is hardly a long-term consolation.

American racing has many crises to choose from - medication, declining ontrack attendance, wagering integrity, lack of media coverage - but one it has not yet faced directly, and doesn't want to, raised its head last week half a world away.

It is only a matter of time before the issue of betting exchanges reaches these shores as a major issue.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Tuesday is April Fool's Day. Time to send in the clowns.

"I bet on a horse at ten-to-one. It didn't come in until half-past five." Henny Youngman said that. Ba-dum-bum.

"A racetrack is a place where windows clean people." Thank you, Danny Thomas.

"I met with an accident on the way to the track; I arrived safely." That was Joe E. Lewis.