SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - It still feels weird to talk about the Woodward being run at Saratoga, as it will be for the second year Saturday after a 38-year run at Belmont Park from 1968 through 2005. The move made sense on a couple of counts, but some of its historic appeal has been lost in the relocation.

DEL MAR, Calif. - It has been a banner week for sincere apologies, agonized explanations and public recriminations, in both the world of sports and the pit of politics. For instance:

"I take full responsibility for my actions. Not for one second will I sit right here and point the finger and try to blame anybody else for my actions or what I've done."

And . . .

DEL MAR, Calif. - There are no guarantees of continuity among racing's greatest stables. Just because mom and dad had a blast and made their mark in the Thoroughbred world doesn't mean that the kids will follow suit when their time comes.

The recent announcement by the Eclipse Award-winning Golden Eagle Farm that it will reduce its horse holdings from 282 to a couple dozen over the next six months is merely the latest example of an empire that dwindles or disappears as one generation gives way to the next.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Among the laments floating around during Del Mar's first summer under the influence of Polytrack is that the new surface has effectively severed any links with the past when it comes to the traditional marriage of speed and class.

In firing a parting shot at the new surface, before removing his horses from the Del Mar backstretch, owner Ahmed Zayat bemoaned the fact that Del Mar's brand of Polytrack was "taking the speed out" of the game and dulling the innate brilliance of Thoroughbreds.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - The best horse racing movie of this or many other years is not a big-bucks Hollywood fantasy or one of those lavish Ruffian or Barbaro tear-jerkers from ESPN or HBO. It's "The First Saturday in May," a $500,000 documentary shot in digital video by Brad and John Hennegan, sons of a longtime racetrack official who quit their video-production jobs two years ago to make their first film, a chronicle of the road to the 2006 Kentucky Derby.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Gary Tanaka can be forgiven if he identifies deeply with his grass horse Atlando, who runs on Sunday against After Market and Runaway Groom in the $250,000 Del Mar Handicap.

There are all sorts of adventurous and potentially lucrative wagers to be made Saturday at Saratoga on a 12-race card with 150 entrants for races totaling $2.048 million in purses. None of them, however, involves betting against Street Sense to win the 138th Travers Stakes.

DEL MAR, Calif. - There it was. Plain as day. Cards on the table and few holds barred.

The epic struggle over just how much profit is enough profit was played out Wednesday morning in a boardroom at the offices of the California's 22nd Agricultural Association, where the commissioners of the California Horse Racing Board asked representatives of the Bay Meadows Land Co. to divulge once and for all their intentions for their two prime California holdings, Bay Meadows and Hollywood Park.

WASHINGTON - Great racetracks are defined, in part, by the size of the purses they offer. Saratoga, Belmont Park, and Keeneland pay prize money averaging more than $500,000 a day; the money attracts top-class stables and horses that allow the tracks to maintain their lofty reputations.

TUCSON, Ariz. - They don't give Eclipse Awards for racing officials with guts, but if they ever get around to it, Joe Gorajec, the

veteran executive director of the Indiana Racing Commission, will win by 20 lengths, handily. Events two weeks ago showed why.

A federal judge in Indianapolis, ruling in a case in which a well-known trainer and his wealthy principal owners challenged Gorajec's refusal to license the trainer because of his past record, made it clear that Gorajec acted clearly within his authority.