INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The Hollywood Park jockeys' room looked like the baggage claim at LAX. Edgar Prado and Garrett Gomez were in from New York. Julien Leparoux and Rafael Bejarano made the trip from Kentucky. Yasunari Iwata and Hiroyuki Uchida had return tickets to Tokyo, while Michael Rodd, one of Australia's top young guns, had journeyed farthest of all.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - With all the action news pouring out of Hollywood Park lately, including the Gold Cup, the Oaks, the Vanity, the CashCall Mile, and a record pick six pool that apparently equaled the gross national product of Thailand, it was easy to miss a special little nugget tucked among the headlines.

Jack is back.

"I came out of the woodwork - a long time between drinks," exclaimed Hall of Fame trainer Jack Van Berg as he greeted The Golden Noodle after her romping score in the $111,000 Landaluce Stakes, part of the June 30 Gold Cup undercard.

NEW YORK - In the wake of last Monday's spectacular $10.8 million pick six pool at Hollywood Park, track executives around the country are doubtless pondering how they can cash in on the public appetite for these gigantic pools. In doing so, they may be embracing some common misconceptions about the wager that are already apparent in the way that tracks currently choose and arrange their pick six races.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - You gotta have faith. The fun will follow. That pretty much sums up the way syndicate manager Aron Wellman will lead his troops into the breach on Saturday when their Irish-bred filly Valbenny takes on an international array of talent in the sixth running of the $750,000 American Oaks.

NEW YORK - The cards at Belmont Park last weekend and on Wednesday featured a number of important performances that that will resonate through Saratoga and beyond.

WASHINGTON - It is easy to cite evidence that American Thoroughbred racing is in moribund condition. Attendance at great tracks is often pathetic; when 3,000 people rattle around cavernous Belmont Park, the atmosphere is dispiriting. Public interest and media coverage of the sport has dwindled for all but a few big races.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Just so there's no mix-ups, and to make sure folks take the right freeway exit, please note that the million-dollar Southern California horse race going off around 9 o'clock Friday night will not - repeat not - be run at the little Quarter Horse track on Katella Avenue in the town of Los Alamitos.

Any confusion would be understandable. In these parts, million-dollar races offered long after the sun has set usually are run on a straightaway, last about 20 seconds, and have names like the Ed Burke Futurity.

WASHINGTON - During the week of the Kentucky Derby, America's horseplayers learned suddenly that their industry was in the midst of a civil war. When they turned on TVG, the horse racing network that is available in

27 million U.S. homes, the network's familiar coverage of pre-Derby activities was absent, and Churchill Downs's races were gone, too. If horseplayers tried to bet the Derby at YouBet.com, the most prominent Internet wagering platform, a message on the computer screen informed them that contractual issues had forced YouBet to drop Churchill's races.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - There is a time, and this may be it, to close the books on what a particular horse means in terms of historical significance, to end the quibbling debate, and to simply savor the rich meal he has served.

NEW YORK - It has been refreshing to see the issue of early retirements and abbreviated careers generate the amount of public discussion that it has in recent weeks. Fans were widely dismayed by the rapid sale of breeding rights to Street Sense and Hard Spun, which virtually guaranteed they would be departing for stud within six months after their one-two finish in the Kentucky Derby.