NEW YORK - The four-ring circus in Albany, N.Y., last week that passed for public hearings on the New York racing franchise was above all else an illustration of how fiction becomes accepted as truth when repeated often enough.

NEW YORK - Street Sense's performance in Saturday's Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland will be the defining moment of the run-up to the 2007 Kentucky Derby, and not just because it is the Derby favorite's final prep. The simple truth is that after nearly two dozen other Derby preps this year, not one of his contemporaries has caught up to where Street Sense was last November, in what is turning into a puzzlingly slow series of performances leading up to the main event.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Mr. X is back, the guy in the shades and the Mill Ridge cap, trying hard not to be noticed but failing miserably at the task.

To be honest, his cover was blown two years ago. Winning a Kentucky Derby will do that to you. But even with a second straight appearance at the Derby in 2006, John Shirreffs was able to return to the safety of his personal witness protection program, keeping his rugged California profile low while waiting for the next big thing to come along.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Don't be misled by the fact that a jockey has never ridden the winner of a Santa Anita Derby or a Kentucky Derby. That doesn't necessarily mean he doesn't know what it takes.

Aaron Gryder, for instance, found his teenage backside firmly planted aboard Ferdinand and Sunday Silence on many occasions during morning workouts for Charlie Whittingham. Ferdinand finished third in the 1986 Santa Anita Derby before winning in Kentucky, while Sunday Silence won them both.

NEW YORK - The showdown between Any Given Saturday and Nobiz Like Shobiz in the 83rd Wood Memorial at Aqueduct on Saturday is by far the best of the weekend's Kentucky Derby preps. Picking the betting favorite is as close a call as picking the winner in a fascinating matchup between two colts with all the earmarks of quality - despite both coming off defeats as 3-5 favorites last time out.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Now all grown up and looking like a million bucks, the 5-year-old Willow O Wisp galloped past trainer Vladimir Cerin on a warm Wednesday morning at Santa Anita Park. His neck was bowed, his stride light and fluid - the very picture of a horse enjoying his job. After more than 10 months away from the races, Willow O Wisp was clearly sitting on ready for his return, scheduled this Saturday in the Arcadia Handicap on the Santa Anita Derby undercard.

ARCADIA, Calif. - The Team Valor partnership headed by former turf writer Barry Irwin and HRTV handicapping guru Jeff Siegel will put its perfect Santa Anita Derby record on the line this Saturday with the Todd Pletcher-trained colt King of the Roxy, winner of the Hutcheson Stakes at Gulfstream in his most recent start.

Okay, so a perfect record of 1 for 1 is not exactly in the spirit of Personal Ensign (13 for 13) or the 1972 Miami Dolphins (17-0). But that one Santa Anita Derby was choice, coming in the 2000 running when Team Valor was represented by The Deputy.

TUCSON, Ariz. - Two experts in their fields who know horse racing and have enjoyed it for years, but are the harshest critics of its business model practices, told 200 racing executives at the recent joint meeting of the Thoroughbred Racing Associations and Harness Tracks of America that the industry still is trying to sell buggy whips in the age of computers and the Internet.

Bill Shanklin is a professor at the University of Akron's College of Business in Ohio. He has written penetrating articles on racing for years, for a number of trade publications of all breeds.

The first two weeks in April will be eventful ones for New York racing. At Aqueduct, the game finally returns to the main track April 4, and Grade 1 racing returns to the state for the first time since November with the Wood Memorial and Carter Handicap April 7. In Albany, Gov. Eliot Spitzer's new panel to resolve the state's racing franchise beyond 2007 will hear presentations from the four bidders at public hearings April 10 and 11.

ARCADIA, Calif. - When it comes to the most accomplished Thoroughbred generations, few stand the test of time better than the crop of 3-year-olds roaming the land half a century ago. Led by Bold Ruler, Round Table ,and Gallant Man, they dominated the debate from the drop of the flag, making 1957 one of the most memorable seasons on record.