ARCADIA, Calif. - According to the website of the Museum of Hoaxes, the only horse-related prank on the list of the Top 100 April Fool's Day Hoaxes of all time took place in Venice, Italy, on April 1, 1919.

ARCADIA, Calif. - In the spirit of being both fair and reasonably balanced, the following items run the gamut of good news to bad. The

reader has the final say.

* For those who think horse slaughter is a good idea, it was probably bad news Wednesday when a U.S. district court judge in Washington, D.C., took the Department of Agriculture to the woodshed over its failure to conduct an environmental impact review before allowing slaughterhouses to use private inspectors to stay in business.

NEW YORK - So whodoyalike in the seventh at Nad Al Sheba Saturday?

The showdown between Invasor and Discreet Cat in the $6 million Dubai World Cup is not only a race between between the planet's two best dirt horses, but also a classic racetrack showdown between achievement and brilliance. Whether your gut has you rooting for Invasor or Discreet Cat may simply reflect what type of really good horse you prefer. Do your tastes run more to Cigar and his 16 consecutive victories or to Ghostzapper's shorter string of more dazzling efforts?

ARCADIA, Calif. - In case no one had noticed, Saturday's $6 million Dubai World Cup, the richest horse race on planet Earth, will feature exactly zero representation of American Thoroughbred ownership.

This follows only four months after the $4.1 million Japan Cup, the world's richest grass race run outside of Dubai, which was likewise bereft of any participation by an American owner.

Talk about a trade imbalance.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Last Thursday, when the California Horse Racing Board refused to let Bay Meadows operate for the next two years unless it installed a synthetic main track surface, track president F. Jack Liebau called it "a day of infamy" and announced that Bay Meadows, after 73 years of operation, probably would not bother to apply for racing dates in 2008.

"Apparently, they won't license us, so I don't see where they would allocate us any dates," Liebau said Monday.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Ron Crockett read the news that Bay Meadows would be closing at the end of 2007 and sighed, thinking once again that such a fate could have befallen Emerald Downs at almost any time during its first, tenuous decade of operation.

It was Crockett who lead the resurrection of racing in the Pacific Northwest after Boeing bought historic Longacres in 1990 and almost immediately turned it into an aircraft plant. After four years without significant Seattle-area sport, Crockett and Northwest Racing Enterprises opened Emerald Downs in 1996, and racing was back.

NEW YORK - The recent decision by the Eighth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals to overturn the 2005 convictions of Susan Bala and Racing Services Inc. shed some interesting light on both prosecutorial overreaching and the status of account wagering in American racing.

NEW YORK - The 3-year-old classic crop of 2007 is taking shape as a deep and refreshingly consistent group. The first four finishers from the 2006 Breeders' Cup Juvenile have already all returned to win graded stakes races this year, with Street Sense taking the Tampa Bay Derby, Circular Quay the Louisiana Derby, Great Hunter the Bob Lewis, and Scat Daddy the Fountain of Youth.

ARCADIA, Calif. - In describing the investment required for his job as a jockey's agent, the blissfully profane Pete Wilson, now departed, boiled the gig down to its bedrock essentials: "You can get a pencil for a nickel," Wilson said. "The condition book is free."

DEL MAR, Calif. - It doesn't matter if the stands are deserted, the local streets are empty, and the wind is whipping chilly off the Pacific Ocean. It was the first day of spring, and the Del Mar Fairgrounds was a happening place.

The jumping crowd has gathered in strength for this week's Palms Classic Horse Show, with $50,000 in prize money up for grabs on Saturday in the World Cup Grand Prix.