ARCADIA, Calif. - It took this sports fan a long while to get over the Dodgers losing that three-game playoff to the despicable Giants at the end of the 1962 regular season. But I did. And it was weeks before I could show my face in public after watching Jumpin' Joe Kapp and my beloved Vikings stomped silly by the annoying Chiefs in the 1970 Super Bowl. Eventually, I coped.

NEW YORK - The battle for the New York Racing Association franchise in the coming months now appears likely to determine not only the future operation of racing in the state, but also the landscape of televised racing and account wagering across the country - and specifically the survival of the Television Games Network.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Get out the fire extinguishers and turn off the smoke alarms. Friday is the ninth of March, which means that two-time Horse of the Year John Henry is another year older. Again.

Cathy Roby, one of the long-suffering women in John Henry's cushy life at the Kentucky Horse Park near Lexington, said the first inquiry about a 32nd birthday party for the old scalawag came last October. Such positive thinking was admirable, Roby noted. But she politely replied that such plans were difficult to make in the case of a 31-year-old horse.

TUCSON, Ariz. - There is little in the way of interbreed cooperation in horseracing in North America, but there should be more.

Breed prejudices are costly, squandering both talent and potential influence, but it is a lesson that escapes even the wise.

ARCADIA, Calif. - It should be clear by now that Lava Man, when given a fighting chance, is prepared to win his races by any means necessary. The 70th running of $1 million Santa Anita Handicap last Saturday offered another nugget of proof, and there are 43,024 witnesses available to testify.

Faced with a Euro-style pace, courtesy of the deliberate Julien Leparoux aboard a relaxed Ball Four, Lava Man and his fellow competitors found themselves lobbing around the Santa Anita main track as if nothing more was at stake than a round of drinks in the clubhouse.

ARCADIA, Calif. - It took 44 runnings of the Santa Anita Handicap for a horse to win it twice, which is a testament not only to the quality of the horse who did it, but also to the difficulty of the task.

NEW YORK - It took nearly two years for the New York racing franchise issue to reach its inevitable destination: Square One. That's where things now officially stand after Wednesday's announcement by Gov. Eliot Spitzer that he is convening a new panel to assess both existing and possible new bids for the New York Racing Association's franchise, which expires Dec. 31.

In the spirit of Churchill Downs's Kentucky Derby Future Wager, it's time to open the pools for a NYRA Future Wager. Listed below are the seven scenarios in the running, with comments and morning-line odds.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - A storm passed through Broward County on Monday afternoon, briefly spoiling a lovely day. Not only did the skies darken, but the weather helped blacken the moods of many bettors at Gulfstream Park. They could say, with justification, that the day's events demonstrated how little the people in the racing industry think or care about their customers.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Of all the races that could have been chosen to be replaced by the Robert B. Lewis Stakes, none is more perfect than the Santa Catalina. Call it a happy accident.

Paulo Lobo will run the improving Molengao in Saturday's Big Cap.P

ARCADIA, Calif. - Two rows of bright red feed tubs, 14 to a row, were neatly aligned in the breezeway of Paolo Lobo's Hollywood Park barn. It was late Tuesday morning, time for brunch, and one of the hungriest customers was at his webbing, starting to drool.