NEW YORK - Jockeys often seem bewildered that they don't get more support for the issues they care about from horsemen and racing fans. Perhaps they should consider how selfish and unsympathetic their leaders sometimes make them appear to the owners, trainers, and horseplayers who provide their livelihood. Two recent incidents, a walkout at Aqueduct on Feb. 3 and an ongoing suit in northern California, are cases in point.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Since all work and no play can make even light-hearted Robert Frankel a dull and grouchy boy, the Hall of Fame trainer is blowing the California scene this weekend to immerse himself in one of the Western Hemisphere's most gloriously decadent celebrations.

Mr. Frankel, meet King Momo.

That's right. From Friday night through Fat Tuesday, when the sun goes down and the blood begins to boil, Brooklyn Bobby will turn into Roberto de la Samba as one of the hundreds of thousands of visitors descending upon Rio de Janeiro for its fabled Carnival.

ARCADIA, Calif. - She could have been a write-off, ancient history, just another young and talented filly who fell by the wayside after a couple of splashy displays. In a few years she would have sent a foal to the races, and her name would have bubbled to the surface again, tinged with the regrets of what kind of racehorse Balance might have been.

The good news is, she still might be that racehorse.

It takes a lot to knock a love triangle involving a homicidal, diaper-wearing astronaut off the front pages of New York's tabloids, but Gov. Eliot Spitzer managed to do it last week. By last Friday, New York Post headlines such as "Astro-nut!" and "Lust in Space" had been superceded by "Sluggo Spitzer a Raging Bull," after the newly elected governor declared war on the entire state legislature.

ARCADIA, Calif. - It will come as no surprise, to anyone who knows her at all, that Trudy McCaffery, the daughter of Canadian football icon Fritz Hanson, is not going down without a fight.

Since she burst onto the scene in the early 1990's with good horses like Mane Minister, Nice Assay, and Visible Gold - all owned in partnership with John Toffan - McCaffery has been the bantamweight champion of the best possible racing world. If there is a right side to an issue, you will find McCaffery on it.

HALLANDALE, Fla. – When Broward County voters approved the legalization of slot machines, Gulfstream Park was blessed. The devices, which went into operation in November, make Gulfstream the most important U.S. racetrack among those that have become “racinos.”

ARCADIA, Calif. - Whitey, we hardly knew ye!

It was a grand run, these past 45 days, to be known forever in the Santa Anita annals as the brief but glorious Michael McCarthy era. Sadly, though, it all comes to an end when the clock strikes midnight on Saturday, the coach turns into a pumpkin, and McCarthy - Whitey, to his old California compadres - goes back to his role as Todd Pletcher's West Coast alter ego.

NEW YORK – The first of the year’s three Kentucky Derby Future Wager pools operated by Churchill Downs opened for betting Thursday afternoon amid the same palpable lack of enthusiasm that has surrounded the bet in recent years. As currently constructed, the wager lacks the appeal of true winter-book wagering and seems doomed to continue its recent performance of attracting small and stagnant pools without capturing the public imagination.

TUCSON, Ariz. - With a million words already logged about America's lost and lamented hero horse, all sympathetic, some saccharin, a few silly, no more are needed here.

Everyone from Jane Smiley to Rush Limbaugh has weighed in at length, and a book is certain to reach the newsstands shortly to capitalize on the nation's grief.

So I will forgo adding more amateur theories about the psychology behind this nationwide mourning, and scratch a few lines instead on the insidious disease that killed Barbaro.

HALLANDALE, Fla. - When a longshot named Margarita Kid ran away with a race at Gulfstream Park, horseplayers knew there were two possible explanations for the performance. Either the victory was a total fluke, or else it had been orchestrated by a consummate wise guy.