On Sept. 20, six days after being involved in a five-horse wreck at Delaware Park, Jose Ferrer underwent surgery to remove a build-up of fluid surrounding the lung, which was punctured by one or more of his eight fractured ribs. In addition to the ribs and the punctured lung, Ferrar also cracked two vertabrae in the accident and contracted pneumonia while hospitalized.

Awakened Monday morning to the massacre in Las Vegas and the ongoing tragedy of Puerto Rico’s devastation. No place to run or hide. This is my country, our country. How dare we let these things happen. And now … horse racing!

There was a little something for everyone in Saturday’s eight Grade 1 events (and Breeders’ Cup preps) at Santa Anita and Belmont. But I’m a fool for an exciting 2-year-old, so for me (and for many others, I’m sure), Bolt d’Oro’s sensational victory in the FrontRunner Stakes carried the day.

Here we go again, another fabulous filly, this one running on Sunday in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, Europe’s most famous horse race.

Winx, Beholder, Songbird, Gentildonna, Rachel Alexandra, Zenyatta, Black Caviar – the head spins at the excitement generated in just the last 10 years. This one’s name is Enable, a granddaughter of both Galileo and Sadler’s Wells who is owned by Juddmonte Farms and trained by John Gosden, so I guess she really shouldn’t be a surprise.

That blur whirling around Santa Anita on Saturday afternoon will be Keith Desormeaux, who is running nine horses on the splashy opening Saturday of the meet, including starters in four of the five Grade 1 races on the program.

The day is being billed as a Breeders’ Cup preview of the big dance at Del Mar on Nov. 3 and 4. As far as Desormeaux is concerned, though, the opportunities present nothing less than a chance to reboot a fitful season, and he thinks he has the ammo to get it done.

Among the graded races offered on the California stakes schedule, 22 are named for well-known horses, 14 honor a variety of owners, trainers, racetrack executives and celebrities, and two are named for jockeys. One of those jockeys is Bill Shoemaker. The other is Eddie Delahoussaye.

There was little, if any, doubt following his romp in last month’s Travers that West Coast had emerged as the best 3-year-old male in the country. But in our game, there can often be a big difference between “best,” and “most accomplished,” a distinction that can prove critical in an Eclipse Award context.

There is a small stakes race on the Oklahoma Derby undercard at Remington Park this Sunday honoring a horse named Kip Deville. Good for them.

Kip Deville was a classy gray scrapper who didn’t care where he ran or who he ran against. He won big races in California, Kentucky, New York, and Florida, and the biggest of all in New Jersey, with a one-length upset of the 2007 Breeders’ Cup Mile. After winning 12 of 30 starts and $3.3 million, Kip Deville met a sad end at age 7 in 2010, after a nasty battle with colic and laminitis.

In a quiet ceremony on Wednesday afternoon, the ashes of champions Charismatic and Hidden Lake were laid to rest beneath their recently delivered headstones in one of the two memorial gardens at Old Friends Equine near Georgetown, Ky.

They are in good company.

The special ground is dedicated to the memory of the late Nikki Bacharach, the daughter of Old Friends benefactor Burt Bacharach, whose Grade 1 winner Afternoon Deelites is an Old Friends resident. Charismatic and Hidden Lake are now there alongside Hall of Famers Noor and Skip Away.

In her acceptance of the Award of Merit at the Eclipse Awards dinner in Beverly Hills, in January of 2006, Penny Chenery shared the story of the day she learned the lesson that would mark the rest of her racing life.

The scene was the 1950 Kentucky Derby. Chenery, 28 at the time, was there with her father, Christopher Chenery, proprietor of Virginia’s Meadow Stud. As they watched stable star Hill Prince parade to the post, Penny’s heart swelled with excitement.

“I knew he would win,” Chenery said. “He was supposed to win.”