SARATOGA SPRINGS - The biggest race at Saratoga this year is neither the Whitney nor the Travers, but the one to see who's going to be running this place two summers from now.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Earlier this week, the big picture in the world of American horses still being led to slaughter got a little fuzzy for the folks who profit from the practice. The piece of Congressional legislation known as HR 503 escaped two separate committees in which it had been held hostage, and now the supporters of the bill are hopeful that the full House of Representatives will get a crack at a vote by sometime in September. HR 503, sponsored by Rep.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - As a New York-bred spending his 28th straight summer here in the Adirondacks, I suppose I am supposed to take the local side in the Del Mar-Saratoga debate everyone seems intent on having every summer. Having been lucky enough in the past week to spend both opening Saturday at Del Mar and opening day at Saratoga 96 hours later, I have recent, firsthand evidence to support the following courageous position: They're both pretty swell.

DEL MAR, Calif. - While the rest of the racing world waits in breathless anticipation for the East Coast debut of the $16 million 2-year-old named The Green Monkey, Del Mar fans will be treated on Sunday to an up-close look at a creature almost as rare, and one who bears a far more majestic name.

DEL MAR, Calif. - If you've been looking for someone to hold accountable for what you've been reading here, it's too late. Elvis has left the building.

The end came for for my dad - the man who put the pen in my hand - early Tuesday evening,

83 years, four months, and a few days after he hit the ground running in a dry, cold corner of Montana prairie land that went by the name of Outlook.

TUCSON, Ariz. - Dallas/Fort Worth, the sprawling airport known - affectionately or otherwise - to millions of travelers as DFW, is the crossroads of the American Southwest.

It is remembered by those who use it regularly for its long, crowded concourses without moving sidewalks, and for "Tram" signs that lead down to spacious loading platforms for the shuttles, arriving and departing every two minutes, that connect its four terminals.

DEL MAR, Calif. - At last, the long, agonizing slog through one of racing's darkest swamps has ended. A ray of light has wormed its way through the gloom. The voices of children can be heard once again above the wailing. There is hope.

Giacomo has finally won.

DEL MAR, Calif. - He's a horse without a country, an equine vagabond, with ties to Europe, the Far East, and now Southern California, where he is trying to establish himself once and for all as a major player in a tough division.

NEW YORK - With any luck, the year's most important racing still lies ahead, at Del Mar, Saratoga, the big fall races, and the Breeders' Cup. Still, it will be hard for the game to yield a more stirring and satisfying finish than the one in the ninth race at Canterbury Park last Saturday, when a 9-year-old gelding returned in a stakes race he had won five years earlier.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Jamie Lloyd was rightfully worried about the effect Del Mar's opening day crowd might have on Katdogawn.

After all, the mare is a notorious hothead, with paper-thin patience for anything that upsets her narrow view of the world, and her stall in one of the new, frontside mega-barns is no more than a 20-yard stagger to the edge of the grandstand, where a record 42,005 fans were swilling Del Margaritas by the boatload on Wednesday and screaming home their favorites under the hot Pacific sun.