PHOENIX - During his 30-year career as a jockey, Ray Correa was a mainstay at Turf Paradise, where he held his own against such proven commodities as Jerry Lambert, Dean Hall, Eddie Burns, and Hugo Dittfach.

Later on, he turned to training, which is what he was doing on a recent morning in his corner of the Turf Paradise backstretch, not far from the therapeutic equine swimming pool. Correa does just about everything himself except gallop them around, which is probably a good idea since he is 79, and his left leg could work a little better.

NEW YORK - If you walk into a casino and bet $9,000 on black or red at the roulette wheel, you don't have to show your driver's license to the croupier. If you go to the mall and plunk down $5,000 in cash for the newest hi-def TV set, you only have to cough up your name if you also want to buy a service contract.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fl. - The California Horse Racing Board last week passed a motion that may portend a radical change in American racing, one that could change the nature of the horse-betting game. The board declared that all major tracks in the state "must install a synthetic surface or Polytrack by Dec. 31, 2007" or else have their racing licenses revoked.

ARCADIA, Calif. - It was early September of 1981. John Henry had just won the inaugural Arlington Million, and his owner, Sam Rubin, was still basking in the glow. On this particular day he was lounging at the La Costa Resort and Spa, a few miles north of Del Mar, waxing philosophical about the plain bay horse who was rapidly becoming the most popular animal in the land.

TUCSON, Ariz. - If you have been wondering why Kentucky's hardboot Thoroughbred horsemen have been relatively quiet in recent weeks on proposed medication reform in the Bluegrass, stop wondering.

They didn't have to make noise. Their hardboot veterinarian friends rode their anti-reform steeds for them, clattering right into the Kentucky legislature in Frankfort, where politicians - not scientists - promptly administered euthanasia to the progressive new rules.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Bob Lewis already knew how he wanted to be remembered, long before he died early Friday morning at the age of 81.

"Carve it on my headstone," Lewis insisted, more than eight years ago. " 'Loving husband, adoring father, and winner of the 123rd Kentucky Derby.' "

You got it, Bob. It shall be done. Only, a lot has happened since the fall of 1997, when Lewis was still tingling with the excitement of Silver Charm's Derby victory the previous spring. Maybe that memorial could stand an update.

NEW YORK - Remember the overweight jockey "scandal" that New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer so proudly announced last September? At the time, the story seemed to have more holes and stench than an old piece of Swiss cheese, and now it looks even less appetizing in the light of allegations of impropriety from an outspoken upstate grandmother who sat on the grand jury.

ARCADIA, Calif. - The confluence of 4-year-old Surf Cat and 5-year-old Imperialism in Saturday's San Carlos Handicap at Santa Anita offers a striking contrast in the study of where and when people decide to run a racehorse.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Any running of the San Carlos Handicap is cause enough to trot out the memories, and Saturday's running is no exception.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Gary Tanaka was wondering, just for the sake of argument, that if federal authorities were going to restrict his movements to a particular island while he awaited trial on charges of securities fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering, why it couldn't have been someplace a little more tropical than Manhattan.

"Or at least a little bit warmer," Tanaka said. "I believe this storm brought 27 inches of snow to Central Park."