NEW YORK - If you think picking a Kentucky Derby winner is a head-scratcher, try filling out this year's Hall of Fame ballot.

While none of the categories is easy, the Male Contemporary Horse lineup is the toughest of all. The candidates are Best Pal, Housebuster, Lure, Manila, and Silver Charm. You can vote for up to three of them, though only one can get in, and only if he is named on at least 75 percent of the ballots, unless there's an absolute dead heat among two or more who are named on at least 75 percent of the ballots.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Okay, ladies. It's safe to come out now. That big, bad Megahertz - all 850 pounds of her - did her usual number in the Santa Barbara Handicap last weekend and has gone back into her cage, where she will snarl and growl and eat red meat until Bobby Frankel and Michael Bello decide to turn her loose again.

That could come in the $350,000 Gamely Handicap at Hollywood at the end of May, although the Megahertz camp might even start looking at races against the boys. Pity the boys.

NEW YORK - Of all the silly words sure to be spoken over the next fortnight leading up to the Kentucky Derby, one will come up again and again: bounce. As in, Will Bellamy Road "bounce" off his spectacular Wood Memorial on Derby Day?

It is already being debated in chat rooms and on bulletin boards, and while it's not even a particularly good example of the bounce phenomenon, it may be the most prominent case ever of the question it addresses: What can you expect next time out from a horse who has just turned in by far the fastest performance of his career?

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Mark Guidry dove headfirst into the Southern California circuit and lived to tell the tale. Now he is ready for chapter two.

Guidry will be riding his first Hollywood Park meet commencing with Friday's opening night program, which starts the 66th season of racing at this valuable expanse of southwestern Los Angeles County real estate. The Hollywood stand comes on the heels of Guidry's first full Santa Anita meeting, during which he rode 168 horses and won 23 races, accounting for purses of just under $1.2 million.

TUCSON, Ariz. - I realize you have heard far more than you ever wished to hear about, or from, Jeff Mullins, Martin Wygod, and Julio Canani.

There is a saturation point to foolishness and folly and fumbling around, but there are two more things you need to hear.

One is from the man who started all the fuss with Mullins. The other is from one of the brightest minds in American racing.

NEW YORK - About a decade ago, a trainer with a first-time starter in a maiden race at Belmont Park was interviewed on the track's simulcast television show about her chances. The poor filly, sighed the Hall of Fame horseman, had shown no ability in the mornings and was probably destined to become a riding pet for his children.

As any grizzled horseplayer can guess, the filly won by approximately the length of the stretch. The track stewards showed no interest in the matter and took no action.

NEW YORK - This was supposed to be the weekend that determined the Kentucky Derby favorite, with Consolidator, High Limit, and Sun King contesting the Blue Grass and Afleet Alex and Greater Good facing off in the Arkansas Derby. Instead, it's a lot likelier to determine the second choice in a Derby where the new question is whether everyone else is running for second money behind Bellamy Road this year.

WASHINGTON - As the horses entered the starting gate Saturday for the Wood Memorial Stakes at Aqueduct, they were judged to be like all the other 3-year-olds who have contested prep races in the last few months. They weren't fast; they lacked star quality; they didn't have the talent usually required of a would-be Kentucky Derby winner.

And then, in the space of 1:47.16, the outlook for the 2005 classics changed abruptly.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Hunter Thompson being unavailable - not to mention Shakespeare, Tolstoy, and Mickey Spillane - it will be awhile before last Saturday's $750,000 finds its proper telling in terms of twisted comedy and operatic intrigue, although David Milch, dark bard and horse gambler, was seen taking notes for a possible episode of "Deadwood."

All the ingredients are ripe for harvest: revenge, retribution, disappointment, and humiliation, played out around two turns at 40 miles per hour. There was no bloodshed, thank goodness. But weapons were definitely brandished.

NEW YORK - An appeals court of the World Trade Organization issued a 138-page ruling Thursday in Geneva, Switzerland, that both supporters and opponents of Internet gambling are hailing as a landmark decision. Both sides in the dispute are claiming victory, and even the press can not seem to decide who prevailed.

"U.S. Limits on Internet Gambling are Backed," said the headline in The New York Times, while The Times of London's take was, "Antigua Wins Big in Online Gambling Case."