DEL MAR, Calif. - For purposes of mental health, a well-adjusted personality tends to expand the good times and compress the bad. A character played by Peter Fonda, in a movie called "The Limey," expressed it best when someone was waxing dreamily over the flower-power decade known as "The Sixties."

"It was just '66," he said, "and early '67. That's all it was."

DEL MAR, Calif. - It is generally accepted - among barbers, stylists and forensic toxicologists - that the average growth rate of hair on the human head is approximately a half-inch per month.

It also has been proven - although barbers and stylists don't really care - that a shaft of human hair can store evidence of chemical substances that have been present in the bloodstream during the growth of that particular hair crop. An inch and a half of hair, clipped at the surface of the scalp, can reveal drug ingestion over the most recent three months.

WASHINGTON - After Smarty Jones was syndicated for future stud duty in a $39 million deal last month, cynics in the Thoroughbred industry wondered if he would ever be seen in competition again. They anticipated the familiar ritual that precedes the disappearance of the sport's stars: the announcement of an injury that forces a horse's retirement to stud.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Alex Solis adjusted the angle of his hospital bed, improving his line of sight, then shifted a couple of the several tubes attached to key parts of his body.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - The first two juvenile stakes of the Saratoga meeting were a study in contrast in terms of pace, time, and quality. There was one brilliant performance, but it wasn't the one that looked the most dramatic at first glance.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - The different mood surrounding this 136th season of racing at Saratoga was captured perfectly by the opening-day headline in the local paper, The Saratogian. The usual banner is something like "They're Off and Running!" or "Racing Returns to Spa!" This year, it was "NYRA Under Microscope."

DEL MAR, Calif. - It has become a national pastime, all this speculation over why the once-invincible 2002 Horse of the Year, Azeri, has suddenly fallen victim to a three-race losing streak. But that goes with the territory. Win 11 races in a row at the top of the game and expectations tend to elevate.

DEL MAR, Calif. - A half a mile into the seven-furlong fifth race at Arlington Park on July 21, Ray Sibille got to thinking it wasn't so bad after all.

His mare, Above the Harbor, was holding her own inside horses, just off the pace, and going pretty good. But then, with a quarter of a mile left to run, Above the Harbor began to lose ground, and at the eighth pole her jockey finally surrendered.

"That's when I knew," Sibille said. "The doctor was right. My hip started hurting something awful."

At least he knew what it was.

TUCSON, Ariz. - A few decades back, before simulcasting and long before slots at tracks, the late Kent Hollingsworth, lawyer and author, wrote of the future of racing.

He foresaw, far before the event, the consolidation of tracks and the elimination of those that could not compete. He was right without knowing the vast changes of the Internet, of racinos, of offshore pirates and betting exchanges, of chemistry in racing.

DEL MAR, Calif. - At around one o'clock on Sunday afternoon, Alex Solis received a telephone call in his La Jolla hospital bed from Jose Miguel Aleman, the minister of foreign affairs of the Republic of Panama, informing him that the best wishes of his countrymen were with him and that there would be two special masses celebrated in Panama City the following day in honor of the injured rider.