NEW YORK - Do horseplayers need protection from whales?

Tampa Bay Downs last month and Oaklawn Park last week announced they had shut their pools to some of the offshore betting hubs where high-rolling "whales" have been rocking the toteboard with big last-second wagers. The plunge that sent Master David from 2-1 to 11-10 in the Santa Catalina last Sunday was only the most recent in a series of incidents that have given some ordinary players the feeling that they're nothing but whale food these days.

NEW YORK - You could say that the race for this year's Kentucky Derby began four winters ago when the class of 2004 was being conceived, or that it began in earnest last month when that foal crop officially turned 3. For parimutuel purposes, however, it began Thursday, with the opening of Pool 1 of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager.

ARCADIA, Calif. - When it came to running the accomplished turf filly Valentine Dancer in the $200,000 La Canada Stakes on the main track at Santa Anita this Saturday afternoon, Craig Lewis trotted out all the time-tested rationalizations.

She is training well. She is more mature. If she could win, her value as a broodmare would increase, and so on, until the trainer finally relented and surrendered to the obvious.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Mark Johnston's first reaction was self-preservation. After sailing through the air and landing hard on his right shoulder, he considered himself fortunate to be conscious enough to scramble beneath the inside rail, safe from the threat of trailing horses.

TUCSON, Ariz. - Given the huge contributions to racing in the last year by the reincarnated and reinvented Seabiscuit, it is sacrilege to suggest above a whisper that a considerable part of his story, in both popular book and movie, is bunkum.

Last week an infidel stood up and shouted it for all to hear.

Stan Isaacs, the respected former sports columnist of Newsday in New York, was critical of the revisionist love story told by Laura Hillenbrand in her book, "Seabiscuit: An American Legend."

ARCADIA, Calif. - After winning the $300,000 Strub Stakes last Saturday at Santa Anita Park with Domestic Dispute, Patrick "Paddy" Gallagher spent most of the next morning doing a pretty good imitation of an old school Irish politician, shaking hands, petting dogs and kissing babies, while modestly accepting congratulations for a job well done.

"That's me," Gallagher said with a laugh. "A real one-hit wonder."

ARCADIA, Calif. - It had been more than two months since Pat Day had last sat on the back of a racehorse. He was ready to go, fit and fully recovered from shoulder surgery and anxious to get back in the groove.

Still, Day thought he might be just a little rusty. After all, two months is two months, and riding a Thoroughbred requires the reflexes of a fighter pilot, or a New York City cab driver. Never mind those other 39,353 horses Day had been aboard during his Hall of Fame career. At the age of 50, even the sharpest muscle memory can go dull after 70 days.

NEW YORK - Barry Bonds doesn't have to hit with a 10-pound bat, and they don't make Shaquille O'Neal wear cast-iron sneakers to keep him from dunking. So why does racing handicap its stars?

NEW YORK - Whether you think Funny Cide is a heroic champion or a horrific underlay in Saturday's Donn Handicap, the fact that he'll be in the starting gate for a Grade 1 race as a 4-year-old is worth celebrating in itself.

ARCADIA, Calif. - There was a time when the Strub Stakes stood shoulder to shoulder with the Santa Anita Handicap as the premier prizes of the winter meet. The Strub was special, requiring the cream of the nation's 4-year-olds to pass one final, searching test before moving on to competition against their elders.