People probably think I would rather walk barefoot on broken glass than invoke the term “great.” They’re not entirely wrong.

If you want to know why, it’s Secretariat’s fault. He made a profound impression on me that lasts to this very day and became for me, as well as many, many others, the frame of reference for the modern Thoroughbred race horse. And Secretariat did so during the 1970s, a decade packed with outstanding race horses – a true golden age.

Gary Stevens is on the move again. He’s taking his two-year-old knee, his three-month-old hip, his truck, and his record of nearly 6,000 winners to Arkansas next week and then on to Kentucky, where the Hall of Famer will set up shop at Keeneland for the prestigious spring meet that begins April 7.

First, though, Stevens will fly in and out of New Mexico for Sunday’s Grade 3 Sunland Derby, a nine-furlong event that has drawn an all-star array of riding talent to handle 3-year-olds from some of the nation’s top stables.

The handling of a 2-year-old champion as the early favorite for the Kentucky Derby is very serious business. Ask around. Tradition requires that a trainer in such a position think of nothing else, every day, every hour, between the dawning of January and the first Saturday in May.

So, why then is Mark Casse on a boat – fishing, no less, with his family, for Pete’s sake – while Classic Empire trains in central Florida after a couple of snags in his unfolding 3-year-old campaign?

They have done everything but chisel Arrogate’s name over the entrance to Al Fahidi Fort, the oldest building in Dubai, so certain is his coronation Saturday night in the $10 million World Cup. Still, foregone conclusions are a bore, so let’s run the race and see.

The round of penultimate preps for the Kentucky Derby is over, for the most part. I suppose if you really, really wanted to, you could squeeze a race in between this Saturday’s Spiral or Sunday’s Sunland Derby and the Kentucky Derby, but that would require more racing in a short period of time than many of today’s horsemen like.

So, as we turn into the final round of Derby preps, one could express surprise at how, at this relatively late stage, this Derby picture remains completely unsettled. Actually, one could say a lot worse if so inclined, but you get the idea.

David Whiteley did not know he had been nominated to the Hall of Fame – again. He knew he’d been nominated in 2016, and in 2015 as well. But not this time around, until a reporter called the other day

“No, I did not know it happened again,” he said. “And I doubt that my name is one many of the voters would recognize.”

The champions of last year have been all over the map through the first quarter of 2017. This is never a surprise.

California Chrome, Flintshire, and Beholder are part of the breeding world now, which means they are no longer called on to entertain. Arrogate underlined his championship by winning the $12 million Pegasus World Cup. Drefong, Songbird, and Tepin have yet to appear under silks, while Champagne Room and Classic Empire lost their only starts.

The Santa Anita Handicap might not be able to compete with today’s mega-events in terms of purse or placement on the calendar. However, when it comes to making history, it always delivers, and last Saturday’s running was no different.

If you’ve been in this game longer than two minutes you know how things can go from one extreme to the other in seconds – literally.

This was evidenced Saturday by the injury Mastery sustained (condylar fracture of the left fore) moments after dominating the San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita in what was by far the best performance by a 3-year-old so far this year.

Of course, we all hope Mastery’s surgery Monday goes well. But you can forgive us if in the meantime we split blood and curse this latest cruel twist of fate.

A hall of fame is the ultimate gesture of self-congratulation for any profession. All institutions are infatuated with their own histories, and a hall of fame institutionalizes history with effective simplicity.

There is a hall of fame for sailing, quilting, cocktails, and curling. Teachers have a hall of fame. Lawyers have a hall of fame. So do strippers, clowns, fishermen, and robots.