ARCADIA, Calif. - Two decades ago, Thoroughbred breeders created horse racing's definitive championship event. Now they are spoiling it.

John Gaines, the owner of Gainesway Farm, conceived the Breeders' Cup because he understood that the game needs a showcase for its biggest stars. He hoped that its large purses would encourage owners to run their horses instead of retiring them prematurely to stud. His vision became a reality that has generated some of the greatest drama in the sport's history.

ARCADIA, Calif. - It has been nearly eight months now since Alex Solis watched Laffit Pincay, his mentor and friend, plunge to the ground where the dirt and the grass meet on the Santa Anita hillside turf course. Solis had a good view, almost too good, from atop a horse just behind and to the inside of Pincay and his final mount.

Solis was dumbstruck, heartbroken, and sick to death. Then, an hour later, he picked up the mount on Pincay's horse, Redattore, and won the $400,000 Kilroe Mile. This is the life they lead.

TUCSON, Ariz. - Along with you, I read the headlines of the week, and wondered.

With Azeri and Cactus Ridge joining Empire Maker and Mineshaft and Candy Ride and Bird Town at the Missing Persons Bureau at the Breeders' Cup, how can Thoroughbred racing retain its stars long enough to build charisma, the essence of stardom and sustained interest?

ARCADIA, Calif. - There she was, the winner of the American Oaks, dancing what looked to be an improvised Irish jig around her Santa Anita tow ring while her traveling partner, Joe Mulholland, gave her just enough line to enjoy herself.

"It's good to see," Mulholland said. "When she acts like this, you know she's coming around."

WASHINGTON - When the Maryland Million was run for the first time in 1986, virtually everyone connected with the state's breeding industry was flush with optimism and pride. The Thoroughbred business had been booming for years. Maryland was home to the world's most influential stallion, Northern Dancer. And the birth of the Million - an event that would be copied throughout the country - underscored the state's national prominence.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Bruce Headley harbors a fond recollection of his earliest encounter with Allen Jerkens. It was about 40 years ago, and there was a football involved.

"I heard he liked to play," Headley said. "Heard he had a team from his barn. We had a six-man team out here that played touch football all the time. So we got together one day in the park by Santa Anita."

It wasn't pretty.

NEW YORK - When Funny Cide's owners decided last week that he would run in the Breeders' Cup rather than the Empire Classic, it must have seemed like a godsend to those promoting and broadcasting the event. A Breeders' Cup whose main storyline had been the absence of so many of world's best horses now had a marketable hero. When pre-entries were announced Thursday, the official press release from the National Thoroughbred Racing Association began, "Led by Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Funny Cide . . . "

ARCADIA, Calif. - It required a bit of imagination, even some healthy self-delusion. But if you stood just so, and held your binoculars just right, and ignored that annoying guy Trevor Denman on the loudspeaker system shouting about some other animal, it was almost possible to believe that the 2-year-old colt Capitano was the one-length winner of the Norfolk Stakes at Santa Anita on Oct. 4.

NEW YORK - The Touch.

Bill Shoemaker's physique led to his style. He wasn't tall enough to reach up on a horse's neck and apply some push, like many of his colleagues. Instead, he developed a technique of sitting back and directing his mounts with a feathery touch. There was no pressure on their sensitive mouths and for the most part they ran with a sense of exuberance.

They ran with him, not for him, and they carried him to the heights of his profession. He rode so many brilliant races that it is not possible to compile a list. Two will always stand out.

WASHINGTON - When the field broke from the starting gate in the Maryland Million Lassie, the filly Richetta was 2-1 on the tote board. As she stalked the leaders on the backstretch, she was still 2-1. After running a half-mile, she surged to take command, and at that moment the tote board blinked and the odds on Richetta plunged to 6-5. Bettors at Laurel Park who had expected to collect a win payoff of $6 or more were rewarded with $4.60 instead.