DEL MAR, Calif. - If ever a horse had a right to be confused, Outta Here qualifies in spades. His steamer trunk is covered with exotic stickers. His passport is stamped to the gills. When he wakes up and steps outside his stall, the view could be anything from an Los Angeles freeway to an Arabian desert.

Lately, Outta Here has been in residence at Del Mar, where he will try to break through with a major stakes win in the $300,000 Del Mar Derby on Saturday. After that, who knows? Japan? England? Or maybe even the far side of the moon.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Few racetrack executives are so attuned to the interests of the betting public as Barry K. Schwartz, chairman of the New York Racing Association. Schwartz has championed the reduction of takeout from parimutuel wagers to put more money in horseplayers' pockets. He recognizes that the use of illegal drugs is corroding the game, and NYRA is trying to address the problem.

DEL MAR, Calif. - The news that "Seabiscuit" passed the magic $100 million mark last weekend in steady box office receipts must be of some consolation to writer-director Gary Ross and producers Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy. After all, their real racehorse left the theaters last May without making much of a ripple.

DEL MAR, Calif. - The experienced Thoroughbred trainer rarely gets excited. Call it psychological self defense.

As a class, trainers can be defined in existential terms, hoping for the best while expecting the worst, and knowing, deep in their hearts, that their most heroic efforts can turn to smoke and ash.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Rivalry between the East and the West has existed in horse racing ever since the days of Seabiscuit. Today the sport has become more homogenized, but there is still one issue that polarizes racing fans on the opposite coasts: the relative merits of Saratoga and Del Mar.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Paul Lo Duca was only trying to spare the old guy embarrassment. Sixty-feet, six inches is a long way for a 56-year-old to throw a baseball, even if it was merely the ceremonial first toss at the beginning of last Sunday's Dodgers game.

"You don't have to go all the way to the mound," said Lo Duca, the Dodgers' all-star catcher. "Just go to the edge of the grass."

Fat chance.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Jenine Sahadi woke up one morning to discover she was the proud trainer of 11 promising 2-year-olds, representing nearly half the population of her 25-horse stable. That was the good news . . . and the bad news.

"Either you love them or you hate them," Sahadi said, "because they will drive you crazy."

NEW YORK - The Hopeful Stakes, first run 100 years ago, is not just a race, but also a state of mind. It is early enough in each colt's career that his handlers can still be hopeful about winning a blanket of roses eight months hence, and fans can be hopeful that they have found a horse to dream and care about for the next year.

DEL MAR, Calif. - As a writer, I was trained to avoid using the word "I" as much as humanly possible. This has been fairly easy, since what I think about Thoroughbred racing has not been nearly as important as what I have seen and heard. Besides, the "I" is never necessary when it comes to the reporting of fact, and in the end, I think writers who use the "I" to extremes tend to be tedious and self-indulgent. Who is this "I" guy, anyway?

TUCSON, Ariz. - Two of the few things in Thoroughbred racing not controlled or overseen or heavily influenced by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, in its brief and successful history, are security and the parimutuel system. They have remained apart and independent.

After reading the 21-page report of the NTRA Wagering Technology Working Group, prepared “in conjunction with Giuliani Partners,” and the 16 pages of its Endnotes - and also reading between the lines - it seems that may change.