As summer racing hits full stride with the openings of Saratoga and Del Mar this week, racegoers will increasingly confront a familiar seasonal sight at the tracks of America: children at the races. While a few especially grumpy horseplayers complain about the annual emergence of the tykes, they are a welcome sight to most of the racing industry, which has found in recent years that Family Fun Days and similar promotions are an effective way of getting parents to sample racing.

WASHINGTON - The racing game continually changes in subtle ways, and horseplayers must adapt to the changes in order to survive. But in recent years, bettors have observed one change so profound that it has altered the sport and the nature of handicapping: the rise of the super-trainer.

Of course, horseplayers have always known that it is essential to consider the strengths, weaknesses, and overall competence of Thoroughbred trainers. In modern-day racing, at tracks large and small from coast to coast, certain trainers have become as important as the horses themselves.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - It's time once again for the help to eat in the dining room. Downstairs gets to live upstairs, at least for one golden afternoon. On Saturday at Canterbury Park, a short hop from the Mall of America, the fifth running of the Claiming Crown will be presented, with $550,000 offered to six fields full of 63 working-class heroes.

ELMONT, N.Y.- There was a time when members of the Coaching Club, skilled at handling a beautifully matched team of six, would clip-clop down Hempstead Turnpike and arrive at Belmont Park for a traditional lunch and the running of the American Oaks, which was sponsored by the club.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The management team of Hollywood Park has proven they know how to throw a pretty good party. They pulled out all the stops for the American Oaks on July 5 and drew a crowd of about 16,000. They set the stage for Laffit Pincay's tasteful - and memorable - farewell last Sunday, and were rewarded with attendance that topped 20,000 for only the second time at this meet.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Jonathan Sheppard, the Hall of Fame trainer who has developed so many outstanding horses both on the flat and over jumps, is preparing an audacious bid at Saratoga next month. He will attempt to post a rare third consecutive victory in the Grade 1 $500,000 Sword Dancer Handicap at 1 1/2 miles on the turf with 8-year-old With Anticipation.

TUSCON, Ariz. - With little fanfare but with much courage and huge significance, the Ontario Racing Commission and New York State Racing and Wagering Board are opening a bold new frontier in racing's fight against illegal medication.

Starting this fall, the two regulatory agencies will test horses racing in their jurisdictions for antibodies to erythropoietin - better known as EPO or Epogen - and its derivative darbepoietin, and they will bar all horses who show such antibodies from racing in their jurisdictions until they test clear of administration of the substances.

ELMONT, N.Y. - It was a good plan last year, and it's still a good plan.

Whitmore's Conn, at 14-1, surprised in the 2002 Bowling Green Handicap, coming from far behind a slow pace under Shaun Bridgmohan. The Kris S. horse, then a 4-year-old, had signaled his good form in a prep race a few weeks earlier, closing furiously but failing to make an impression.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Jerry Bailey pulled a yellow rose from the blanket of Hollywood Gold Cup flowers draped across his lap, dismounted, and presented the rose to Laffit Pincay. Pincay beamed with surprise, then slipped the rose into the lapel of his sharp summer suit.

Bob Baffert dashed this way to do a postrace Gold Cup interview with ESPN and then that way for a marathon round of winner's circle pictures, which included an entire album's worth of photos standing beside Pincay, who just happens to be Baffert's Arcadia neighbor.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - In the view of many people involved with Thoroughbred racing, the use of prohibited drugs is out of control and the problem is steadily getting worse. The industry's innumerable organizations and regulators haven't done anything to stop the abuse. But now a relatively obscure committee has taken action that could affect the entire sport.