INGLEWOOD, Calif. - If Bobby Frankel is going to win the Preakness Stakes on Saturday with Medaglia d'Oro, it's too bad Laffit Pincay won't be along for the ride.

BALTIMORE - The phrase "horse trading" is synonymous with sharp dealing, and the bloodstock agents who buy and sell Thoroughbreds spend their lives trying to find and take an edge. Of all the players in this competitive and jealous business, racing insiders have regarded Mark Reid this spring as the wisest of the wise guys.

BALTIMORE - It is two weeks later and they're still talking about the Kentucky Derby as a gift to War Emblem, unchallenged on the lead.

"It's a Catch-22 situation," says Pat Day, whose five Preakness victories place him second to Eddie Arcaro's six. "You don't have much time to decide, either. If you permit the leader to cruise just the first half-mile and then decide to be aggressive, chances are you're committing suicide."

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Before we start, full disclosure is required. I confess, once again, that Affirmed was the greatest Thoroughbred these eyes ever saw, and that anything I might say or write about Affirmed will be tainted with an almost disabling prejudice. At the same time, this does not keep me from reacting like a mother wolverine at the slightest whiff of an attack on Affirmed's legacy.

BALTIMORE - As visitors arrive here for the Preakness, they will carry on a Pimlico tradition: decrying the dismal condition of the 132-year-old racetrack.

A few journalists will surely write the obligatory annual column saying the facility isn't a worthy home for a Triple Crown event. Everyone is quick to blame the Maryland Jockey Club and its president, Joe De Francis, for Pimlico's many defects. But few of the critics have offered ideas that make financial sense for improving the home of the Preakness.

BALTIMORE - Only five of the last 20 winners of the Kentucky Derby have come back to win the Preakness, and it is questionable if we saw a Charismatic, a Real Quiet, a Silver Charm, a Sunday Silence, or an Alysheba at Churchill Downs on May 4.

You can't fault War Emblem's performance, but he made a gift of the pace, an oversight not likely to be repeated. With the addition of Booklet, who was the speed in Florida all winter, the Preakness field looks as lively as that in the Derby, if not more so.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Roxanne Losey and Kevin Mangold, young performers on the Hollywood stage, were discussing recent reviews in the trades while biding their time in the jockeys' room over the weekend.

"Look at this," said Losey, turning to the handicapper's comments accompanying the seventh race in the program. She was riding the longshot D'Behr. "It says, 'Keeps the cold rider.' Cold? I've only ridden two races! How does that make me cold?"

Mangold grinned and shook his head.

NEW YORK - War Emblem is an admirably fast racehorse who has now run two straight races that are just plain quicker than any other 3-year-old in the land. What makes Saturday's Preakness so interesting is that he will be put to a different test. We will find out whether, in addition to speed and quality, he has the courage and resilience of a genuine champion.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - A bad idea is always a bad idea, no matter how it may try to change its stripes. Backyard fireworks, deep-fried cheese, Australian rules football, blind dates - you can always find one lucky soul who can speak well of the experience. But that doesn't change the fact that they are all bad ideas, and they usually bring nothing but grief.

Let it never be forgotten, therefore, that the bad idea of the multi-race bonus gained a foothold in this business with the specific purpose of subverting the Triple Crown.

Twenty-five years after the spring in which he won the greatest prize in American racing, Seattle Slew died in his sleep Tuesday morning at a farm in Lexington, Ky. All of his obituaries will note that he was the last living winner of the Triple Crown, but he was more than that. He was nearly the last link to the sport's golden age, the 1970's, the "decade of champions."