It has been a pretty good week for French horseback riders. In Rio de Janeiro, Astier Nicolas, Thibaut Vallette, Mathieu Lemoine, and Karim Florent Laghouag collected Olympic gold medals in the team competition of three-day eventing, while Nicolas added a silver medal in the individual eventing category.

Meanwhile, in the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights, a mini-Olympics of sorts will convene on Saturday at Arlington Park, where the 34th running of the Arlington Million tops a juicy 10-race program. French is very much on the menu.

Zenyatta was born on April 1 – no kidding – and she made her racing debut on Thanksgiving. You’re welcome.

After such delightful coincidences of the calendar, anything was possible. So, why not 19 straight wins and nearly a 20th, three championship seasons and Horse of the Year, international fame and adoration, and a place on the Hall of Fame wall in Saratoga Springs in her first year of eligibility?

Right now, in the wake of his commanding win in Saturday’s Whitney Stakes at Saratoga, which, by the way, came on the heels of his truly awesome romp in the Met Mile, I feel sort of good for being on record as a longtime fan of Frosted.

The roster of breeds carrying the colors of the United States in the equestrian competition beginning this weekend at the Summer Olympics includes three Belgian Warmbloods, three Dutch Warmbloods, a Danish Warmblood, a Westphalian, an Irish Sport Horse, a Holsteiner, a Hanoverian stallion …

And a former Thoroughbred racehorse named Blackfoot Mystery.

Okay, Mark Casse – freshly christened member of the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame, trainer of Tepin, Catch a Glimpse, and Lexie Lou, among others – think you’re hot stuff? Let’s see what you can do with the enigmatic Noble Bird against Frosted on Saturday in the 89th running of the Whitney at Saratoga.

Talk about bringing a butter knife to a gunfight.

Neither Keith Desormeaux nor Bob Baffert was on the scene at Monmouth Park last Sunday when Exaggerator beat American Freedom in the Haskell Invitational. Del Mar is a hard place to leave in the summer – all that beach traffic – and besides, it’s the horses who do the real work.

“I was back there all the week before,” said Desormeaux, referring to Saratoga, where Exaggerator trained for the Haskell. “Why didn’t I go back? I’m lazy.”

Instead of agonizing over why Beholder was unable to win her ninth straight race Saturday in the Clement L. Hirsch Stakes at Del Mar, the proper thing to do is to give credit to Stellar Wind, who engineered this half-length upset. She richly deserves it.

The Haskell Invitational is a great race. At a million dollars, the pot is right. The distance of a mile and one-eighth offers the kind of test that brings the proper horses together. It is run on a Sunday – this Sunday – which validates a day of the week that has been all but abandoned by major racing events, and it is presented at Monmouth Park, which remains one of racing’s most important properties.

You would think, after more than four years of their man-horse relationship, that Richard Mandella would be able to just sit back, relax, and enjoy the Beholder ride. I mean, she’s 6, right? How tough can it be? Throw her a little hay. Give her some exercise. Keep her stall clean. Lead her over, get the money, cool her out. Repeat.

“I know,” Mandella confessed. “I can’t help it. Maybe if I ran her more often it would help.”

Mike Smith was sitting in racetrack traffic while leaving Saratoga last Sunday evening when he glanced over to notice a horse walking along the other side of the security fence on its way back to the stables from the test barn.

“I’m sure some people knew it was her,” Smith said. “At least the ones who really follow racing. Sitting there in the car, I got to see her walk all the way along the fence, and she looked great, man. Recovered quick. Her ears were up, really alert.”