“She runs the same race every time.”

If you are a horse trainer, there is nothing more comforting. You know where your horse belongs. You know the kinds of races your horse can win, and just as importantly, you know the kinds of races your horse can’t win.

The quote above was what Steve Mick said Sunday about Tastefully Simple, the filly he claimed a year ago for $7,500 at Penn National. All the 4-year-old Pennsylvania-bred has done in 2014 is run 15 times, with seven wins, two seconds, three thirds, and earnings of $127,406.

In “To Catch a Thief,” the 1955 Alfred Hitchcock thriller, reformed cat burglar John Robie declares to the rich girl played by Grace Kelly, “You know I have about the same interest in jewelry as I have in politics, horse racing, modern poetry, and women who need weird excitement – none.”

Europeans, having better things to do, dispense with any late-season jibber-jab over their Thoroughbred championships by presenting the trophies in early November and calling it quits for the year. This frees them up to enjoy whatever holidays they still celebrate and pack for Barbados.

The New York Racing Reorganization Board last week held its first public discussion of the future structure of the sport in New York. While its ultimate recommendations remain a work in progress, the board’s discussion was notable and even encouraging for what it said it is not doing: There is no attempt to sell the enterprise to a private bidder, and there will be no decision by this group on the issue of closing Aqueduct Race Track.

Rosie Napravnik did it the right way, which is to say she did it her way, going out on her own terms in a blaze of glory with all four limbs intact and a new life literally on the horizon. The touching ceremony last Saturday at Churchill Downs simply added a cherry to what Napravnik served up during her nine years, four months, and 23 days as a jockey who was battered and repaired many times but never broken. If it’s a boy, they should name the baby Rod, in honor of mom’s hardware.

So, what do you do if you have $26,000 midway through the Saturday portion of the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge? My gambling partner Ray and I, playing with our cash and that of our partners, kept firing, trying to blow away the field. When we formed our plan, we had one horse we thought could win us the contest if we had enough money to bet when the race came up. By the time that race was run, we had enough money for that play and two more. We had been right three times. We needed to be right one more time.

D. Wayne Lukas holds more than a few records – most Triple Crown race wins and most Breeders’ Cup wins, are but two. He may also hold the record for most longshot winners in major stakes. Really, who else wins Breeders’ Cup races at 55-1 (Spain), 32-1 (Cash Run), 19-1 (Cat Thief), and the recent topper at 61-1 (Take Charge Brandi), or Triple Crown races at 31-1 (Charismatic), 24-1 (Thunder Gulch), 18-1 (Commendable), or 15-1 (Oxbow)?

Memories of Hunt’s greatest horses

Even before his death on Oct. 21 at age 88, Nelson Bunker Hunt would have been described correctly as long gone from the Thoroughbred racing scene.

Hunt’s legacy ended up reading like a “Giant” meets “Wall Street” movie mash-up, better titled “There Will Be Blood, Silver, Oil, and Horses.” He was a devout, proselytizing Christian, a high muckety-muck in the arch-conservative John Birch Society, and an eclectic collector of paintings, sculpture, and coins.

Anyone who thought this year’s quality racing with any kind of national impact ended the afternoon of Nov. 1 had his world rocked Wednesday with the announcement that California Chrome would be running in the Hollywood Derby at Del Mar on Nov. 29, the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

He was tempted. Oh, man, was he tempted. A million-dollar pot dangling from a low branch at a racetrack he knew like the back of his hand. A colt fresh out of a monster race who woke up the next day looking for more. What trainer in his right mind would pass up such a chance?