ETOBICOKE, Ontario - It's hard to believe that it has been 10 years since Greenwood, that cozy little Toronto bullring overlooking Lake Ontario, was closed by the Ontario Jockey Club.

For many, the six-week Greenwood fall meeting was a welcome change from six straight months at Woodbine. You could take a streetcar from downtown Toronto to the East End oval, where the fans had a close-up view of the horses. Having a table in its dining room provided a wonderful night out, and even the food in the track kitchen was excellent.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - didn't draw into the oversubscribed Ticonderoga Handicap at Belmont Park last month on New York Showcase Day, because she was among the low weights in the field. Seeing how well The Lamp Is Lit ran five days later in a second-level allowance race against open company at The Meadowlands, her connections had to be disappointed she was excluded from the Ticonderoga.

The Lamp Is Lit's 2 1/4-length win at The Meadowlands on Oct. 28 places her among the favorites in Thursday's $60,000-added Soaring Softly at Aqueduct.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Being excluded from an oversubscribed race is typically a stroke of bad luck. Weather permitting, it may turn out to be a blessing for .

After being left on the also-eligible list for a turf race on Wednesday, Capo has found an easier spot in Thursday's ninth-race feature at Churchill Downs, a $54,900 allowance going 1 1/16 miles on turf.

Although both races are similar two-other-than allowances, the Thursday race is the weaker of the two. Of its 10 entrants, four have raced for a claiming price of $25,000 in recent months.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - The uncoupled Mark Casse-trained duo of Goldini and New Topper are both logical contenders in Thursday's Woodbine headliner, a mile-and-70-yard allowance for 2-year-olds.

Goldini made his first three starts in Florida under the guidance of trainer Bill White. He overcame a troubled break to finish second when he made his debut in a three-furlong maiden dash April 1 at Gulfstream.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - A creepy-looking eyeball is not why speedball rarely has company up front.

The reason you can look her in the eye - her right one is cloudy but doesn't affect her sight - for only so long is because she usually is racing her first quarter in 21 and change.

"She's gutty, and she's got the kind of speed where she can outsprint a good sprinter," said trainer Doug O'Neill.

That is not all. After winning four of her last six, it is clear that Iflookscouldkill has an added dimension.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Rafael Bejarano, the national wins leader and one of 15 jockeys banished by Churchill Downs management, is leaving the Kentucky circuit to ride in New York, possibly on a permanent basis, according to both his former and current agent.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The Grade 1 Matriarch on Nov. 28 may be the last hurrah for stakes winners Intercontinental and Etoile Montante. Trainer Bobby Frankel said both Juddmonte Farms-owned fillies are likely to be retired after running in the one-mile Matriarch for fillies and mares.

"They're milers, and there aren't many races for them other than the Matriarch," Frankel said. "All the Grade 1's are a mile and an eighth and farther."

MIAMI - Oh, how far Calder's Florida Million Day has come in just three short years.

What started out as a nice little sequel to the track's cornerstone event, the Festival of the Sun, has in short order become a major event of its own. This year it has grown from six to eight stakes and attracted Florida-breds from all over the country, including six who will be coming to town from Southern California.

MIAMI - There were 75 horses entered for the eight stakes that make up Saturday's Florida Million Day program. But the one name conspicuous by its absence from that list was B. B. Best, the speedy juvenile who recently captured the In Reality division of the Florida Stallion Stakes for trainer Eddie Plesa Jr.

Plesa had nominated B. B. Best for Saturday's $150,000 Jack Price Juvenile, a seven-furlong dash, but said he really never intended to run the colt in that race.

CHICAGO - So it's not Ali-Frazier, not Red Sox-Yankees, but a mild showdown looms in the High Alexander Stakes at Hawthorne Race Course.

Last fall, Wiggins won this race (then called the Robert F. Carey) by two lengths over Scooter Roach, but in the spring, Scooter Roach beat Wiggins by a half-length here in the Milwaukee Avenue Handicap. The two best older Illinois-bred route horses going will renew their rivalry Saturday, when Hawthorne hosts six $100,000-added statebred-restricted stakes races.