Gary West

This time of year, horse racing is all about the 3-year-olds, the glamour division, the youngsters who race for floral blankets and TV fame and lucrative futures that include amorous afternoons, and so the sport should be in for considerable excitement.

These 3-year-olds are outstanding, certainly the best group since 2007 (Curlin, Hard Spun, Street Sense) and potentially the best since 1997 (Silver Charm, Free House, Touch Gold).

It's the season of giving and sharing, of goodwill, infectious carols and afflatus. It's the Season of Joy, but here's what passes for joy these days in horse racing: an unsustainable compromise that the "Baltimore Sun" calls a "Pyrrhic victory."

In Maryland, after much hand-wringing and after the politicos finally realized the state was about to lose thousands of jobs, the racetracks, the horsemen and the regulators reached an agreement this week to keep the Maryland Jockey Club, founded in 1743, and its two racetracks, Pimlico and Laurel, in business. And so the Preakness will remain in Maryland, for at least a year.

But everywhere you look, the story's virtually the same. The sport depends on balancing the interests of the racetracks, the horsemen and the fans, but there's no balance anywhere. Santa Anita opens Sunday with purses projected to be higher, but at the expense of the fans, who'll have to pay more, in the form of a higher takeout, for the privilege of betting. And so it goes: Without balance the sport's listing like a palm tree in a hurricane.

DALLAS -- The attempt seems audacious, for no film ever could capture the bravura and the majesty of Secretariat. Still, "Secretariat" gets it right.

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Bobby Frankel, who enjoyed the most lucrative victory of his career at Lone Star Park and who ranked indisputably among the greatest trainers in horse racing history, died Monday at his home in Pacific Palisades, Calif. Having battled lymphoma for months, Frankel died at age 68.

FORT WORTH, Texas -- She probably won't have Washington and Idaho on her non-conference schedule, probably won't confine herself to picking the cherries from the low branches. No pie or cake for her, nothing easy.
Rachel Alexandra won't have a campaign that's designed just to protect her position as the top racehorse in the country, said her trainer, Steve Asmussen. In other words, she won't have a campaign like cotton briefs, designed for ease and comfort.
Or, some might say, she won't have a campaign like Zenyatta's, but I'll leave that debate for the moment to suggest simply that Rachel Alexandra, for the remaining months of 2009, will instead have a campaign that's designed to secure for her a position in history.