We all know the games faults and they never seem to go away yet, every so often, the game makes you proud.

So what if no one really wants to address the medication issue in a meaningful way?

What does it matter that horses are worth more in the breeding shed than they are on the racetrack, even if racing is the reason they were born in the first place?

Since the Breeders Cup Pick Six scandal, Band-Aids were substituted for new software and odds still appear to change while races are run. Its a perception issue and a business issue and nobody cares.

Takeout is too high, dissemination of information too slow.

And so forth and so on.

Then comes the news that Todd Pletchers Belmont Park employees are sending packages and letters to our troops in Iraq and asked the children of Anna House to write letters to be included in those packages.

Anna House is a day care facility on the Belmont backstretch for the children of the grooms and hot-walkers and anyone responsible for the welfare of racehorses on a daily basis. It was built by racetrackers for the children of racetrackers.

And the children wrote the letters and filled those packages with wishes of a safe passage home and thankfulness for helping to keep us safe. The majority of the children are pre-schoolers.

Working in the thoroughbred industry is an arduous and most often frustrating way to earn a living. The competition is fierce. Jealousy, always thisclose to the surface, is palpable.

But when help is needed racetrackers respond, never having to be asked twice.

And they teach the children well.