Raffetto has work cut out at TOC

The late Steve Allen, talk show host and all-around entertaining smart aleck, loved to toy with the literal absurdities of the English language. One of his favorites:

"My next guest is a man who needs no introduction . . . so here he is."

Lou Raffetto qualifies, but for those in the horse biz who have spent the last quarter-century picking hooves in a darkened stall, he's the guy who lured Cigar to tiny Suffolk Downs not once but twice, labored mightily to resurrect the dignity of the Maryland circuit, and came this close to bringing steeplechasing's biggest day into the parimutuel world of the 21st century.

The fact that Suffolk survives only as a backwater outpost, Maryland is hanging on by its Preakness, and steeplechasing in the United States is still nothing more than a colorful oddity should not be held against Raffetto. After all, one man in a suit facing the forces arrayed against the game can't make much more than the occasional difference.