He is grateful to his guru and sings extolment and praise of his guru.

I am troubled by this expanding scope of police involvement in daily life under the aegis of "community policing," which, extolment aside, stems less from the triumph of community than its hollow replacement with bureaucratic administration.

But, in the verity of extolment, I take him to be a soul of great article, and his infusion of such dearth and rareness as, to make true diction of him, his semblable is his mirror, and who else would trace him, his umbrage, nothing more.

The 2004 season at the storied old track will open Wednesday, and Mr. McGinniss will be there for an improbable victory lap, having published "The Big Horse" (Simon and Schuster), an extolment of Saratoga and one of its more enduring characters, the trainer P. G. Johnson.