Had the year merely included a filly beating the boys in the Belmont Stakes, for only the third time in the 139 runnings of the longest and most demanding Triple Crown race, that would have been enough.

Had the year merely included a popular Kentucky Derby winner who at last broke the jinx of Breeders' Cup Juvenile winners, that would have been enough.

And had the year merely included a colt who went from an unstarted maiden to the Preakness Stakes winner in a little more than three months, and later in the year won the Jockey Club Gold Cup and BC Classic to become the overwhelming favorite to be named the Horse of the Year, well, that would have been just fine, too.

But when the same crop includes all three — Rags to Riches, Street Sense, and Curlin — in addition to Any Given Saturday, Daaher, Hard Spun, and Tiago, that makes for a truly special year of racing.

And so it was in 2007, with a 3-year-old crop that rivaled the celebrated class of 1957, which included Bold Ruler, Gallant Man, Iron Leige, and Round Table, and 1973, which included Secretariat, Sham, Forego, and Desert Vixen.

The three Triple Crown races all had a different winner, but it could not have been a more compelling series. Street Sense, the winner of the 2006 BC Juvenile at Churchill Downs, returned to his favorite track and captured the Derby with a powerful late rush that overtook pacesetter Hard Spun.

Curlin finished third in the Derby, in only his fourth career start, yet gained so much from that experience that just two weeks later he was able to run down Street Sense in a thrilling Preakness.

Street Sense got off the Triple Crown trail at that stop, but Hard Spun and Curlin continued on to New York for the Belmont, which went from anticlimactic to dramatically compelling when Rags to Riches, the Kentucky Oaks winner, was entered. She seemingly lost all chance at the start of the race, with a nasty stumble, but she righted herself and one lap later outdueled Curlin.

The depth of this crop was intertwined with another revelation this year, the surging price of bloodstock, which bore no resemblance to what horses could earn on the racetrack. As good as the racing was in 2007, there was a creeping realization that the sport had become horse breeding, more so than horse racing. Darley Stud USA, run by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum of Dubai, acquired Any Given Saturday, Hard Spun, and Street Sense - three of the elite of the class of 2007 - for an aggregate approaching $100 million and retired all three to stud at year's end. A record price, $10.5 million, was paid for the broodmare Playful Act. And Coolmore Stud retired the perfectly sound Holy Roman Emperor before he ever ran at age 3 to fill the void left when George Washington proved infertile at stud.

George Washington subsequently became one of the great tragedies of 2007. A turf mile specialist, George Washington lost his life struggling to run 1 1/4 miles on a sloppy dirt track at Monmouth Park in the BC Classic. But the most widely felt loss was that of 2006 Derby winner Barbaro, news of whose passing in January stretched well beyond the narrow purview of racing to touch the nation. Other top horses who died included John Henry, Mom's Command, steeplechase great Zaccio, and another Derby winner, Gato Del Sol.

Mom's Command did, however, finally get inducted into the Hall of Fame. She joined an overflow cast that also included the horses Silver Charm and Swoon's Son, trainers Henry Forrest, Frank McCabe, and John Veitch, and jockeys Jose Santos and John Sellers.

Santos was forced to retire after sustaining serious injuries in a racing accident in February, then had tragedy strike his family when his oldest daughter, Sophia, was blamed for a deadly auto crash. Another motor accident claimed the life of the sport's winningest trainer, Dale Baird. Other prominent racing people who died this year included Hall of Fame jockey Bill Hartack, trainers Frank Gomez, Farrell Jones, and Warren Stute, owners Ed Friendly, Martha F. Gerry, Merv Griffin, Kitty Hardin, and Trudy McCaffery, track official Ken Lennon, bloodstock agent Richard Jones, and journalist Dick Carter, who wrote under the name Tom Ainslie.

Jerry Hollendorfer became the fourth trainer to win 5,000 races. Among jockeys, Mario Pino passed the 6,000-win mark. Todd Pletcher, the trainer of Rags to Riches, set a single-season record for purse earnings with more than $28 million, while Garrett Gomez won more stakes in a calendar year than any other jockey. And while the sport's winningest rider, Russell Baze, continued his inexorable march toward 10,000 winners, he was suspended for 15 days after thoughtlessly whipping an injured horse in the shadow of the wire, a rare blip in an otherwise exemplary career.

Pletcher and Gomez led their brethren, but other trainers and jockeys had terrific years, too. Carl Nafzger gave everybody a training clinic with his preparation of Street Sense before the Derby. Steve Asmussen deftly guided Curlin through an ambitious campaign. Bob Baffert won a pair of Breeders' Cup races. Barclay Tagg had his deepest lineup in years with Bit of Whimsy, Nobiz Like Shobiz, and Tale of Ekati. Bill Mott made the most of his opportunities with a classy bunch of 2-year-olds. Bobby Frankel had a way with the ladies, winning multiple stakes with Citronnade, Ginger Punch, Precious Kitten, and Sugar Shake. And Kiaran McLaughlin kept on firing with Daaher, Flashy Bull, Invasor, Lahudood, Lear's Princess, and Shakespeare.

Robby Albarado had his best year yet, highlighted by riding Curlin and winning the Arlington Million aboard Jambalaya. Calvin Borel won the Derby, the Sword Dancer, the Travers, and the Alabama. Cornelio Velasquez won two Breeders' Cup races. Kent Desormeaux established himself as a presence on the East Coast. And apprentice jockey Joe Talamo emerged as a budding star in California.

Michael Dickinson, a celebrated trainer on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, gave up training to concentrate on developing and installing synthetic racing surfaces, in which he has been at the forefront. The synthetic revolution this year expanded to Arlington Park, Del Mar, Golden Gate, Santa Anita, and the new Presque Isle Downs, though it has not been seamless, and there is an undercurrent of suspicion that there has been a rush to judgment to embrace the nascent technology.

No controversy, however, lingered longer and caused as much anxiety to as many people as the protracted squabble over the New York Racing Association franchise. With the Dec.o31 expiration just days away, state politicians had not reached agreement on who would run racing at Aqueduct, Belmont, and Saratoga in 2008, although a temporary extension seemed likely to avert a shutdown on Jan. 1.

In New Jersey, government officials were instrumental in helping Monmouth secure its first Breeders' Cup, which this year became the first to encompass two days and expand to 11 races. Before the year was out, the Breeders' Cup announced it would have three more races beginning in 2008, for a total of six Breeders' Cup races on Friday, and eight on Saturday.

The weather at this year's Breeders' Cup was abominable - Noah was sighted floating away on the backstretch - but form largely held up. Curlin, gloriously oblivious to the tension surrounding his embattled owners, completed his sensational year with a powerhouse performance in the BC Classic, a fitting, final reminder of how special were both he and the 3-year-old crop of 2007.

Here now a look back at the year, division by division:

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