The Morning Becomes Hectic: Horse racing is back

We're offering you something old and something new today.

First of all, thanks to all of your letters, and e-mails (a few of them printable), not to mention kind phone calls, we've brought back the horse racing handicap.

Due to unfortunate personnel and space cuts, we had to make difficult choices about reductions in coverage. Some idiot in this department (I will never tell) chose to eliminate the handicap and charts, which already had been reduced to the point of irrelevance.

We made a mistake.

You told us about it.

We fixed it.

We have a new handicapper, Liam Durbin, whose experience, knowledge and computer skills have combined for a healthy winning percentage for other outlets, including the Chicago Tribune and ESPN.com.

Trust. But verify.

We'll be following his results closely to make sure he does as well for you.

His first handicap, for today's opening day of the Oak Tree meet at Santa Anita, appeared last night on latimes.com and in our sports section today along with columnist Bill Dwyre's story about the fall meet, which will include the Breeders' Cup.

Something new on latimes.com is this blog, the Fabulous Forum.

We'll have numerous posts today, including columns from Lisa Guerrero, better known for her television work but also a smart and entertaining writer, and Ted Green, the executive sports producer for our corporate brothers and sisters at KTLA.

And they're off...

-- Randy Harvey

Photo: The Santa Paula Stakes in March at Santa Anita. Credit: Associated Press