In the sports pages last week, we read that the Churchill Downs people are changing the rules for the way horses qualify for the Kentucky Derby. The current system is based on money earned in stakes races. The new one will be based on allotments of points. Not all horse people are happy with this, but the point is that horse racing at least has a system for rating contenders. Our political parties do not.

On the track, you would never find graded stakes winners bumping up against unraced or lightly raced horses, horses too old or too young for the contest, horses who were eased or pulled up in their last race, or who were already put out to stud. In politics, alas, you do see their human equivalents — at least during primary season, when a few seasoned and valid contenders find themselves lining up at the starting gate with a larger selection of broken-down horses, not from the cream of the cream of the party, and sometimes not of the party at all.