Veterinarian

ELMONT, N.Y. - The death-defying ordeal started with a routine abrasion. While romping with another colt in their Florida paddock in March last year, Invisible Ink cut his right hind ankle. A thousand other young horses could sustain the same minor injury, receive treatment and return to normal within a week. But for Invisible Ink, who races tomorrow in the Belmont Stakes, the seemingly harmless incident nearly cost him his life. The 2-year old apparently had a severe allergic reaction to his medicine and plunged into a pathetic state.

A wreck in Virginia that killed the horse-hauler John "Jack" Mount began a bizarre tale of Middle East-style negotiations for the release of injured racehorses "held for ransom." Mount, who rented an apartment in Laurel, was killed Sept. 8 in the accident that by itself could be called bizarre. A longtime driver of horse vans, Mount, 70, was transporting two horses - Casper Can Fly and Willamette - from trainer Dale Capuano's barn at Laurel Park to Colonial Downs in Virginia. As Mount, the horses and their grooms proceeded south on Interstate 95 near Fredericksburg, Va., something, possibly a barbecue grill, flew off the bed of a pickup truck.

For Rose Fetter, taking her dogs to the veterinarian has been an annual ordeal for years.Making sure that her pets have their yearly shots usually involves more than one trip to the animal doctor because Mrs. Fetter generally has several dogs.Last week, for the first time, Mrs. Fetter made the vet come to her.She hired Carin Rennings, a home-based veterinarian who just opened a practice in Woodbine, to come to her home in Monrovia and vaccinate all five of her dogs.The house call was a success and Mrs. Fetter plans to become a regular client.

The cows are losing ground to dogs and cats as suburbia takes over farmland in Carroll County, but even rarer is the veterinarian who will see creatures great and small."

After years of wishing for more basic information about on-track injuries to thoroughbreds, veterinarians will at last begin putting together a database tomorrow using an equine injury reporting system developed by Dr. Mary Scollay, veterinarian at Calder Race Course and Gulfstream Park. Scollay's pilot project will be implemented by more than 30 racetracks across the country, including Pimlico Race Course, Laurel Park and Timonium. "Most tracks have been keeping much, if not all, of this information already," Scollay said in a news release.

DAWN HARNER, 13, daughter of Dennis and Mary Harner, of Harney Road in Taneytown.School: eighth-grader at Northwest Middle School.Honored for: Being "an all-around good student who puts forth a great deal of effort in all that she does," said Principal Bronson Jones.Dawn is a member of a group of students who alternate reading the morning announcements on closed-circuit television in a news-style format.She also has volunteered in the past for "AM Help," in which she tutored fellow students who were having trouble keeping up with class work.

ARCADIA, Calif. -- High stakes. High tragedies. High egos.In a sound bite, that's the Breeders' Cup experience, the seven-race series with purses totaling $10 million offered for the 10th time tomorrow at Santa Anita Park.Looking for action, violence and sensationalism?Try the Breeders' Cup Sprint, which in 10 runnings has contributed to the deaths of four horses, most spectacularly Mr. Brooks last year and in earlier runnings Mr. Nickerson and Shaker Knit, who succumbed in 1990. The previous year, one horse, Sam Who, swerved at the start and interfered with seven horses, causing early retirement for one runner, Sewickley, now at stud in Harford County, and eventual death for another, On The Line.

The eerie sounds of a theremin filled the air. As you made your way through a crowd of creatures, you came across sexy space maidens in metallic bikinis, strange space creatures in sports jackets and bobbing antennae, and several beings who were clearly not from this Earth. Were we on some sort of forbidden planet? As a matter of fact, yes. For this was Creative Alliance's annual Marquee Ball. This year's theme was the 1956 science fiction cult film, Forbidden Planet. The "planet" in this case was, in fact, Creative Alliance's headquarters in the old Patterson Theatre.

Look for the Triple Crown races to adopt the same stringent pre-race veterinary procedures that the Breeders' Cup instituted this year at Santa Anita Park.During race week, a team of veterinarians performed thorough daily examinations of all the horses in order to help insure there would be no catastrophic breakdowns on race day.There was grumbling from some trainers, but no one can argue with the results. The races went off without a hitch, there were no serious injuries and no grisly television pictures of a Union City or Prairie Bayou being carted off the track in a horse ambulance, incidents that marred the 1993 Triple Crown.

Young women, take heart! Cosmo's bachelor of the month is a reluctant single.Baltimore veterinarian Kim J. Hammond, featured in the November Cosmopolitan, says he's all for marriage."