With the Stockade-athon and Siena basketball ready to crank it up, I took my last vacation until May 2009 last week, capped off by the Breeders' Cup and a nice win by the Miami Dolphins over Buffalo on the tube at Bathtub Billy's in Rochester.

This is a big year for the Stockade-athon, with the addition of chip timing and a prize purse offered by the wonderful people at Fleet Feet.

This type of timing system, which I first saw while covering the 100th anniversary of the Boston Marathon, will be handled by the Albany Running Exchange. Judging from the speed with which ARE cranked out results from the Mohawk Hudson River Marathon two weeks ago, Stockade-athon runners will be in good hands.

I expect a huge dividend to be paid in the form of an awards ceremony that starts right on time, so the runners won't cool their heels at Central Park Middle School any longer than they have to.

My corrupting influence extended to western New York last Saturday, when I forced a half-dozen kids 5 and younger to watch nine Breeders' Cup races from 1-6:45 p.m. while they were trying to celebrate my nephew's 1-year birthday at my sister's house in Buffalo. As Ralphie Parker might say, "Uncle Mike 1, Kids ... zip."

Zenyatta was electrifying on Friday, and on Saturday, the big Curlin move fizzled out. With the BC back on Santa Anita's Pro-Ride next year and the Euros having had a huge weekend, I suspect you'll see even more European horses next year. The North American horses will have another year to get used to the synthetics and prepare specifically for Santa Anita, but I don't think that'll make a huge difference.

Congratulations to Richard Migliore on Desert Code in the Turf Sprint, and trainer Jonathan Sheppard and owner George Strawbridge with Forever Together in the Filly and Mare Turf.

Also, tremendous job by my friend and colleague, Phil Janack, who juggled covering the races and taking my (woeful) wagers over the phone, while humping around on crutches all week with a severely sprained ankle. Those birthday toddlers were absolutely no help picking horses. I blame them.

Back to work on Tuesday for MAAC media day at the ESPN Zone. Rider coach Tommy Dempsey had the best line of the day, when he got up to the podium and promised to call Jason Thompson, the No. 12 draft pick of the Sacramento Kings, as soon as the event was over. You see, the coaches picked Rider fourth last year, with Thompson, and third this year, without him. Thompson, by the way, had a beautiful NBA debut on Wednesday, when he scored 18 points on 7-for-11 shooting and grabbed 10 rebounds in a 98-96 loss to Minnesota. Oh, and no fouls in 22 minutes as the first man off the bench.

Siena, not surprisingly, was the unanimous preseason No. 1 pick by the 10 MAAC coaches. On Thursday, the Saints received eight votes in the ESPN/USA Today coaches poll, the first time since 1999 that they got a vote.

Speaking of the NBA, the barrel of fava beans at LaGioia Deli on Van Vranken Avenue proved to be an omen when I stopped in for a sandwich on Wednesday.

I watched the Knicks score 120 points and beat Miami for new coach Mike D'Antoni on TV. At training camp at Skidmore, beat writer Marc Berman of the New York Post described the second half of the 2007-08 season as "a 30-game death march."

Oh, the fava beans? Well, I'm not a Knicks fan, but as they were scoring like crazy and winning in front of their home crowd, I couldn't help paraphrasing Dr. Hannibal Lecter in my head: "The NBA is much more interesting with the Knicks in it."

Not long after, I noticed that "The Silence of the Lambs" was playing on another station and flipped to it just in time for Lecter to utter the immortal line, "A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti."

I love Halloween time.