Horse racing fans are rooting for a long shot — the return of the ponies to the Northwest Montana Fair.

There’s no guarantee that will happen, but it is more likely than it has been in several years, thanks to the recent decision by the Missoula fair to bring back racing this summer.

No one expects the fair board to OK racing if it loses money the way it did in years past, but on the other hand, the sport has plenty of fans who could help boost attendance at the fair if racing returns.

Let’s hope new ideas help restore an old tradition in the not too distant future.

FLATHEAD NATIONAL Forest Supervisor Cathy Barbouletos deserves kudos for guiding the forest through some serious challenges during a 12-year period that will soon end when she retires.

Barbouletos provided the forest with much-needed continuity after it had a rapid succession of leaders in the 1990s, a period of instability and impacting changes that were largely driven by litigation that the Flathead lost.

Barbouletos was on the receiving end of more lawsuits over the last decade, and partly to her credit, the forest prevailed in most of those cases.

ANOTHER REMINDER of the power of the shifting planet came with last weekend’s massive magnitude-8.8 earthquake that rocked Chile.

It came on the heels of the devastating Jan. 12 quake in Haiti.

Fortunately, Chile did not endure as much tragedy from its quake — the death toll of 802 pales compared to the 230,000 estimated killed in Haiti.

That disparity is due largely to the different natures of the two earthquakes as well as the better infrastructure and construction in Chile.

That’s not to minimize the challenge facing Chile. That country may not need as much world help as Haiti, but it still is likely to require some assistance.