His hypnotist was back on call, but Tom Durkin was in a state of anything but deep sleep. He was riffling through the more than 2,000 words in his notebook on Monday, trying to match words with images, poring over videotape of dozens of horse races and anticipating every imaginable outcome for the 146th running of the Belmont Stakes.

He has a dossier on each of the 12 possible starters that together runs more than 20 pages. By post time Saturday, Durkin, the track announcer, will have the pertinent details on each of them littered about his subconscious.

Just as he does before each of the races he calls, Durkin has also assigned this Belmont Stakes a plot — think of it as the frame within which he will paint an evocative word picture.