There have been two John Veitches, very different versions of a man who has tasted the highs and lows of this sport like no other. There was the trainer who guided one of the most powerful and recognizable stables in the country, regularly developing champions and stakes winners, horses like Alydar, Davona Dale and Our Mims. Then there was the down-on-his-luck horseman who had nothing better than a few slow horses in his barn, struggled to win a handful of races and decided to retire rather than continue with the futility.

The story might have ended right there. Veitch's prospects for future success seemed so dim that all that seemed to remain of him were the memories of the good old days. But Veitch is about to return to racing in a big way, ready to unveil still another chapter: as the Comeback Kid.

Wintering in Camden, South Carolina, Veitch is preparing a string of horses, most of them now yearlings, for a springtime invasion of the New York tracks. That he's back is interesting. That he's back for the storied Calumet Stable, for whom he enjoyed is greatest success, is nothing short of remarkable.

Veitch's demise was indirectly related to the fall of Calumet, and neither one figured to make it back. Once the proudest outfit in racing, the stable, which had won a record eight Kentucky Derbies, was never the same again after it was taken over by J.T. Lundy. Lundy's mismanagement and alleged improprieties would drive Calumet into the ground.

It could be said that Lundy's first mistake was his attempt to give some Calumet horses to other trainers. Despite all of Veitch's accomplishments, Lundy made it clear he was no fan of the bald-headed trainer and offered him a diminished role with the stable. Instead of accepting the offer, Veitch resigned, effective Sept. 24, 1982.

With Calumet on its way to ruin, Veitch landed another top job, as the private trainer for Darby Dan Farm. For Darby Dan, he won the 1985 Breeders' Cup Classic with Proud Truth and won a turf championship with Sunshine Forever, but he eventually fell out of favor there and was replaced.

With no major clients behind him, Veitch's fortunes dwindled. From 1994 through 1998, he won just 11 races. He had gone from the top to the bottom of the heap in just 12 years.

"I've seen it happen to a lot of people," Veitch said. "It's happened to a lot of very good horseman, most of them much better than I am, with equally good reputations. It is an inexplicable phenomenon. I'm not talking about just myself, but about guys like Leroy Jolley and David Whiteley, who are great horseman and have proven it time and time again. All of a sudden, they go from having 25 or 30 horses in the barn to having four. It's like you were the flavor of the month. You go through a two, three year dry spell and you never recover."

Part of the problem, Veitch reasons, is that he was a product of a bygone era, a time when racing was more than a business. With both Calumet and Darby Dan, Veitch was a private trainer for wealthy, established clients with long histories in the game who were sportsmen first and foremost. That allowed him to take his time with his horses and not worry so much about the bottom line. Meanwhile, trainers like Wayne Lukas were making huge advances training large stables for a number of different clients, most of whom agreed the win at all costs philosophy. Veitch just didn't fit in anymore, and it only grew worse.

With just eight nondescript horses in his stable, he walked away from the game in the beginning of 1999, settling into early retirement in South Carolina. A few months later, he was contacted by Prince Faisel bin Khalid of Saudi Arabia and hired as a consultant. One of his responsibilities was to hire a new trainer for Prince Faisel, a job Veitch eventually wound up taking himself. He lasted a year, but wanted no more. Veitch suffered from culture shock in a very religious Arabic community and grew increasingly uncomfortable. He asked that the job be turned over to someone else.

He returned to the U.S. with no horses and no prospects. And then the phone rang.

Henryk de Kwiatkowski was the savior of Calumet, buying the farm and its assets after it fell into bankruptcy, staving off extinction in the process. However, de Kwiatkowski, who campaigned several top horses in the seventies and eighties with Woody Stephens, cut back on Calumet's racing operation, selling most of the farm's best bred horses at the yearling sales. But de Kwiatkowski missed the action and was not happy with the job his trainers were doing with his few race horses.

He decided to go back into racing in a big way and wanted a private trainer to take over the entire operation. Who better than the person who hadhad so much prior success with Calumet, John Veitch. Veitch was hired last fall and was set to open up shop next year.

On his first day back at Calumet's Lexington, Kentucky farm, Veitch was overcome with the aura and magnificence of the place. It was good to be back.

"The first day I drove back into that place, I saw that it was the same," he said. "I don't care who owns it. It is the same, the same white fences, the same barns, the same training track, that graveyard. You don't want to get weepy about it, but you look out there and realize it is hallowed ground for somebody that has been in the horse business and knows about all the great horses that have come off that land."

Veitch isn't expecting anything big in 2001. He has 14 yearlings and one 2-year-old with him at the Camden Training Center and will pick up a handful of older horses. Most of Calumet's better horses were sold at the yearling sales before de Kwiatkowski decided to beef up his racing operation, so Veitch may not have any stars in his barn -- at least yet. With de Kwiatkowski ready to go full tilt on the racetrack, Veitch should have a barn full of quality horses within a year or two.

"This is going to take a couple of years, but the basic vision is to have quality, classic-type horses that will compete at the highest level and to divest ourselves of the horses that don't fit in with that goal," Veitch said.

Veitch's job will be to restore Calumet to some of its old glory, just as he did when he took over as head trainer at age 30 in 1976. But that won't be his only mission. He, too, will be looking for a return to better days, for he has gotten all that he wished for -- one more chance.