It was a winter of content for Florida's breeding industry. The mild weather was undoubtedly responsible for the breeding sheds being visited early and often. Pregnancy rates are running extremely high, according to reports from several major farms.

"The young stallion prospects who were given the time to make the transition from being racehorse to a working stallion have, for me, at any rate, been getting the job done," says Roy S. Lerman of Lambholm South in Reddick.

Lerman was referring to his first-season stallions Lido Palace and Express Tour.

The Fasig-Tipton Texas 2-year-old sale at Lone Star Park improved its results from 2003 in most categories Tuesday, showing some signs that this year's strong market for select juveniles is helping to boost regional markets.

The one-day Texas sale in Grand Prairie sold 192 lots for $3,507,800, up 42 percent from last year, when 152 juveniles sold. The average price also rose, by 12 percent, to $18,270. The median, though, fell 18 percent to $8,250. The buy-back rate fell from 43 percent last year to 31 percent.

Rowdy Angel, dam of Pine Bluff and Demons Begone and the second dam of Fusaichi Pegasus, died March 22 of natural causes. The mare was 25 and had been pensioned since 1995. She died at Dr. and Mrs. Gary Lavin's Longfield Farm in Goshen, Ky.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - When Friends Lake scooted across the finish line to win the Grade 1 Florida Derby, he became the best homebred runner for Mary and Chester Broman. A chestnut son of A.P. Indy and Antespend bred at the Bromans' Chestertown Farm near Babylon, N.Y., Friends Lake is the second serious challenger (Read the Footnotes is the other) for the classics this year bred in New York.

Last weekend was a spectacular one for horses bred in the Empire State. Friends Lake became the first New York-bred to win a Grade 1 stakes this year in the $1 million Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park, and stamped himself a legitimate contender on the Triple Crown trail. Closer to home, Well Fancied continued his winning ways in the Grade 3 Toboggan Handicap at Aqueduct.

A thriving Thoroughbred operation doesn't spring up overnight, but it sometimes seems that way at Joe and Kate Painter's Blue Spruce Farm in Kearneysville, W.Va.

Fifty broodmares and three stallions roam the pastures at the Painters' 130-acre establishment, where until two years ago there were no fences, or barns, or even blueprints.

The Ocala Breeders' Sales March sale of 2-year-olds in training last Tuesday and Wednesday was the third and final selected sale of the 2004 Florida 2-year-old sales season, and, like its predecessors at Calder Race Course last month, it was a record-smashing auction.

A colt from the first crop of Tiger Ridge sold for $650,000 on Wednesday at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's March 2-year-olds in training sale, topping the two-day sale of 245 juveniles.

The colt, named Notable Tiger, was purchased by John Ferguson, an agent for Sheikh Mohammed al Maktoum. Notable Tiger was consigned by Dean DeRenzo and Randy Hartley, who purchased the colt last August at an OBS yearling sale for $21,000.

LAS VEGAS - The Kentucky Derby is six weeks from Saturday, and with the 3-year-old picture in total disarray, it looks like a Gato del Sol- or Charismatic-type year.

As usual, the four final 1 1/8-mile Derby preps - Santa Anita Derby, Arkansas Derby, Blue Grass, and Wood Memorial Stakes - will separate the contenders from the pretenders. But it has been shown that in a wide-open year, races such as the Lexington Stakes or Illinois Derby could also be a stepping-stone to Derby success.

The Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's two-day March select 2-year-old auction got off to a strong start Tuesday, with sharp gains in gross and average and several horses that brought $300,000 or more.