Longtime trainer Jimmy Rowe died earlier this week at the age of 96. Rowe - whose daughter Emmy Rowe serves as an assistant on the south Florida circuit for trainer Ron Gaffney - had among his top horses Polylad, winner of the 1961 Massachusetts Handicap, and Spicy Living, who won the opening two legs of the 1963 filly triple crown, the Acorn and Mother Goose. . . . Shirley Gill, a longtime presence in Ontario's Thoroughbred racing industry, died in a hospital on Wednesday at age 70 after a brief battle with cancer. Gill owned horses, was a racing writer, and most recently was an editor and statistician for Canadian Thoroughbred magazine. . . . Empire Stud in Hudson, N.Y., has halved the stud fee for Grade 1 winner Midas Eyes (Touch Gold-Bayou Plans), who will now stand for $3,000, or $2,000 for returning breeders or breeders sending multiple mares. The farm also is offering some statebred incentives - including one-time free, no-guarantee seasons to approved mares foaling in approved statebred programs - in exchange for the Midas Eyes Syndicate being named co-breeder and receiving 50 percent of breeders' awards for resulting foals.