Etc. . .

Fairfields Stud in Australia has privately purchased Grade 3 winner Fighting Falcon, who will stand in Australia during the 2003 Southern hemisphere season. A 7-year-old Manila-Lovlier Linda horse, Fighting Falcon was trained by Wallace Dollase and won the Cinema Handicap and two other stakes for a career record of 21-5-4-3 and $494,175 in earnings. . . . Popular Coolmore stallion Thunder Gulch is not on that global sire operation's Australian roster for 2003 and will take a break from shuttling, Coolmore has told Thoroughbred Breeders Australia. Thunder Gulch's progeny include several of Australian stars, among them 2003 Group 3 winner Stylish. . . . In response to the news of the death, possibly in a slaughterhouse, of Ferdinand, the 1986 Kentucky Derby winner, the Texas Thoroughbred Association board of directors has adopted a formal position against horse slaughter. . . . Evangeline Downs in Lafayette, La., which is scheduled to open a slots casino at its new site in Opelousas, La., in March 2004 and begin racing there in 2005, will begin taking applications for 600 casino jobs on Aug. 4. They will be received at an employment center located in Opelousas.