Etc. . . .

The Ocala Breeders' Sales Co.'s Jan. 19-22 winter mixed auction rang up a pair of $95,000 session toppers Monday: a Deputy Commander filly out of the Relaunch mare O K Three Wire, and the Gulch broodmare Natkeeta, in foal to Johannesburg. Monday's opener sold 160 lots for $3,127,200, down slightly from last year's $3,192,400 for 198 lots, with an average price of $19,545 (up 21 percent) and a median of $14,000 (up 12 percent). . . . Bob McNair, who races Horse of the Year candidate Congaree, has been named member of the year by the Texas Thoroughbred Association. McNair and his wife, Janice, had four horses they bred in Texas win stakes in 2003, a modern-day record for the state. . . . Mike Ewing, 58, a former leading rider at Beulah Park, died Sunday in Daytona Beach, Fla. Ewing won more than 1,000 races in a 26-year career and was the regular rider of Rollin on Over, the 1983 Ohio horse of the year.