LEXINGTON, Ky. - A black horse running alone at the front, his coat glinting in the sun - this is the image of Seattle Slew. When the pale horse came for the dark one on Tuesday, the sport lost an animal of mythic proportions.

This is a horse who gave to everyone, especially those fortunate enough to watch his races, and has kept on giving through his sons and daughters. A champion every year he raced, Seattle Slew also became a success at stud. He stood first at Spendthrift Farm, then Three Chimneys, and sired champions at both.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Kris S., sire of champions Soaring Softly and Hollywood Wildcat and two other Breeders' Cup winners, was euthanized Tuesday because of complications from a neck injury. The stallion, who stood at WinStar Farm near Versailles, Ky., was 25.

Kris S., a son of Roberto and the Princequillo mare Sharp Queen, was pensioned from stud duty on March 26, about a month after he injured his neck while breeding a mare at WinStar.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - , the last living Triple Crown winner, a four-time champion, and one of racing's most successful stallions, died in his sleep at Hill 'n' Dale Farm near Lexington on Tuesday morning. He was 28 and died on the 25th anniversary of his 1977 Kentucky Derby victory.

He leaves behind a standard that will be difficult to match. He was the only undefeated Triple Crown winner. As a stallion, he was the sire of six North American champions, including top sire and Horse of the Year A. P. Indy and Kentucky Derby winner Swale, and he continues to influence the breed.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - The number of sick foals admitted to Lexington's two major equine clinics with symptoms related to mare reproductive loss syndrome rose over the weekend, raising fears among Kentucky breeders that the mysterious illness is back.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - There is evidence that mare reproductive loss has returned this spring, and Eastern tent caterpillars are once again the leading suspects.

News that MRLS may have caused a handful of abortions has raised fears among Kentucky's breeders that last year's mysterious wave of abortions, which caused thousands of equine abortions and cost the industry an estimated $250 million, might strike again. But Kentucky's veterinary authorities stress that, so far, the effects of MRLS are much less dramatic this year.

JAMAICA, N.Y. - With the start of Belmont Park's spring/summer meet on Wednesday, the New York Racing Association has bumped up the purses of open maiden races and open allowance races by $2,000 each. Claiming races and New York-bred races are not included in the purse increase.

The move by NYRA to exclude New York-breds from the purse expansion was met with disappointment by the New York Thoroughbred Breeders, a nonprofit organization that represents 600-plus members who participate in the statebred racing and breeding program.

There comes a time in life of an undergraduate college student when the future comes into focus. For Nadia Sanan, then a student at Cornell University, that time came in the summer of 1997 when her father took her to the Keeneland summer sales.

It was the first time at the sales for Satish Sanan's Padua Stables, and young Nadia was caught up in the bustling swirl.

Last year's Kentucky Derby-winning trainer John T. Ward Jr. will take on a new role when he steps into the show ring at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium to judge the Maryland Horse Breeders Association's 68th annual show for Maryland-bred yearlings on June 30.

Ward joins an elite gruop of trainers, many of them Hall of Fame members, who have taken on the task in the past, including Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons, Horatio Luro, Woody Stephens, Scotty Schulhofer, Allen Jerkens, Bill Mott, Bobby Frankel, and recent Hall of Fame inductee Bud Delp.

The most shocking result of the California Gold Rush Day program last weekend at Hollywood Park was nearly 15 years in the making.

Ladylore won the $200,000 Melair Stakes for 3-year-old California-bred fillies at 31-1 under Laffit Pincay Jr., only five weeks after she was claimed for $32,000 at Santa Anita by trainer Bill Spawr and owner Ted Wafer.

Spawr had Ladylore in his sights all winter, and made the claim on March 16. In the late 1980's, he trained her dam, Romantic Jet.

Ontario's only 2-year-old sale is back by popular demand, and that's not surprising: The Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society's auction has had an increase in average price for three consecutive years.

This year's sale, which has a catalog of 87 horses, will be held on May 16, several weeks earlier than in recent years.

The fate of the sale was in doubt last fall when an overhaul of the Ontario sales program by Woodbine Entertainment ruled out the use of portable stalls for the sales horses.