LEXINGTON, Ky. - As of 5 p.m. Tuesday, a $120,000 Northern Afleet colt was the session-leader on the second day of the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's spring 2-year-old sale in Ocala, Fla.

The colt, the first foal out of the Great Above mare Goose Geisz, went to Buzz Chace, agent, from consignor Ricky Leppala, agent.

On Monday, the auction's opening day, a $110,000 Fortunate Prospect filly sold by Farnsworth Farms topped the session. Brian Morgan purchased the session-topper, who is out of the Valid Appeal mare Amavalidhope.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Ogden Phipps, patriarch of the family whose name is synonymous with royalty in American Thoroughbred breeding and racing, died early Monday morning. He was 93.

Phipps died at about 1:30 a.m. at Good Samaritan Medical Center near his residence in West Palm Beach, Fla., after a short illness, according to The Jockey Club.

Phipps bred and raced such Hall of Fame runners as Buckpasser, Easy Goer, and Personal Ensign. His stable's trainers included Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons, Bill Winfrey, Eddie Neloy, and Claude "Shug" McGaughey III.

ELMONT, N.Y. - The raindrops falling from the gray April sky Monday morning provided a most appropriate setting outside Belmont Park's Barn 20, where trainer Shug McGaughey and his staff mourned the death of owner Ogden Phipps. Phipps died early Monday morning after a short illness at age 93.

McGaughey was hired to be the private trainer for the Phipps stable on Nov. 11, 1985. Since then, McGaughey has trained five champions for the family, including the undefeated filly Personal Ensign and Easy Goer, Ogden Phipps's 1989 Belmont Stakes winner who was 2-year-old champion of 1988.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - As of 5 p.m. Monday, a $110,000 Fortunate Prospect filly was the session-leader on the opening day of Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's four-day spring 2-year-olds in training auction in Ocala, Fla.

Brian Morgan signed for the filly, who sold as Hip No. 79 and is a daughter of the Valid Appeal winner Amavalidhope. Farnsworth Farms was the consignor. The filly, currently named Hope for Love, is a half-sister to the winners Honor Lass and Vesta.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Scientists at the University of Kentucky have issued a weather advisory to horse farm owners and managers for Monday night, due to predictions for near-freezing temperatures overnight.

Scientists have implicated last spring's alternating heat-and-freeze weather patterns as a risk factor for mare reproductive loss syndrome, the mysterious and still-unidentified disease that caused thousands of mares to abort and that may have caused other health problems in yearlings.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Secretariat was a 3-year-old the last time a California-bred won the San Juan Capistrano Invitational Handicap.

On April 7, 1973, Secretariat won the Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct. A few hours later, Queen's Hustler pulled an upset in the San Juan, holding off a late rally by Big Spruce and Cougar II to win by a head.

The Ocala Breeders' Sales Company, which has logged record numbers for both average and median prices for the first two of its four 2002 sales of 2 year-olds in training, begins its third sale at 10:30 a.m. Monday.

The four-day event is the biggest sale of its kind anywhere and this year the OBS had to limit the catalog to slightly more than 1,200 horses. The overflow will be sold in the OBS June 19 sale of 2 year-olds in training.

To sell, or not to sell. That is the question for Allen and Audrey Murray, the couple who caught lightning in a bottle last fall when they purchased a "disappointing" young stallion named Our Emblem in Kentucky and syndicated him to stand at their Murmur Farm in Darlington, Md.

Our Emblem right now is the hottest young sire in the nation, with two sons headed for the Kentucky Derby - War Emblem, winner of the Grade 2 Illinois Derby, and Private Emblem, winner of the Grade 2 Arkansas Derby. The 3-year-olds represent Our Emblem's second crop.

The performances by two 3-year-old New York-breds last weekend were an excellent advertisement for the Empire State's breeding program.

Private Emblem, bred by Dr. Doug Koch of Berkshire Stud in Pine Plains, N.Y., and by Oak Cliff Stable, rolled home a 4 1/2-length winner in the $500,000 Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park, securing himself a berth in the Kentucky Derby.

A few hours earlier, Roman Dancer, bred by Jerry Nielsen, the president of the New York Thoroughbred Breeders, and his wife, Joanne, won his first graded stakes in Aqueduct's Grade 3 Bay Shore Stakes.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Harlan's Holiday, winner of last Saturday's Blue Grass Stakes and the leading contender for the Kentucky Derby, is heading toward Louisville with increasing speed. But the colt, a muscular bay, did not start his life as one of the select.

Born on Double D Farm near Medina, Ohio, Harlan's Holiday is one of the thousands of inexpensively bred foals born every year. Yet he is one of the few to shake the everyday dust off his hooves and rise to fame.