LEXINGTON, Ky. - Lightning may not strike twice, but that may not apply to Regal Realm, a very successful broodmare who has produced four stakes winners, including two winners of the Potrero Grande Handicap at Santa Anita.

The mare's first Potrero Grande winner was the chestnut gelding Sir Hutch, and she got her second winner in the race last weekend when her 6-year-old daughter Kalookan Queen defeated colts for a Grade 2 success to follow her Grade 1 victory this year in the Santa Monica Handicap.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Honor Grades, the 14-year-old Danzig stallion who died unexpectedly last Sunday at Darby Dan Farm near Lexington, has left Darby Dan managing partner John Phillips and quite a few breeders wondering what might have been.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - A new study of last spring's abortion wave known as mare reproductive loss syndrome suggests some new factors that might have predisposed mares to the syndrome.

Researchers funded by the state of Kentucky and the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation announced Wednesday that new factors included the presence of elk or deer at affected farms during the year preceding the outbreak, and an increased amount of white clover in pastures in the four weeks before abortion.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Seattle Slew, the 1977 Triple Crown winner who is recovering from spine surgery, has moved from his longtime home at Three Chimneys Farm in Midway, Ky., to John Sikura's Hill 'n' Dale Farm near Lexington.

Seattle Slew's syndicate manager, Mickey Taylor, announced the 28-year-old Seattle Slew's relocation Sunday in a letter to shareholders in the stallion.

"I believe that it is in Slew's best interest to be in a setting which allows him to be more isolated from mares coming to the breeding shed. Hill 'n' Dale provides that opportunity," Taylor wrote

A breeding column Saturday about Machiavellian misstated his stud fee. It is 80,000 pounds (about $115,000), not 60,000 pounds.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - As researchers continue to monitor Kentucky's farmland for signs that mare reproductive loss syndrome might return, the University of Kentucky says that so far this spring it has found nothing dangerous in the environment at its test farms.

University of Kentucky scientists are monitoring 12 horse farms and one hay farm as part of an effort to learn more about - and prevent, if possible - outbreaks of the syndrome, which caused abortions in thousands of mares last spring. The syndrome's cause remains a mystery.

ARCADIA, Calif. - The influence of California-breds has gone global. Last Saturday, it reached 8,000 miles, all the way to Nad Al Sheba racetrack in Dubai.

Minutes after California-bred Grey Memo (by Memo) crushed an international field in the $1 million Godolphin Mile, someone whispered to Grey Memo's owner-breeder Pat Thompson: "We know all about Memo in California."

Said Thompson: "Now everybody else will know, too."

Double Diamond Farm stallion Semoran became the first Florida freshman sire off the mark, when his son, the chestnut colt Uriah's Beginning, won his maiden March 21 at Delta Downs. Uriah's Beginning, out of the Crusader Sword producer Avenging Aly, was an easy winner, running the half-mile distance in 47 seconds.

"Semoran will have 28 other registered 2-year-olds going for him this year," said Double Diamond Farm spokeswoman Louise Copley. "And it looks like he will cover 50 mares this year. That's a normal book at Double Diamond Farm."

Quality sells - that has been proven over and over again during the 13-year history of Northview Stallion Station.

Northview stands the two most expensive stallions in the mid-Atlantic region: Two Punch ($25,000) and Polish Numbers ($20,000). Both are booked full for the 2002 season, and seasons to Two Punch are increasingly at a premium, said Richard Golden, managing partner of Northview.

"People will respond to a stud fee, as long as they perceive it as value," said Golden, who founded Northview in 1989, along with fellow owners Allaire duPont and Tom Bowman.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Let there be no doubt. Machiavellian is the best sire of dirt racers standing in Europe. He is also one of the best sires standing in Europe, but when his stock get a chance to race on dirt, they do make some unexpected advances. Street Cry, for instance, is the second winner of the Dubai World Cup sired by Machiavellian, who is the only stallion to sire more than one victor in the $6 million event.