In 1963, Issie Sherman of Farnsworth Farms signed a sales ticket on behalf of Louis E. Wolfson of Harbor View Farm. The venue was Hialeah Park, the horse was consigned by Ocala Stud, and the $26,000 purchase was for the future Horse of the Year, Roman Brother - the first national champion sold as a 2-year-old in training.

The 2001 Experimental Free Handicap highlighted the ability of Northview Stallion Station's Two Punch to sire quality juvenile runners.

Of the 140 2-year-olds weighted this year, Two Punch was represented with a career-best four, which matched Kentucky stallion Carson City for the most on the list. Two Punch also led all sires in fillies on the list, with three of the 64 weighted.

Several registered New York-breds, who sold at auction last year as yearlings, are among the 205 horses catalogued at Tuesday's Ocala Breeders' Sales Company selected 2-year-old in training sale at Calder.

The sires representing these five New York-breds are Awesome Again, Forest Wildcat, Gold Fever, Pine Bluff, and Southern Halo.

James Layden has consigned Miney's Awesome (Hip No. 114), a filly from Grade 1 winner Awesome Again's first crop who was bought by Naveed Chowhan as a yearling for $112,000 at Fasig-Tipton in Kentucky in October.

Beau's Surprise, a 3-year-old colt who won five stakes last season, was named Pennsylvania Horse of the Year by the Pennsylvania Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association and Philadelphia Park.

Trained by Todd Beattie for owner Thomas McClay, Beau's Surprise won eight of 11 starts in 2001, including a pair of $50,000 stakes at Philadelphia Park and the $50,000 Great Falls at The Meadowlands. He was also honored as the state's top 3-year-old male.

Beattie and McClay also had the state's top 2-year-old male, Oswayo, winner of the Pennsylvania Futurity.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - John Henry, a two-time Horse of the Year who rose from obscurity to become the world's richest Thoroughbred in the 1980's, is doing well after emergency colic surgery, according to the Kentucky Horse Park.

The 27-year-old gelding has remained at the Hagyard Davidson McGee clinic since the Jan. 25 surgery but may return to the park sometime this weekend.

JAMAICA, N.Y. - Dixie Brass, a longtime leading New York sire and a Grade 1 winner, was found dead in his stall on Monday at The Stallion Park in Millbrook, N.Y. He was 13.

An autopsy was scheduled to determine the cause of death, which came only weeks before the start of the breeding season.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - In the first month of foaling season, the number of reported late-term abortions is holding nearly level with last year, according to information issued by the Livestock Disease Diagnostic Laboratory in Lexington.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Whitewinesipper had such a brief racing career it's hard to determine what she could have accomplished. As a broodmare, it may be a different matter.

Last year at 2, her only season on the track, Whitewinesipper won 2 of 3 starts, but was injured when she finished fifth in the Grade 1 Oak Leaf Stakes last September.

Instead of a lengthy layoff, she was retired by owners Randy Welty and Lynn Ballantyne. This spring, she will be bred to Point Given, the top 3-year-old of 2001.

Maryland-breds affirmed their class in 2001, with a total of 81 winning stakes. In addition, 59 Maryland-breds bankrolled more than $100,000 (based on U.S. totals).

Some highlights from the 2001 racing season:

Leading earner: Include, with $1,435,400.

Last week, the New York Thoroughbred Breeders board of directors elected Jerry Nielsen, the owner of Sunnyfield Farm in Bedford, N.Y., as the organization's president for a two-year term.

Nielsen, 67, has replaced Howard Nolan, who didn't seek re-election after serving consecutive two-year terms.

Nielsen brings a wealth of knowledge of the New York breeding industry to his new position. Since 1976, Nielsen and his wife, Joanne, have managed a successful commercial breeding operation in Westchester County at Sunnyfield Farm, where they currently have 13 broodmares.