LEXINGTON, Ky. - Topped by $4 million mare Twenty Eight Carat, the Keeneland November breeding stock sale concluded Thursday with steep declines from last year's edition.

The 2001 sale, compromised by the impact of mare reproductive loss syndrome, cataloged just 4,115 lots, down substantially from last year's record catalog of 5,111. The 2001 auction sold 2,506 lots for total revenue of $179,568,600 and an average price of $71,655. Last year, buoyed by dispersals of high-quality stock, 3,266 lots brought a total of $301,994,800 and a record average of $92,466.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Grade 2-winning millionaire King Cugat has been retired from the races and will enter stud in 2002 at Will Farish's Lane's End Farm in Versailles, Ky. King Cugat will stand for a fee of $10,000 live foal for his initial season.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - A $152,000 weanling by Maria's Mon was the session-leader as of 5 p.m. Wednesday at Keeneland's 11-day November breeding stock sale.

JEC Equine purchased the weanling colt, a half-brother to the winning Marquetry filly Never Neverland, from Millennium Farms (William and Michele Hardin). Millennium acted as agent for Tim and Chris Russell.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - My Juliet, champion sprinter of 1976 and the dam of Grade 1 winners Tis Juliet and Stella Madrid, died last winter at 29, Lynn de Seroux confirmed Wednesday.

She died at Eric and Lynn de Seroux's Pleasant Retreat Farm near Paris, Ky., where she had produced her last four foals.

"She was our pet," Lynn de Seroux said. "She followed us around, and she never had a halter on. It was like losing a member of the family."

LEXINGTON, Ky. - A $120,000 Comic Strip filly was the leader at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday as Day 9 of Keeneland's 11-day November breeding stock sale continued. Robert E. Courtney's Crestfield Farm, agent, sold the weanling filly to Tom Van Meter.

The bay filly is out of Delta Slew, a stakes-placed Seattle Slew mare, who also has produced the stakes-winner Meadow Pipit (Meadowlake) and stakes-placed Coup Fizzles (Devil's Bag).

LEXINGTON, Ky. - A $950,000 full sister to two-time Breeders' Cup Classic winner Tiznow lit up Day 6 of Keeneland's November breeding stock sale on Saturday.

Sheikh Mohammed al Maktoum's Godolphin operation purchased the bay weanling filly, who has three white socks and a Tiznow-style blaze on her face. The Cee's Tizzy-Cee's Song (Seattle Song) filly went through the ring to settle the estate of her late breeder, Cecilia Straub-Rubens, and was offered without a reserve.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - West Nile virus, a mosquito-borne disease that can cause fatal swelling of the spinal cord and brain, was first detected in the Western Hemisphere in 1999 in New York.

Since the first case, the disease has spread steadily in the United States, with the westernmost infection reported in Louisiana. The first case in Kentucky was detected in late August in a Quarter Horse in Bourbon County north of Lexington. That case, the only other reported incidence of West Nile in the state, was not fatal.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - As of 5 p.m., a $220,000 Irish River mare, Fiamma, was the fifth-session leader on Friday at Keeneland's November breeding stock sale.

Hug Merry Bloodstock signed for the mare, who is a 6-year-old stakes-placed winner. Brookdale Farm, agent, sold Fiamma, whose first foal is a 2001 Real Quiet filly.

On Thursday, the 10-day auction'`s fourth session sold 225 lots for $12,725,100, yielding an average price of $56,556 and a median of $40,000.

Fifteen years after its first auction, the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society (Ontario division) may be forced to relocate or cancel next year's June 2-year-olds in training sale.

The CTHS will not have access to the Woodbine sales pavilion stalls and will not be allowed to erect portable stalls that have been used for the last several sales.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Gordon Severson has put his VCR through quite a workout in the week since Lady George won the California Cup Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita on Nov. 3.

"I've watched it quite a few times," he admitted on Thursday.

Severson, along with trainer Tony Locke, enjoyed the biggest wins of their careers when 15-1 Lady George won the $125,000 Juvenile Fillies.

The win justified Severson's $2,500 investment for Lady George at the 2000 Baretts October Yearling Sale, a bargain considering she has earned $130,976.