The Florida yearling sales get under way in Ocala on Monday,

Aug. 20, with four days of auctions by the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company.

A total of 208 select yearlings have been cataloged for the opening day

of the sale. The remaining 1,156 go on the block Tuesday through Thursday. All four sessions will begin at 11 a.m. Eastern.

Buyers will be treated to a small herd of Florida resident stallions who will be represented by first crops. There are five stallions with five or more youngsters cataloged throughout the sale.

Donna Lockard knew she wanted the unraced 4-year-old filly named Springazette when she galloped her for the first time at Bowie in January of 1990. The gray Spring Double filly, however, wasn't for sale.

"But her owners changed their minds after she lost her first start a short time later, and I got a call from her trainer saying if I wanted her, I could buy her," recalled Lockard. Thus began the rewarding relationship between Springazette and Lockard.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - As bidding got underway at the final session of Fasig-Tipton's Saratoga selected yearling sale Thursday night, a thunderstorm blew into town and knocked the lights out at the Humphrey S. Finney Sale Pavilion.

If you're in the market for a New York-bred, Fasig-Tipton's preferred sale of yearlings Sunday at 7 p.m. in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. is the place to go.

Of the 141 hip numbers in the catalog, 132 are registered New York-breds.

Last year, 82 of the 125 horses to go through the ring sold for a total of $3,420,700, a jump from $2,793,500 for the 77 sold out of 107 offered in 1999. Last year's average was $41,716, up from $36,279.

Before the preferred sale debuted in 1989, New York-breds were relegated to a smaller sale held on a Tuesday during the day.

The Florida yearling sales get under way in Ocala on Monday, Aug. 20, with four days of auctions by the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company.

A total of 208 select yearlings have been cataloged for the opening day of the sale. The remaining 1,156 go on the block Tuesday through Thursday. All four sessions will begin at 11 a.m. Eastern.

Buyers will be treated to a small herd of Florida resident stallions who will be represented by first crops. There are five stallions with five or more youngsters cataloged throughout the sale.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Becky Thomas has had great success at the Del Mar Yealing Sales, but she will be deliberately absent from the sale this week.

Thomas, the Florida pinhooker who operates Sequel Bloodstock, has acquired Arabian Light and Officer at Del Mar, resold them at 2-year-olds in-training sales, and watched them develop into stakes winners. Thomas saw both for the first time when they arrived at her farm in Ocala, Fla.

Thomas's assistant, Rudy Delguidice, has staked a claim on Del Mar as a working vacation, freeing Thomas to be at a sale in Saratoga this weekend.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - There's a big cat stalking the select yearling sales. Storm Cat, the brawny dark bay son of Secretariat's daughter Terlingua and Northern Dancer's son Storm Bird, is the most commercially popular stallion in the world. And when his most promising yearling colts and fillies come into the ring, owners and breeders bid immense sums to secure them.

Last year, his chestnut son out of Hum Along brought not only the highest price at the Keeneland September yearling sale but also the highest price of 2000 for any yearling.

Donna Lockard knew she wanted the unraced 4-year-old filly named Springazette when she galloped her for the first time at Bowie in January of 1990. The gray Spring Double filly, however, wasn't for sale.

"But her owners changed their minds after she lost her first start a short time later, and I got a call from her trainer saying if I wanted her, I could buy her," recalled Lockard. Thus began the rewarding relationship between Springazette and Lockard.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - It was a pleasantly familiar scenario for Fasig-Tipton and the Taylor Made Sales Agency: a Storm Cat in the sale pavilion, seven digits lighting up the auction board, and bloodstock agent John Ferguson's signature scribbled across the sale receipt.

It's hard to be nonchalant about $3.3 million, but when Ferguson, buying as usual for Sheikh Mohammed al Maktoum, cast the session-topping bid for Taylor Made's Storm Cat-Gone to Venus colt Wednesday night at the Fasig-Tipton selected yearling sale, no one was surprised.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Topped by a $3.3 million Storm Cat colt, the second session of Fasig-Tipton's Saratoga selected yearling sale continued the auction's bullish pace Wednesday night, prompting thoughts that the auction could break last year's record average of $305,847.

The second-session average shot up by 57 percent to $398,000, and gross revenue for 50 yearlings was up 70 percent to $19,900,000. Last year's gross was $11,699,000 for 46 lots sold. The buyback rate - the percentage of horses that did not reach their reserve prices and were bought back by their