LEXINGTON, Ky. - This week, the United States Department of Agriculture announced that it has issued a conditional one-year license for a vaccine against West Nile virus. News of the vaccine, which is made by Fort Dodge and available to veterinarians in states that approve its use, came even as officials at the Centers for Disease Control reported that the virus has spread into new territory.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - The Keeneland July yearling sale, which opened the selected yearling auction season on July 16, has long symbolized the Thoroughbred sport's exclusivity. The Keeneland July auction ring was where Seattle Dancer sold as a yearling in 1985 for what is still a world-record price of $13.1 million. With its tuxedoed bid-spotters, multi-million-dollar prices, and record average of $710,247 this year, it still feels much like the world's premier yearling auction.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Serra Lake, winner of the Go for Wand Stakes at Saratoga, is the latest Grade 1 winner for her sire, Seattle Slew, and for her distinguished female family, developed by King Ranch and descending from Monade, winner of the 1962 English Oaks.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Born Perfect, the $3.6 million Mr. Prospector filly who topped last year's Keeneland July selected yearling sale, has been injured in training and will retire unraced.

Satish and Anne Sanan's Padua Stables, which owns Born Perfect, announced the 2-year-old filly's retirement Tuesday, saying that she would join the Padua broodmare band in Ocala, Fla.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Born Perfect, the $3.6 million Mr. Prospector filly who topped last year's Keeneland July selected yearling sale, has been injured in training and will retire unraced.

Satish and Anne Sanan's Padua Stables, which owns Born Perfect, announced the 2-year-old filly's retirement Tuesday, saying that she would join the Padua broodmare band in Ocala, Fla.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Legislation that would eliminate the sales tax on Thoroughbred breeding stock purchased for use in California has passed the Assembly and Senate and will be sent to Gov. Gray Davis in coming days.

The legislation is one of two major racing-related bills that have passed the legislature. A bill allowing telephone betting has been approved but has not reached the governor's desk.

Of the two bills, the one eliminating sales tax is least likely to be opposed by Davis, who last year vetoed a bill permitting telephone betting.

Exchange Rate, winner of the Grade 2 Tom Fool Handicap on July 4, was retired this week to stand at Padua Stables in Summerfield, Fla.

"We have not determined a fee as yet," said Padua Stables's Bruce Hill, "but you can be sure that it will be commensurate with the going rate in Florida for a horse with his pedigree and racing record."

A 4-year-old, Exchange Rate is by Danzig and out of the graded stakes winner Pound Sterling, by Seeking the Gold, and he joins three other stallions at Padua Stables.

The progeny of New York freshman sire Ormsby are off to a fast start at the races.

At the recently concluded Belmont Park spring/summer meet, Ormsby had three winners from six runners who made a total of seven starts.

Ormsby's first two winners, first-time starters Mybingo and Trial Prep, won New York-bred maiden races on June 20 and June 27, respectively. Our Breadwinner, in her second race, won a statebred maiden event on July 19.

Another Ormsby 2-year-old New York-bred, Nypuddles, finished second in her career debut on July 4.

Chestertown, a centuries-old town nestled along the banks of the Chester River on Maryland's eastern shore, is not a place one would expect to be a hotbed of Thoroughbred breeding activity.

Yet Chestertown-area farms are credited with four stakes winners in the past month.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Thunder Gulch has earned a mark of distinction as a stallion with the victories by his offspring Point Given and Tweedside in the Belmont Stakes and Coaching Club American Oaks. Few stallions have managed to sire the winners of both these races, which now stand virtually alone in American racing to suggest the versatility that lies within the Thoroughbred.