The exclusive club of Grade 1 winners gained a new member following the relentless charge of Include in the Pimlico Special Stakes on May 12. Include, owned by Robert E. Meyerhoff, got up by a neck over Albert the Great in the final strides, which placed him in rarefied company among Maryland racing's elite.

A son of Meyerhoff's star of the 1980's, multi-millionaire Broad Brush, Include is out of Illeria, by Stop the Music, and is a full brother to Magic Broad, who was Maryland-bred champion 2-year-old filly of 1998.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Phil Trowbridge, the longtime farm manager of Gallagher's Stud, said he was flooded with condolence calls when the farm's owner, Jerry Brody, died Tuesday after a long illness.

Trowbridge said he lost a friend and a great boss when Brody, a popular and successful New York breeder for more than 20 years, passed away at age 78 in Miami.

Brody hired Trowbridge right out of college 25 years ago. "I graduated Saturday and was working at the farm on Sunday," Trowbridge, 45, recalled.

Florida has not yet had any indigenous cases of the devastating disease that is threatening the Kentucky breeding industry. But vigilance is high, and all mares entering the state from Kentucky are being tracked, with a recommendation that mares who may or may not have been exposed be placed in a precautionary 15-day isolation.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Preliminary results from the University of Kentucky's research into fetal loss syndrome haven't revealed a definitive cause for more than 1,100 abortions in broodmares since April 28, but they lend support to the researchers' theory that the problems may have started with fungus or mold in pastures.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - No matter how silly or illogical the subject, some people simply will natter on about jinxes and other superstitious trash, won't they?

If you want a jinx, consider all the ink spilt over the gray horse jinx in the Kentucky Derby. This particular piece of newsroom voodoo grew out of the fact that no gray horse won the Kentucky Derby in its first 79 runnings.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - As veterinarians and researchers continue to seek a definitive cause for the disease that is making Kentucky's mares abort their foals and fetuses, three United States Department of Agriculture veterinarians will help Gluck Equine Research Center officials design a second questionnaire for Kentucky's farm managers.

The Kentucky Thoroughbred Farm Managers Club and Kentucky Association of Equine Practitioners sent an initial questionnaire to 159 area farms last week.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Even under the best of circumstances, breeding Thoroughbreds can be a tricky business. A mare may or may not get in foal and, once a foal is born, the breeder must steer it past any number of dangers, from viruses to lightning storms.