A fire destroyed a barn housing 21 Thoroughbreds and several other horses Saturday at Cot Campbell’s Dogwood Stable in Aiken, S.C., but all horses escaped unharmed, according to published reports.

Repole Stable’s Stopchargingmaria took control from the outset and was never challenged in a sharp first-out score Friday on Saratoga Race Course's opening day, winning by 5 1/2 lengths under John Velazquez.

The 2-year-old Tale of the Cat filly, trained by Todd Pletcher, covered 5 1/2 furlongs on a fast main track in 1:04.69. Pletcher said afterward that he would discuss Stopchargingmaria’s next start with owner Mike Repole but that a juvenile stakes would most likely be in order.

Robin Scully, whose Clovelly Farms bred recent Group 1 winner Elusive Kate, 2003 Breeders’ Cup Classic and 2004 Dubai World Cup winner Pleasantly Perfect, and numerous other high-class runners, died on July 12 in England, the Blood-Horse reported this week. Scully was 89.

He owned Clovelly Farms in Lexington, Ky., between 1959 and 2010. Scully dispersed his bloodstock at the 2010 Keeneland November sale, and in 2011 Sue and Richard Masson bought the 619-acre Kentucky property.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth District in Louisville, Ky., on Thursday upheld a $66 million judgment against the ClassicStar Farms mare-lease program, its parent company, and three owners, the Associated Press reported. The federal court found that the sales and tax benefits of the program were “dramatically oversold,” and that the operators deliberately sought to mislead investors.

Ben’s Cat is not the only renowned product to come from the fertile region in Maryland that King Leatherbury long has called home. Roadside stands overflowing with plump crabs or Silver Queen corn are the signature staples that help make Anne Arundel County and its slice of the Chesapeake Bay area the great place that it is.

The rising popularity of ownership syndicates has made having a stake in a horse more accessible than ever. But make no mistake: The Thoroughbred business still is a rich man’s game.

However, those on a budget who are looking to get into ownership could find their answer in Little Dreams Racing. Founded by owner and breeder Carlo Vaccarezza, trainer Dale Romans, and John Williams of J & J Stables, Little Dreams allows owners to invest at their own level, from as little as 1 percent and upward.

The late Cynthia Phipps maintained a much smaller broodmare band than her brother, Ogden Mills “Dinny” Phipps, but she left a mark in breeding nonetheless. The most recent evidence came on July 13 when Boisterous, a horse she bred out of a family she helped develop, won the Man o’ War Stakes, his first Grade 1 victory.

Phipps acquired the Calumet-bred Yule Log, a half-sister to Sweet Tooth, the future dam of Alydar, through her family’s foal-sharing program to Bold Ruler that also resulted in Meadow Stable breeding Secretariat.

Desert Code, winner of the inaugural Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint, was represented by his first winner on Wednesday when his daughter Moving Desert broke her maiden on opening day at Del Mar.

Moving Desert tracked the pace in third early under red-hot jockey Joel Rosario, came three wide into the stretch, and pulled clear to win by three lengths, finishing five furlongs on the all-weather Polytrack in :58.78 and earning a 72 Beyer Speed Figure. She was the third of four winners on the card for Rosario.

Heavy Breathing, a Grade 3-placed winner and a full brother to young New York sire Frost Giant, will debut at stud in 2014, standing at Dutchess View Farm in Pine Plains, N.Y. for a fee to be announced at a later date.

Dosage proponents Steve Roman and Steve Miller have identified the late stallions Gone West and Montjeu as the system’s newest chefs-de-race, according to a report in Racing Post.