LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association was scheduled to respond to critics Friday at a special meeting in Ocala, Fla., where a group led by small breeder Gordon Reiss planned to raise questions about the organization’s transparency and the direction of Florida racing and breeding, particularly for smaller breeders.

Reiss, an insurance executive and former Warnerton Farm manager, owns two broodmares. He says he’s concerned that the FTBOA isn’t promoting policies to keep Florida’s breeding program more competitive.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – First, the bad news. Florida’s breeding industry has shrunk dramatically. Between 2007 and 2010, the number of mares bred there fell 52 percent, from 6,383 to 3,076, according to Jockey Club statistics. In the same time frame, the stallion population went from 253 to 123.

Leading Florida sire Wildcat Heir will stand for a higher fee of $10,000 next year, but most of the 13 other stallions at Journeyman Stud in Ocala, Fla., will remain at their 2010 fee levels in 2011.

Leading Florida sire Wildcat Heir will stand for a higher fee of $10,000 next year, but most of the 13 other stallions at Journeyman Stud in Ocala, Fla., will remain at their 2010 fee levels in 2011.

The only other exception in Consolidator, whose fee decreases from $5,000 to $4,000.

Graded stakes-winning sires Midas Eyes and Champali are headed to Saudi Arabia.

Chad Schumer’s Schumer Bloodstock has purchased the pair on behalf of undisclosed Saudi interests.

Grade 1 winner Midas Eyes stood this year at Empire Stud in upstate New York, where he had a $3,000 fee. A 10-year-old Touch Gold horse, he won the Grade 1 Forego Handicap in 2004 and is the sire of 2010 stakes-placed runner Readygetsgold and track record-setter King Snake from his first two crops.

A pair of $494,550 horses led a day of mixed results at the Tattersalls December mare sale in Newmarket, England.

The auction’s third of four sessions saw losses in gross receipts and average price, but the median remained level at last year’s figure of 16,000 guineas, about $26,376. The session grossed $9,170,606 for 174 mares, a total that was 9 percent lower than last year’s figure for 161 mares. The average price fell 16 percent to about $52,705.

Broodmare Quelle Amore and prospect Shamwari Lodge each brought 300,000 guineas, the session-topping price.

Keeneland has cataloged 1,827 horses for its Jan. 10-14 horses of all ages sale in Lexington, Ky.

The catalog is up 4 percent from this year’s initial catalog of 1,753, which had been a 26-percent drop from 2009.

The 2010 January sale catalog consists of 800 broodmares and broodmare prospects, 643 yearlings, 380 racing-age horses, as well as the stallions Weather Warning, Domestic Dispute, and Performing Magic, and a share in Monarchos.

A few years ago, when the El Nino weather effect struck California with significant rainfall, the late Scoop Vessels thought of a way to house top Quarter Horse stallion First Down Dash if the river on the banks running through the Vessels Stallion Farm in northern San Diego county rose too high.

“If the river rises any further, he will come up to the house and we’ll put him in the living room overnight,” Bonnie Vessels recalled her husband saying.

Millennium Farms at Moon Lake in Louisiana has lowered its stud fee for Shaniko from $5,000 to $2,500 and will keep the other horses on its 2011 roster at their 2010 fee levels.

Millennium's Louisiana horses stand at Moon Lake Farm in Elm Grove, La.

Shaniko stood at Millennium Farms in Kentucky this year and will stand for the first time at the Moon Lake division in 2011. He is a 9-year-old son of A. P. Indy and the Pleasant Tap mare Sapphire n' Silk.

There were gains across the board Tuesday at the Tattersalls December mare sale in Newmarket, England, where Diary, dam of European champion sprinter Total Gallery and carrying a Galileo foal, brought more than $2 million.

A buoyant second session lifted the sale to an improved performance over last year's equivalent day. Tuesday's session sold 163 horses for about $31,755,880, an average of about $194,821, and an $84,425 median. Compared year-to-year in the auction currency of guineas, those figures were up 26 percent in gross, 23 percent in average, and 59 percent in median.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Gainesway stallion Mr. Greeley was euthanized Tuesday morning because of worsening laminitis, the farm announced.

An 18-year-old Gone West horse, Mr. Greeley was the sire of such Grade 1 winners El Corredor and Whywhywhy, both sires now; European champion Finsceal Beo; and Nonsuch Bay and Saoirse Abu. His graded stakes-winners this year include the fillies Aruna and Laughing Lashes.

These runners are among 22 graded or group winners sired by Mr. Greeley. His progeny earnings had surpassed $50 million by his death.