LEXINGTON, Ky. - Keeneland and Fasig-Tipton have changed their November sales dates, citing a desire to make the sales as convenient as possible for buyers and sellers who plan to attend the Breeders' Cup in California on Nov. 6-7. Both companies also have trimmed their auctions' days, a sign of the economic times as many mare owners opt not to sell in a Thoroughbred market that is down roughly 25 percent even at its top end.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Andrew Rosen sounds like a happy man when he picks up his phone, and why shouldn't he? The co-founder and president of the Theory fashion label in New York City was still enjoying his filly Icon Project's recent demolition of the Personal Ensign Stakes field.

Champion Action This Day will return to stud at Castleton Lyons in 2010, the Lexington farm has announced.

Castleton Lyons will stand the 8-year-old Kris S. stallion as its own property and will relocate him from former owner B. Wayne Hughes's Spendthrift Farm, also in Lexington.

Action This Day was champion juvenile in 2003 after winning the Breeders' Cup Juvenile that year. He is the sire of stakes winner Night Action and stakes-placed Rapid Release in his first two crops to race.

A colt by Purge brought an $87,000 bid to top the Fasig-Tipton Texas summer yearling sale at Lone Star Park on Monday. The Midwest Thoroughbreds operation of Richard and Karen Papiese purchased the Louisiana-bred from agent Inside Move Inc.

"He just stood out to us," said Alvin Sider, who trains for Midwest Thoroughbreds. "You couldn't ask for a better individual."

At first, she would get things like, "Hey there, Mrs. Smith, where can I find your husband, Murray?"

Later on, after her name was associated with headline horses, the tune changed, a little. It became, "No way you can be this good-looking and smart."

Of course, by then Murray Smith was well on her way as a bloodstock agent, and she could fire back with impunity.

"Okay, so if I was a short, fat, ugly bald man," she'd say, "would you give me credit?"

The majority of horsemen descending on Lexington, Ky., for the annual Keeneland September yearling sale have a singular task. Having traveled from Florida, California, New York, or any number of destinations, they are unencumbered by most of the chores they otherwise would be undertaking at the racetrack or farm back at home.

But for a few - the Kentucky trainers with horses at Churchill Downs - there is double duty to which they must attend.

Satish Sanan wanted a cup of coffee, so he got in line at the snack bar at Fasig-Tipton's Saratoga sales grounds. The snack bar is in an area that was recently renovated by Fasig-Tipton's new owner, a deep-pocketed investment firm associated with Sheikh Mohammed al-Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai. Frustrated after it took 10 minutes to get through the line, Sanan threw up his hands as he walked away and said, "I've already told them. They need to fix that!"

The yearling market has sent vastly mixed signals so far this year, and results will probably be mixed again at Keeneland's 2009 September sale, the world's largest Thoroughbred yearling auction, which runs Sept. 14-28 with a catalog of 5,189 horses.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Thanks to its large catalog of more than 5,100 horses, the Keeneland September yearling sale provides a meaningful referendum on first-year sires' new yearlings. The catalog for this year's salehas yearlings by 289 stallions, and some of the freshmen among them could prove hot commodities. Even before the September sale, some already had made a mark at yearling auctions with high early-season average or median prices.

The spring classics made it official: There has been a rebirth of the Whitney family bloodlines, thanks to Birdstone and Marylou Whitney.