LEXINGTON, Ky. - Claiborne Farm's homebred stallion Stroll has returned home from Italy for stud duty.

The 9-year-old Pulpit horse arrived at Claiborne early Sunday morning.

The Grade 1 winner had been standing in Italy on a two-year lease deal. The success of his first two crops has prompted Claiborne to bring him home at the conclusion of the agreement with Italy's Azienda Agricola Mediterraneo..

Stroll's first crop includes Canadian champion juvenile filly Van Lear Rose, 2009 Appalachian Stakes winner Afternoon Stroll, and five other stakes performers.

Iza Valentine, dam of multiple Grade 1 winner and millionaire Fran's Valentine and 10 other winners, has died at age 33.

A Bicker mare and a California Broodmare of the Year, she died at the Our Mims Retirement Haven at Ahwenasa Farm near Paris, Ky. She was one of the first mares to retire under the Our Mims program, which houses a number of prominent former broodmares.

"Sure, she was 33 years old, but up until a few weeks ago, you would never have known it," said the farm's manager, Jeanne Mirabito.

The select yearling auction season moves to Saratoga this week, where Fasig-Tipton hopes its renovated sale pavilion will provide the setting for a revitalization of the Thoroughbred market.

Larry Ullmann said he is pleased with his consignment for Tuesday's Northern California yearling sale at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton.

"I've got a full sister to Run Brother Ron," he said. "I've got a Pure Prize, who is a nice filly. I just scoped her. She's clean. I've got a Good Reward."

Run Brother Run, a two-time stakes winner, was bred by Ullmann and has earned $158,836. Horses like his little sister are vital to the success of the Northern California yearling sale, which has recorded disappointing results in recent years.

U S Ranger, a two-time Irish champion and Grade 3-placed runner in the United States, has retired from racing to enter stud at Pauls Mill Farm near Versailles, Ky.

A 5-year-old Danzig horse, U S Ranger is the first new stallion at Pauls Mill, which moved current sires Artie Schiller and Bellamy Road from Hurricane Hall Stud earlier this summer. Pauls Mill is owned by Ben P. Walden Jr., who purchased U S Ranger.

Owners nominated 9,630 foals to the Breeders' Cup before a special deadline of Aug. 1 that qualified the owners to a 20-percent discount on the nomination fee, according to figures released by Breeders' Cup on Tuesday.

Breeders' Cup established the Aug. 1 deadline earlier this year as an incentive for owners to nominate their foals to the program. Under the program, the nomination fee for foals was reduced from $500 to $400. The fee returns to $500 until Oct. 15, after which the nomination fee rises to $1,500.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Tony Ferguson, the managing partner of the legally embattled commercial breeding operation ClassicStar who teamed up in 2007 to establish Woodford Thoroughbreds, has sold his interest in Woodford Thoroughbreds to partner John Sykes.

The private transaction was necessary, Ferguson said, "to allow me the time to pursue my other business interests."

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Trippi is having a good summer as a sire. His daughter Jealous Again won the Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes at Royal Ascot in June. More recently, he had two winners Wednesday on Saratoga's opening day, Gold Trippi in the James Marvin Stakes and Saratoga Russell in an allowance race. On Sunday, his stakes-winning son Bunker Hill will be in the Haskell lineup at Monmouth.

DEL MAR, Calif. - There is still a bush track circuit in Utah, and occasionally it yields a stakes-worthy horse for the California tracks.

Dewey's Special, bought for a mere $2,200 as a 2-year-old at the 2007 Barretts January mixed sale, was based at Dixie Downs in St. George, Utah, later that year when owner Dustin Moore watched him in a workout. Moore saw enough to pay $15,000 in a private deal.

"They thought they ripped me off," Moore said.

Keeneland's September yearling sale, to run Sept. 14-28, has a catalog of 5,189 yearlings for 2009, down sharply from last year's record of 5,555 yearlings. Catalogs of the 2,662 colts, 2,524 fillies, and three geldings will be available online at from Aug. 11 and mailed during the week of Aug. 24.