As the 2009 breeding season gets under way, four new major commercial stallion operations are in full swing within Pennsylvania.

The lure of riches from Pennsylvania's rapidly expanding breeding fund, enhanced by revenue from seven slots facilities now reeling in customers throughout the state, has led to the creation of four prominent breeding operations:

* Northview PA, a 171-acre facility in Peach Bottom that marks a bold strategic move by the Mid-Atlantic region's longtime leading stud farm, the Chesapeake City, Md.-based Northview Stallion Station.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - The Ocala Breeders' Sales Co. enjoyed the best results of all the major select juvenile auctions in 2008, setting records at both its February and March sales in a year when most suffered downturns.

Breeding operations in the Mid-Atlantic region, removing Pennsylvania from the equation, have been taking a precautionary approach to the 2009 season, with fewer new stallions settling into the region than in the past. Of those new for 2009, graded-stakes winners and durable runners make up the majority of the recent arrivals.

Maryland

LEXINGTON, Ky. - In racing, there are plenty of one-horse stables, but those brave owners don't have the best of the statistics in a sport where only 3 percent of all runners become stakes winners. On the other side of that coin, however, is the one-horse stable of Robert and Janice McNair. They own Cowboy Cal, who won the Strub Stakes at Santa Anita last weekend.

Cowboy Cal won more than a tenacious victory in the Strub. He moved himself into a contending spot among the leading 4-year-olds of his generation.

ARCADIA, Calif. - The answer was quick and to the point, especially for the loquacious Howard Zucker.

"No."

That was Zucker's response when he received a phone call on Friday morning, inquiring about a potential sale of Maui Mark, the winner of Thursday's seventh race.

Maui Mark returned from a layoff of more than eight months to win the second race of his career in the optional claimer for California-breds. The victory has Zucker, who trains the 4-year-old gelding, and the partnership that owns him, eager to see what Maui Mark can accomplish this year - for them.

Doremifasollatido, winner of the Grade 2 Matron Stakes at Belmont Park, was the topweight among nine New York-breds to be ranked on the Experimental Free Handicap for 2008.

The Experimental, an assessment of 2-year-old form, is published by The Jockey Club and was first issued in 1935. In order to be ranked, a juvenile must finish in the top four in an open stakes race worth at least $75,000.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Fasig-Tipton Kentucky's February mixed sale, cut from two days to one this year, had three horses sell for more than $100,000 by 5:30 p.m. Eastern on Monday.

The six-figure lots were Hip No. 38, the $130,000 broodmare Solarana; Hip No. 41, the $125,000 broodmare Spectacular Moon; and Hip No. 203, the $120,000 broodmare Joyce Ann.

Frost Giant, winner of the Grade 1 Suburban Handicap last year, begins his stud career for the 2009 breeding season at Empire Stud in Hudson, N.Y.

The announcement was made by owner IEAH Stables and partner Andy Cohen on Jan. 30.

The fee for Frost Giant, a 6-year-old son of Giant's Causeway, is $10,000, the highest in the state.

The circle of life combines the pain of loss with the joy of new arrivals, and the stallions of Maryland Stallion Station completed the circle during the first week of February.

Seeking Daylight, a son of Seeking the Gold who was a member of the Maryland Stallion Station contingent that was moved to Shamrock Farms in Woodbine, Md., was euthanized at Virginia Tech's Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center in Leesburg, Va., on Feb. 1 following colic surgery. Maryland's leading freshman sire of 2007, he was 11.

ARCADIA, Calif. - The 2008 California-bred horse of the year will be a sprinter.

The three finalists - Bob Black Jack, Cost of Freedom, and Lethal Heat - excelled in sprints in 2008, though Lethal Heat was also a graded stakes winner at 1 1/16 miles.

Those three horses accounted for half of the eight division titles recently announced by the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association. The winner of the horse of the year title will be announced at the association's annual dinner in Newport Beach, Calif., on Feb. 17.