Topped by the victory of Borrowing Base in the Ladies Handicap, New York-breds continue to post excellent results in open competition as the year draws to a close.

Borrowing Base became the 35th New York-bred to win an open stakes race in the Ladies Handicap at Aqueduct.

Four other New York-breds finished on the board in stakes at Aqueduct and Calder Race Course last weekend.

Bred by Gallagher's Stud and owned by Daddie's Little Girls Stable, the 5-year-old Borrowing Base is a daughter of the late top New York stallion Personal Flag.

Star Nicholas's victory in the On Trust Handicap at Hollywood Park on Dec. 14 left trainer Peter Eurton at a loss.

The victory was certainly welcome, but Eurton is unsure what to do with the 5-year-old gelding.

"I don't know where I'll go next," Eurton said. "I think he's strictly a [synthetic-track horse] up to a mile and a sixteenth. I'm kind of being vague, because I don't have plans set in stone."

Star Nicholas has been well regarded since he was 3 but needed time to recover from a variety of injuries.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - By scoring his second victory in the W.L. McKnight Handicap at Calder, Presious Passion renewed his claim as the best distance turf performer at the south Florida track. And in fact, the son of Royal Anthem is one of the best turf horses in the country, which he proved with a courageous victory in the United Nations Stakes this summer.

The year 2008 has been a good one for Florida's first-crop sires. Leading the national top 10 list of first-crop sires with the most winners is the repatriated Signature Stallions horse Chapel Royal. In fourth place is the Vinery's Peace Rules, in sixth place is Hartley DeRenzo's Omega Code, and in ninth place is the Vinery's Alke.

William S. Schettine owns Signature Stallions and is in the energy business. His 10-acre Signature Stallions facility does what its name implies - it's a stallion station. At last count there were six stallions in service.

The Keeneland January sale will have an unusual splash of color in 2009, courtesy of Hip No. 2167.

The filly, who will be a 2-year-old by the time the sale takes place, is a rare Jockey Club-registered palomino Thoroughbred. The designation is unusual but not unheard-of in The Jockey Club registry. This filly, a daughter of Ballado Chieftan and Maid of Gold T B, was one of 31 palomino Thoroughbreds in the foal crop of 2007, but she is believed by Keeneland officials to be the first to sell at one of their auctions.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Haynesfield, winner of the Damon Runyon at Aqueduct last Sunday, joined Remsen Stakes winner Old Fashioned, Birdonthewire Stakes winner You Luckie Mann, and Joseph O'Farrell Stakes winner Frolic's Dream as juvenile stakes winners who have run Beyer Speed Figures of 100 or higher.

These are among the handful of 2-year-olds who have reached the triple-digit Beyer plateau during the 2008 racing season.

With the declining sales market and national economic slide as backdrops, New York breeders are preparing for the 2009 breeding season.

Stud fees are being lowered for many New York sires, and state owners and breeders are hoping for the long-awaited video lottery terminals at Aqueduct finally to kick in by 2010 and provide some help. Expectations are high for substantially bigger purses in New York when the operation is up and running.

From the front office to the sales ring, Barretts sales in Pomona, Calif., will have a different look and feel in 2009.

Gerald McMahon, the organization's president since it was founded in the late 1980s, announced earlier this week that he is resigning, effective Jan. 3. A replacement has not been named.

Jim Henwood, the chief executive officer of the Los Angeles County Fair Association, which operates Barretts, said Thursday that Barretts executives Bill Baker, vice president and controller, and Kim Lloyd, vice president of sales, will direct the management.

One year ago, there was a tight battle between two first-year Maryland stallions, hailing from the same barn, for the title of leading freshman sire.

It's deja vu all over again.

Great Notion and Domestic Dispute, who both stand at Northview Stallion Station in Chesapeake City, are in a dogfight for the top spot. The two stallions, different as night and day, are separated by less than $40,000 in progeny earnings.

In 2007, Maryland Stallion Station's sire Seeking Daylight edged out stablemate Rock Slide for the title.

In spring 2003, Manny Andrade, former chief executive of Dunkin Donuts, was touring Ocala looking for real-estate opportunities.

"I did not have anything particular in mind," he said. "Except that real estate was my focus."

One parcel that caught his eye was Randy and Linda Mills's 100-acre-plus Breakaway Farm.

"I closed on the farm in the fall of 2004 and renamed it Get Away Farm," Andrade said.