It has been a banner year for owner-breeder Richard Lister, who has enjoyed three consecutive stakes wins from his homebred Danceroftherealm and will be cheering on Initforreal, whom he bred and sold, in the June 8 Woodbine Oaks.

"I'm an overnight success after 30 years of being in the business," joked Lister.

Lister's Cinnamont Stable - represented by the light blue silks with the white Pegasus horse - has provided the Ontario industry with dozens of good runners, including 2004 Bison City Stakes winner Touchnow.

Time can move slowly for a stallion manager who awaits the first winner by a freshman stallion, especially one who has had full books since being retired to stud. Declan Doyle was waiting for the first victory from one of the 89 registered 2-year-olds from the first crop of the Vinery stallion Peace Rules. He said back in early April that Peace Rules had several runners ready for the Keeneland meet. He thought one or more of them would get Peace Rules off to a quick start.

Topped by Pays to Dream's victory in the Grade 2 Dixie Handicap on Preakness Day, New York-breds continued to perform well in open stakes races during May.

On the same day, New York-bred Icabad Crane ran third in the Preakness Stakes, while Be Certain won the Grade 2 National Hunt Cup over fences.

Pays to Dream was the seventh New York-bred winner of a graded race on the flat in 2008, surpassing the figure of six for all of 2007.

The historic Dixie, a Grade 2 race at 1 1/8 miles on turf worth $250,000, was run for the 107th time.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The two champion jockeys who rode Nashoba's Key during her 10-race career spoke fondly of the millionaire mare who was euthanized on Wednesday after sustaining a catastrophic leg injury in her stall at Hollywood Park.

Garrett Gomez, the Eclipse Award winner as the nation's outstanding jockey of 2007, remembered the confidence Nashoba's Key showed in winning the final start of her career, the Grade 1 Santa Margarita Handicap at Santa Anita in March, and how optimistic he was about her future.

War Chant, winner of the 2000 Breeders' Cup Mile and sire of the Grade 2 winner Brilliant, will shuttle this year to Chile for the Southern Hemisphere breeding season, Three Chimneys Farm announced Friday.

War Chant, who stands for $20,000 this year at the Midway, Ky., stud farm, will stand at Haras de Pirque in Chile. His fee in Chile was not announced. He will return to Three Chimneys for the 2009 Northern Hemisphere breeding season.

The California October yearling sale was about half over last fall when the filly Listisimo went into the ring. At the time, it did not seem like an important moment.

Listisimo was purchased for $2,500 by trainer Gary Sherlock as something of a gamble. It has already paid off.

Listisimo, a rare California-bred More Than Ready filly, won a $49,200 maiden special weight race at Hollywood Park on Wednesday, a performance that has Sherlock convinced that she will play a factor in the statebred stakes for 2-year-old fillies at Del Mar.

Let's take a look at several New York sires whose first runners are hitting the track this year.

* Anasheed: Stands at Liberty Stud in Ghent for Questroyal Stud. Fee: $5,000.

This son of Horse of the Year A.P. Indy brings an extremely strong pedigree to the state roster. A.P. Indy is already the sire of top stallion Pulpit, whose numerous Grade 1 winners include Corinthian, Purge, and Sky Mesa. Other sons of A.P. Indy at stud include Malibu Moon, Aptitude, Old Trieste, Stephen Got Even, and Golden Missile.

Runners who are the backbone of the daily card at tracks around the country had their moment to shine at Pimlico over the Preakness weekend. Two starter handicaps, each named for a legendary Maryland-bred, were offered for Maryland-breds who had started for a claiming price of $15,000 or less in 2007 or 2008, and each attracted a full field.

"The kid didn't do anything wrong," are the words of Hall of Fame jockey Jacinto Vasquez. He was referring to comments about jockey Gabriel Saez's professionalism astride Eight Belles when she broke down after finishing second in the Kentucky Derby.

Vasquez knows what it means to be on an ill-fated horse, as he rode the epic filly Ruffian some 33 years ago in her fatal encounter with the champion colt Foolish Pleasure.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Although Ginger Punch and Zenyatta fill the top spots among fillies and mares, a pair of 4-year-olds indicated with performances on Preakness Day that they could become players in the division.

Buy the Barrel, a progressive daughter of the Mr. Prospector stallion E Dubai, won the Allaire duPont Distaff at Pimlico, and Cowgirls Don't Cry, a lightly raced filly by the Storm Cat horse Pure Prize, won the Shuvee at Belmont.