Ask the Moon's timing couldn't have been better. In her stakes debut, facing a number of contenders for the title of the best Maryland-bred 2-year-old filly of 2007, the Millicent Johnsen-owned Ask the Moon drew off to win the Maryland Juvenile Filly Championship Stakes by an impressive 4 1/2 lengths on Dec. 22 at Laurel Park.

While a victory in that stakes doesn't guarantee divisional honors, the race will be fresh in the minds of voters. Ask the Moon's main rival for year-end honors, Sales Tax, hasn't started since late October.

Among the nearly 80 New York-breds that won or placed in open stakes races in 2007, six won graded or group events.

Their accomplishments are listed below, ranked according to earnings for the year.

Friendly Island: Bred by Kildare Stud and Adrian Regan, he won the Grade 2 Palos Verdes Handicap at Santa Anita and finished second in the Grade 1, $2 million Dubai Golden Shaheen at Nad Al Sheba.

The 6-year-old son of Crafty Friend raced for Stuart and Anita Subotnick.

The year 2007, as it relates to Florida’s breeding industry, is not going down as a vintage one. Cloverleaf II, Padua Stables, and Sequel Stallions – three of the state’s leading stallion stations and nurseries – shut down. Exchange Rate, vying for the state’s leading sire title, moved up the pike to Kentucky, as did Adena Springs South’s promising freshman stallion Macho Uno.

LAS VEGAS – With the new year comes a brand-new group of freshman stallions – sires whose first crop of 2-year-olds will race in 2008. This overview is part 1 of a seven-part series on the 2008 freshman sires, to be serialized alphabetically.

Raising the bar when you've been on top for four consecutive years would seem a monumental task. Not for Love, Maryland's leading sire since 2003, has accomplished just that feat.

Not for Love, a 17-year-old son of Mr. Prospector who has made his career at Northview Stallion Station in Chesapeake City, is wrapping up his best year ever.

On Saturday, Dec. 16, Presious Passion won the 12-furlong Grade 2 William L. McKnight Handicap at Calder Race Course, lighting up the mutuel board with a $136.20 payoff. But, Joe and Helen Barbizon were not surprised.

They bred the gelded son of Royal Anthem-Princesa's Passion, by Marquetry. According to their interpretation of Presious Passion's pedigree profile, the farther the gelding goes, the better he should like it.

The accomplished international star Utopia has been retired to stud at Joe and Anne McMahon's McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

His stud fee for the 2008 breeding season is $7,500.

A multiple Group 1 winner in his native Japan, Utopia captured the Group 2 Godolphin Mile in Dubai and the Grade 3 Westchester Handicap at Belmont Park among his seven stakes wins.

Utopia concluded his career with a second-place finish to Hunting in the Stuyvesant Handicap on Nov. 17, conceding four pounds to the winner. He earned $4,913,585, with a record of

Fox Tale Stud in Coopersburg, Pa., will host an open house on Jan. 19 from noon until 3 p.m., with RSVP's requested to 610-965-0656 or blumoon@ptd.net. The farm will stand Freefourinternet, Request for Parole, Fastness, Pies Prospect, Sort it Out, My Favorite Grub, Smart Guy, and Rubiyat in 2008.

Postponed, a Grade 2 winner and now a sire in New Zealand, has been withdrawn for the rest of the Southern Hemisphere breeding season after a severe reaction to an insect bite, according to Stoney Bridge Farm in Karaka, N.Z. A 10-year-old son of Summer Squall, Postponed is the sire of last year's New Zealand 1000 Guineas winner.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Clark Hansen retired from practicing law in June, but he did not retire from his casework. He just switched subjects.

Instead of dealing with law books, Hansen has thrown his energy into Thoroughbred breeding, studying bloodlines and matings for the six broodmares he owns with his wife, Janine.

Judging by the success of the couple's California-bred horses this year, Hansen is winning the case.