Defer, a Grade 3 winner, will enter stud in 2008 at Empire Stud in Hudson, N.Y., the farm announced Monday. A 5-year-old Danzig horse who will stand for $6,500, Defer won the 2004 Laurel Futurity. . . . Pavarotti, the stakes-winning A. P. Indy colt who set a nine-furlong track record of 1:49.75 when he won the Round Table Stakes at Arlington in July, has retired to stand at Hartley/De Renzo Thoroughbreds in Ocala, Fla. A 3-year-old out of group-placed Snow Forest, by Woodman, he will stand for $6,500.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - The concept of deep family was central to the attraction possessed by some of the multimillion-dollar mares sold this week at the Keeneland November breeding stock sale.

Deep family is not simply a close relationship to a major racehorse. For instance, probable Horse of the Year Curlin is an outstanding racehorse, but he does not have a deep family. His dam had produced no black-type performers prior to Curlin, the Preakness and Breeders' Cup Classic winner, and her dam, Grade 2 stakes winner Barbarika, has not produced a stakes winner herself.

Friendly Island and One Nice Cat have been added to the stallion roster at Sugar Maple Farm in Poughquag, N.Y., for the 2008 breeding season.

"We're trying to bring new blood into Sugar Maple, as we did last year with Greeley's Galaxy," said farm manager Dan Hayden. "We're trying to get marketable stallions for New York."

Friendly Island is beginning his stud career at Sugar Maple Farm. A 6-year-old son of Crafty Friend, he earned $1,369,714 in a career that showcased his high-class speed.

Heading into the statistical homestretch for 2007, three farms - Ocala Stud, the Vinery, and Adena Springs South - are well out in front in several of the leading sire categories. One of these categories, Florida stallions with first crops racing in 2007, is dominated by the Vinery and Adena Springs South.

Rumors to the contrary, Maryland Stallion Station is running full steam ahead into 2008. The state's newest large-scale breeding operation, which opened its doors for the 2005 breeding season in Glyndon, Maryland Stallion Station is out to prove the doomsayers wrong.

"We bred more mares this year than in 2006," said the Maryland Stallion Station president, Don Litz. "But we still didn't meet the goals we had hoped to meet. We have really struggled to reach our projections, primarily due to the decline of the mare population in the region and the climate in the state."

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - When Rhythm, the 1989 champion 2-year-old male, died earlier this year at Diamond F Ranch in Grass Valley, Calif., farm owner Dave Ferguson knew he needed a new stallion for the 2008 breeding season.

He has found two - Thunderello and Monashee Mountain, who both stood in Kentucky earlier this year. The stallions arrived last weekend and will stand for $5,000 in 2008.

Ferguson is hoping that the new stallions will add traffic to his 75-acre farm, which is an hour from Sacramento in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Eddie Nahem was looking for a racehorse when he claimed Gentle Hands in the 1980s. He got a lot more in the deal. He wound up claiming the dam of one of the most influential stallions in California breeding.

Nahem, who died on Wednesday of liver failure at the age of 64, eventually bred Gentle Hands to Skywalker. The resulting foal was the California-bred Bertrando, the 1993 champion older male and the current leading stallion in California. As for Gentle Hands, she never started for Nahem.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Ginger Punch had all the kick that her opponents could handle in the Breeders' Cup Distaff, and the pretty chestnut daughter of leading sire Awesome Again has virtually sewn up an Eclipse Award for herself as the leading older filly or mare this year.

Windfields Farm in Oshawa, Ontario, lost its promising young sire Cat's at Home earlier this year after a sudden illness, but Weather Warning could be a shrewd replacement.

An impeccably bred son of Storm Cat, Weather Warning won the Manitoba Lotteries Derby at Assiniboia Downs this summer, and will enter stud next year at Windfields for a fee of $5,000.

An impressive-looking and very quick 3-year-old, Weather Warning is a son of City Band (by Carson City), winner of the Grade 1 Oak Leaf Stakes, and a half-brother to another stakes winner.

For every successful sire, there are countless stallions whose promising careers fizzle and fade into oblivion. Then every once in a while, a horse comes along and turns expectations upside down.

Such is the story of Peak Dancer, a 10-year-old son of Mt. Livermore who is quickly making his mark as a sire in West Virginia.

With only four registered foals in his first crop of 2-year-olds, Peak Dancer has three winners from as many starters.