LEXINGTON, Ky. - If the weather's hotter than blazes in Kentucky, then it must be time for the Saratoga sale. At least it is the philosophical point of view that the heat drives both man and beast north to New York for an auction of select yearlings at the historic spa.

The richest day of Thoroughbred racing ever held in Pennsylvania took place last Saturday, June 28, at Philadelphia Park. And Pennsylvania-breds had it all to themselves.

The seventh annual Pennsylvania's Day at the Races - nearly doubled in size from previous years - consisted of 11 races, 10 of them stakes, restricted to Pennsylvania-breds. Purses totaled more than $1 million.

After Market, recent winner of the Eddie Read Handicap for his third consecutive graded win this year, will head to Lane's End at the end of the year to begin his stud career.

A 4-year-old Storm Cat colt, After Market is pointing for the Arlington Million after taking the Eddie Read, Charlie Whittingham Memorial, and Inglewood handicaps since April.

John Shirreffs trains the homebred After Market for Pam and Marty Wygod. The Wygods bred After Market from their Grade 1-winning millionaire Tranquility Lake, by Rahy. After Market is Tranquility Lake's first foal.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - The major yearling auction circuit travels to Saratoga this week, where Fasig-Tipton's Aug. 6-7 select sale could add some glitter to a market that, so far, has been healthy but workmanlike.

Allan Lilley admits that he and his wife, Antoinette, had more enthusiasm than expertise when they decided to become Thoroughbred breeders in the early 1990s.

The couple had a few mares retired from racing, and the intricacies of breeding initially escaped Allan Lilley.

"I didn't look at their pedigrees," he said earlier this week. "That's how we got our feet wet. I wouldn't think of doing that now."

The annual New York-bred preferred yearling sale takes place this Friday and Saturday at the Fasig-Tipton Humphrey S. Finney pavilion in Saratoga Springs.

More than 200 yearlings are cataloged, with selling getting under way each day at 7 p.m.

Last year, the sale produced a record average of $52,421 for 101 yearlings sold.

The most intriguing aspect of Sunday's Breeders' Stakes at Woodbine, the third jewel of the Canadian Triple Crown, is not that the race is run on the turf at the testing distance of 1 1/2 miles. It is that Mike Fox and Alezzandro, the winners of the first two legs of the Triple Crown and two race favorites, are both bred for the grass but not yet proven on the surface.

Both the Queen's Plate winner Mike Fox, who won his classic on Polytrack, and Prince of Wales winner Alezzandro, a winner on the Fort Erie dirt, are well bred for the surface change.

Padua Stables last week announced it was moving the base of its operations from Florida to Kentucky, but one stallion will not be making the trip. The Korean Racing Association has made a successful bid for the syndicated Pico Central, an 8-year-old Brazilian-bred son of Kentucky Derby winner Spend a Buck.

"It's pretty much a done deal," said Bruce Hill, Padua Stable's farm and stallion manager. "He covered 75 mares in '06 and around 40 this year. Foreign pedigrees are a tough sell in the Florida market."

Randy Cohen describes himself as a "total junky" when it comes to studying pedigrees. And when the opportunity came for him to breed a Smarten mare in the spring of 2003, he contacted Josh Pons at Country Life Farm in Bel Air, Md., and arranged a mating to venerable Maryland sire Carnivalay, a son of Northern Dancer in whom Cohen owned a share. It was a cross Cohen loved. But then the plan went awry.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - A leading stallion who sired 11 champions and numerous major winners around the world, Woodman was euthanized at Ashford Stud on July 19 at age 24. A chestnut son of Mr. Prospector, Woodman has sired 109 stakes winners and, during his own racing career, ranked at the top of the Irish handicap as a juvenile.