Nearly a year has passed since Country Life Farm owners Josh and Mike Pons announced Citidancer's retirement from active stud duty. But the 19-year-old son of Dixieland Band is far from gone or forgotten. In fact, he is having one of the biggest years of his stud career, with promise of more to come.

Citidancer, a chestnut who has been one of Maryland's most prominent sires since his first crop debuted in 1994, is represented by five stakes winners in 2006, topped by his sons Park Avenue Ball and Cherokee's Boy.

As its annual August yearling sale entered its next-to-last day on Thursday, the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company was celebrating the week's strong prices, which have translated into financial gains for the Florida auction house.

Thursday's session leader as of 5:30 p.m. was a $60,000 Red Bullet filly that agent Barry Berkelhammer purchased for Stirling Stables. Nancy Bauman, agent, consigned the filly, a daughter of Storm Flag.

The Ocala Breeders' Sale Company's August yearling sale showed Tuesday that regional demand for yearlings was stronger than last year, and some of that momentum carried over into the Wednesday session in Ocala, Fla.

Wednesday's session leaders at 5:30 p.m. were a pair of $110,000 yearlings. The first was a More than Ready colt signed for by Nick de Meric, agent. The chestnut colt is out of Pulla Surprise, an unraced A. P. Indy mare. The Sugar Hill agency consigned the colt as Hip No. 748.

Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro is making such good progress while in the hospital that his surgeon, Dr. Dean Richardson, has said he does not plan to change the colt's right hind cast during the next two weeks.

Barbaro shattered his lower right hind leg in the Preakness Stakes on May 20. He underwent surgery at the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center the following day to repair three fractures. He remains in intensive care at the equine hospital.

A filly by first-crop sire Whywhywhy who sold for $105,000 looked likely to be the session-topper as of 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's August yearling sale. The Tuesday session was the first of four open sessions that followed a record-breaking select opener on Monday at the Ocala, Fla., auction house.

LAS VEGAS - The two leading freshman sires, Johannesburg and Officer, are waging a ding-dong battle for supremacy, and both had impressive stakes winners last weekend. While they each have three stakes winners, Officer does not have any graded stakes winners; Johannesburg has two.

The North American foal crop looks set to rise slightly in 2007, according to projections by The Jockey Club.

The Jockey Club is estimating that the 2007 foal crop will hit 37,500, an increase of 0.5 percent from the estimated 2006 registered foal crop of 37,300. The Jockey Club, the Thoroughbred breed's registering organization, makes its foal crop projections based on the annual Reports of Mares Bred. Those forms are to be filed by Aug. 1 of each breeding season, though some trickle in after the deadline.

The Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's August yearling sale got off to a promising start Monday with an early session-leader of $300,000 amid a rash of six-figure horses.

The five-day auction in Ocala, Fla., opened with a single select session. By 5:30, that session's top lot was Hip No. 220, a $300,000 Smart Strike colt out of Cent Nouvelles. Ken McPeek signed the ticket as agent.

With a $230,000 colt from the first crop of state sire Hook and Ladder leading the way, the New York-bred preferred yearling sale at Saratoga last weekend produced a record average of $54,122.

Gross receipts for 101 yearlings sold at the two-day auction were $5,294,500. The gross represented a gain of 6 percent over 2005, and the average represented a gain of 11 percent. Twelve New York-breds commanded a six-figure price at the auction.

Consigned by Lakland North LLC, agent, the sale topper was purchased by Buzz Chace, agent, as Hip No. 315.

Few horses go out and set three course records at a single track, let alone at Saratoga. But Second in Command, a classy old Maryland-bred, completed that rare triple when he won Saratoga's Troy Stakes on Aug. 14 by 2 1/4 lengths.

Second in Command, 6, has made three starts in 5 1/2-furlong turf races over Saratoga's Mellon turf course in 2005 and '06, and each time he won - in course-record time.