Tim Ritchey, trainer of last year's Preakness and Belmont Stakes winner, Afleet Alex, has accepted the assignment to judge the Maryland Horse Breeders Association Yearling Show, scheduled for Sunday, June 25. The event, which has attracted more than 100 entries, will be held in the horse show ring at Timonium Fairgrounds and begins at 10 a.m. Admission is free.

The average price for New York-breds at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic preferred 2-year-olds in training sale, held May 22-23 at Timonium, Md., declined slightly from the corresponding sale in 2005.

A total of 58 horses grossed $2,060,500 for an average of $35,526, a drop of 12.4 percent from 2005, when the gross for 55 sold was $2,230,000 for an average of $40,545,

The total amount spent for New York-bred 2-year-olds in 2006, however, continues to run substantially ahead of the pace set in 2005 for six major auctions.

Ocala Stud stallions dominate Florida's leading-sire roster through early June. Heading this list is its late sire Notebook. His get have earned over $1.1 million this year. Right behind Notebook and closely bunched in the earnings standings are Ocala Stud's Sweetsouthernsaint (by Saint Ballado) and Concerto (Chief's Crown). Bridlewood Farm, home of Halo's Image (Halo), completes the list of Florida sires who have generated a million dollars or more in progeny earnings.

Sheikh Mohammed al-Maktoum's Darley organization has made some changes in the duties of its management team in the United States.

Dan Pride will become chief operations officer after establishing and managing stallion nominations for the last four years. Charlie Boden, who has previously worked on Darley's racing side, will take over as stallion nominations manager as of Aug. 1.

Darley USA's president, Jimmy Bell, whose family operated Jonabell Farm near Lexington before Darley purchased it in 2001, announced the changes in a release on Thursday.

Silver Train, winner of Monday's Metropolitan Handicap, will head for stud at Vinery in Lexington, Ky., when his racing career is over.

, who also won last year's Breeders' Cup Sprint, will stand at the Kentucky division of Tom Simon's Vinery operation. He will be syndicated, according to one of the farm's general managers, Tom Ludt.

Vinery privately purchased the breeding rights to Silver Train.

Buckram Oak Farm campaigns Silver Train, a 4-year-old Old Trieste colt. To date, he has compiled a record of 5-3-3 from 14 starts and $1,127,345 in earnings.

LAS VEGAS - While this year's Belmont Stakes may not have the Kentucky Derby or Preakness winners, it is coming up as a competitive affair and promises to be a very entertaining race, with at least 11 3-year-olds set to run, as of Monday.

Trainer Todd Pletcher holds a strong hand in the Belmont, with two royally bred colts.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Bernardini's victory in the Preakness is the first in an American Triple Crown event for a son of the excellent sire

A.P. Indy. A winner of the Belmont Stakes in his only Triple Crown appearance, A.P. Indy has become the most reliable source of classic quality and talent among contemporary stallions in the United States

Will Farish, who bred A.P. Indy and stands him at Lane's End Farm in Versailles, Ky., said that "he's the ideal horse to get a classic winner" because of the horse's combination of speed and stamina.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - On Friday, the Barbaro update from the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton equine hospital was positive. The Kentucky Derby winner's condition was "excellent," according to a statement New Bolton issued, and he was showing good appetite.

But the 3-year-old colt still faces a long recovery that is fraught with potentially life-threatening risks such as infection and laminitis. It's far too early to say whether Barbaro will ever make it to stud, but if he does, bloodstock analysts say, his value would likely remain considerable.

Hope, promise, and an eye to the future overcame solemn feelings over Barbaro's injury when the two-day Fasig-Tipton Midlantic preferred 2-year-olds in training sale got under way last Monday, two days following the Preakness Stakes.

Spirits had brightened considerably by the time the final 2-year-old was led into the sales ring at the Timonium sales pavilion, as a total of 370 juveniles grossed $21,236,500 - a record for a Thoroughbred auction in Maryland.

Bulldozers, graders, and tractors are daily sight at the original Irish Acres Farm in northwest Ocala, Fla. The machines are transforming the once rolling pastures into one- to three-acre lots, which are destined to become home sites. Gone are the barns, the fences, the dirt track and turf course, and gone is the house that Noel Hickey and his wife, Bobby, built and lived in for three decades.

The Hickeys have moved to a smaller farm, about five miles west of the original.