Round four of the annual Sunshine Millions races between Florida-breds and California-breds once again appears to be heavily slanted toward the Sunshine State.

The overall results from the first three years of competition show 18 wins for Florida-breds and only six for Cal-breds.

The Floridians have swept all three previous runnings of the Distaff, Filly and Mare Sprint, and the Dash. Florida-breds have taken two out of three in four other divisions. Cal-breds hold a 2-1 edge only in the Filly and Mare Turf.

The appeal of buying ready-made racehorses is obvious. You're getting a relatively known quantity with timed workouts, and the horse has already stayed sound enough to withstand the early training process. What's not to love?

The sales season for 2-year-olds is about to begin in earnest, which means John Brocklebank and the rest of the crew flying the BC3. Thoroughbreds banner already have packed up and headed West from their base of operations in the town of South Jordan, Utah, not far from Salt Lake City, where their pinhooked yearlings spend each winter learning the ropes.

In past years, 2-year-olds preparing to begin their racing careers for Niall O'Callaghan, the Kentucky-based trainer, would spend the winter in Ocala, Fla. That kind of strategy is typical of many trainers who choose not to fill racetrack stalls with 2-year-olds still months away from running.

For juvenile consignor David Scanlon, this sale season is about continuity. Scanlon will be bringing about 70 juveniles to auction, but this time he'll be doing it without his father. Robert "Bobby" Scanlon, a fixture on the 2-year-old auction scene since the early 1990's, died of cancer at the age of 57 last October, just as many of this crop of sales candidates were arriving at his training center in Florida as yearlings.

The effect of fast horses on people watching them should never be underestimated. At the races or at the sales, the best returns go to the horses with the kind of speed to burn up the track.

The perception of extraordinary speed in the eye of a buyer or his advisers is the key to the sales market for 2-year-olds in training. The young athletes who have the early maturity and natural speed to run a furlong or two at full throttle bring hefty prices. And 2-year-olds in training do this before many of them have reached their chronological second birthdays.

Dean De Renzo, chairman of the National Association of 2-Year-Old Consignors, has made a full career in the Thoroughbred business by playing in just about every part of the game. A native of Staten Island, N.Y., De Renzo started off with his family's Quarter Horses at rodeos, but when he moved to attend college in Southern California, De Renzo discovered the Thoroughbred world while hauling horses as a part-time job. Ultimately, he abandoned plans for a veterinary career and opted for a career that has made him one of the nation's leading 2-year-old consignors and a farm owner, too.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - When the Dow Jones Industrial Average played hopscotch near the 11,000 mark recently, it seemed as if the mavens of Wall Street finance had finally caught on to the sense of well-being that the horse markets have found over the last 18 months or so.

In that regard, the markets for Thoroughbred racing and breeding prospects have been a steadier and more accurate indicator than the trend lines that most Wall Street analysts use.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - The Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's winter mixed sale ended Friday with a gain in total gross for the four-day sale. The auction in Ocala, Fla., sold a total of 744 horses for gross receipts of $10,557,900, up from last year's cumulative gross of $8,929,600 for 684 horses. The average of $14,191 was almost 9 percent higher than last year's average of $13,055.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Suances, a Group 1 winner in France in 2000, never had a chance to prove himself as a racehorse in the United States.

Shortly after arriving in this country, Suances suffered a serious leg injury that required surgery. The subsequent layoff forced him to miss his 4-year-old season in 2001. Suances returned to racing in 2002 and made only five more starts, but won two stakes.