ARCADIA, Calif. - The hillside course at Santa Anita seems to belong to Cambiocorsa this winter.

A California-bred filly, Cambiocorsa stretched her unbeaten streak over the course to five on Wednesday with a front-running victory against open company in an optional claimer worth $78,700. The performance was an ideal prep for the $125,000 Irish O'Brien Stakes for statebred fillies and mares on the hillside turf course on March 17.

"I wish they ran down the hill all year round," said her trainer, Doug O'Neill.

Having enjoyed positive results with relocated stallions in the past, Questroyal Stud is happy to have veteran stallion Fast Play on hand for the 2006 breeding season.

A son of Triple Crown winner and leading sire Seattle Slew, Fast Play hails from Wafare Farm in Kentucky.

He stands for a fee of $4,000 live foal, in partnership with the Wafare Farm syndicate and Nathan Fox, at Questroyal Stud in Otisville, N.Y.

The Azpurua clan is stingy with given names. The three brothers who emigrated from Venezuela some 40 years ago are Manuel, Leo, and Eduardo. All of them have prospered in the Thoroughbred business, and many of their sons and nephews are continuing the line. Eduardo Azpurua Sr. owns and operated Shangri-La Farm, andis also the breeder of Kentucky Derby hopeful Sweetnorthernsaint, who won the Miracle Wood at Laurel on Feb. 4.

The vote for the 2005 Maryland-bred champions was one of the tightest in years, but there was no doubt who was going to be horse of the year. ZWP Stable's Cherokee's Boy, a five-time stakes winner and the leading statebred money-earner in 2005, was the unanimous choice for champion older male as well as horse of the year.

Cherokee's Boy, a son of retired Country Life Farm sire Citidancer and a stakes winner each of the four years he has raced, had previously earned state-bred championship honors at 2. But his campaign last year at age 5 was by far his most successful yet.

The Ocala Breeders' Sales Company has cataloged 535 lots for its upcoming March selected juvenile sale. The two-day auction will run from March 21-22 at the OBS facility in Ocala, Fla.

OBS will host its annual Day of Champions races on March 20 and that night will conduct the annual Adena Springs 2-year-old auction at Adena Springs South near Ocala.

Our Emblem, sire of 2002 classic winner and champion War Emblem, will remain in Brazil after being sold to TNT Stud, according to Taylor Made Farm.

Taylor Made had stood Our Emblem since 2003 and had shuttled him to TNT Stud for the last two Southern Hemisphere breeding seasons.

As expected, stakes-winning filly Somethinaboutlaura was the top lot at Fasig-Tipton's winter mixed auction, selling to the Bluegrass Thoroughbred Services agency for a sale-record $375,000 on Tuesday at Newtown Paddocks in Lexington, Ky.

LAS VEGAS - Speed is beguiling and racing fans love a fast horse. Dr. Fager and Ruffian were forces of nature and achieved superstar status because of their incredible speed. The great breeders of yesteryear, such as James Keene, E.R. Bradley, William Woodward,

E.P. Taylor, Lord Derby, H.H. Aga Khan, Marcel Boussac, and Federico Tesio all planned matings that incorporated speed and stamina for the classics.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Lava Man, the winner of the Grade 1 Hollywood Gold Cup last July, has been named the 2005 California-bred horse of the year in voting conducted among the members of the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association.

The announcement was made at the CTBA's annual awards dinner last Tuesday.

Lava Man, 5, won 3 of 9 starts and $774,103 in 2005, a campaign highlighted by wins in the Gold Cup and Grade 2 Californian Stakes and a third-place finish in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic. He earned more prize money than any other California-bred last year.

"It's a different ball game," said Mike O'Farrell, president and general manager of Ocala Stud.

O'Farrell was referring to the fact that he, along with other Florida breeders, have to be highly selective when it comes to patronizing the selected 2-year-old sales - especially, he points out, the auctions at Calder.

Ocala Stud had five 2-year-olds cataloged in last Tuesday's Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's sale at Calder Race Course; it's the smallest number consigned by Ocala Stud since O'Farrell's father co-founded this sale back in the early 1960's.