Four juveniles posted quarter-mile works of 21.40 seconds to top the Monday work tab at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Calder under-tack preview.
The four - by Artax, Dance Master, Phone Trick, and Tactical Cat - will all sell at the OBS Calder select 2-year-old sale on Feb. 8.
LAS VEGAS - This is the final installment in a series on the freshman sires of 2005, with particular emphasis on how to bet their offspring. The sires' names are followed by their pedigree and where they stand, and their designation (SP means speed; ST stamina; T turf; HT hidden turf).
Sir Cherokee, whose biggest victories came in the Grade 2 Arkansas Derby and Grade 3 Ack Ack Handicap, has been retired and will enter stud this year at Pope McLean's Crestwood Farm in Lexington, Ky., said his trainer, Mike Tomlinson.
Sir Cherokee's fee will be $7,500.
A 5-year-old son of Cherokee Run, Sir Cherokee campaigned for his owner and breeder, Kenneth Jones's Domino Stud, which will retain ownership of the horse at stud.
Fasig-Tipton has changed the date of its Texas 2-year-old sale at Lone Star Park. The one-day auction will now take place on April 5 at 10 a.m. It was originally scheduled for March 29.
There will be a single under-tack show for the auction, on Sunday, April 3, at 10 a.m. at Lone Star.
The auction was rescheduled in order to avoid having an under-tack show fall on Easter, according to Fasig-Tipton officials.
The absence of fashionable dispersals led to lower prices at the Barretts January mixed sale last Monday and Tuesday, but the figures did not discourage sale organizers.
Compared to 2004, which included a dispersal from Lakeview Thoroughbred Farm and a large consignment of horses of racing age owned by The Thoroughbred Corp, this year's sale saw declines in gross and average.
First-crop sires City Zip and Freud are two of several notable New York stallions represented in the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company select 2-year-olds in training sale on Feb. 8.
Freud, a full brother to promising young sire Giant's Causeway, will have four offerings in the auction, which begins the major 2-year-old training sales in North America.
A group-placed son of Storm Cat, Freud - who stands at Lakland North - has three colts and one filly in the sale.
When it comes to breeding horses, Dennis Federico and his father, A.J., follow a proven formula. Many of their horses are descendants of the first horse A.J. Federico bought, in 1963. Dennis Federico keeps a small band of broodmares at Northview Stallion Station in Chesapeake City, Md., a farm that his father began patronizing when it existed as Windfields Maryland in the 1970's.
The Sunshine Millions, matching Florida-breds and California-breds, is not the first time Florida-breds have competed with regional rivals. In the late 1940's, Florida-breds competed with Caribbean-breds in a series of races at Hialeah.
In the beginning, the Caribbean-breds won the older-division races, but Florida-breds showed what was to come when they swept the 2-year-old races several years running. By the time the 1950's came along, the Sunshine State team had overwhelmed its Caribbean competition and the contests were history.
The National Association of Two-Year-Old Consignors will hold its 2005 NATC Futurities at Monmouth Park this year instead of at Delaware Park.
The two races, one division for colts and geldings and another for fillies, will be held at Monmouth on Sept. 24.
The races are open to juvenile sale graduates sold by consignors who are members of the association and have paid its advertising fund fee. The association distributes purses through 10th place in the races and also offers consignors' awards, through fifth place, to members. Both races will be run over six furlongs.
Palace Music, sire of two-time Horse of the Year Cigar, has been pensioned from stud in Australia at age 24, the Australian Associated Press reported.
Palace Music, by The Minstrel, began shuttling from North America to the Southern Hemisphere in the late 1980's. In 1991, he became a permanent resident of Australia at Segenhoe Stud in the Hunter Valley. He stood most recently at Rangal Stud in Victoria.