LEXINGTON, Ky. - The Phipps family's Blitey, the dam of three Grade 1 winners, died Nov. 26 at Claiborne Farm, the nursery confirmed Tuesday. Blitey, a Riva Ridge mare, was 28 and was euthanized due to the infirmities of old age, according to Claiborne representative Charles Koch.

Following a day of dramatic double-digit gains on Sunday, Fasig-Tipton Midlantic's December mixed sale popped off some big prices Monday.

As of 5 p.m., a $160,000 weanling Malibu Moon colt led the auction in Timonium, Md. Josham Farms, Ltd., agent, bought the colt, a son of Grade 3-placed stakes-winner Aileen's Countess. The colt is a half-brother to the winners Buffalo Run and Dr John Martin. Bill Reightler, agent, sold the colt on behalf of Hargett Farms.

Led by a $370,000 no-guarantee season to Storm Cat, purchased by Fred Hertrig, the Kentucky Equine Education Project's all-breed stallion season fundraising sale Friday night in Lexington grossed more than $2.5 million.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Any young colt who sweeps through his first season unbeaten and turns a glistening eye to the Triple Crown is going to be compared to Smarty Jones, the public favorite who nearly captured racing's most coveted honor this year.

This fall there are a pair of 2-year-olds, one on each coast, who fit that description. From the West comes Declan's Moon, unbeaten going into the Hollywood Futurity, and in the East is Rockport Harbor, winner of all four of his starts, including last weekend's Remsen Stakes at Aqueduct.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Claiborne Farm manager Gus Koch, recently named farm manager of the year by the Kentucky Thoroughbred Farm Managers Club, has been in the horse business full time since 1968. That was the year he left the Marine Corps and took a job at Stoner Creek Stud in Paris, Ky.

Since then, Koch has worked at Windfields in Maryland and Canada, and at Claiborne since 1978.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Redattore, the winner of 10 stakes in Brazil and California, will stand his first season at stud in the United States at Harris Ranch in Coalinga, Calif., in 2005.

Redattore's addition to the California stallion list is a rare instance of a multiple stakes winner on dirt and turf standing in California, and not being sent to another state or country permanently.

Redattore, 9, won 15 of 32 starts and $1,799,883 in a career that began in 1998 in Brazil and concluded with a victory in the Grade 2 San Gabriel Handicap at Santa Anita last December.

The training segment of the Thoroughbred business in north central Florida is big business between November and June. More than 10,000 horses are estimated to be in training at this time, with Ocala the hub of activity. About 2,600 2-year-olds in training were cataloged earlier this year for the Ocala Breeders Sales Company's four sales and the Fasig-Tipton auction. Three out of four sales 2-year-olds in training were cataloged under the auspices of the National Association of Two-Year-Old Consignors.

The successful Maryland breeders John and Kitty Merryman are gone from the scene, but their legacy lives on through several horses. Play Bingo, Maryland's newest star, is one of them.

Led by the $1,704,675 Group 1 winner Ipi Tombe, the Tattersalls December sale's mares and breeding stock sessions ended Thursday with mixed results overall.

Broad Brush, whose progeny includes 2002 champion 3-year-old filly and Kentucky Oaks winner Farda Amiga, has been pensioned at Graham Beck's Gainesway Farm in Lexington, Ky., the farm announced Wednesday. An son of Ack Ack out of Hay Patcher, Broad Brush is 21 and had shown decreasing fertility.