LEXINGTON, Ky. - Blazing away from his competition over a fast turf course at Longchamp to win the Prix de l'Abbaye, Var could hardly have been more impressive in a display of pure speed. In that and other respects, he is remarkably like his sire, the Storm Cat stallion Forest Wildcat.

Both are highly talented horses who showed high speed early in their careers but did not win a stakes until they were 5. By that time, many owners have given up on talented horses who have yet to succeed in a stakes, but perseverance paid off in spades with this father and son.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - When Iowa-based Thoroughbred owner Maggi Moss retired her former claimer U.S. Gold to Blazing Saddles Farm in Randolph, Mass., she believed she had rescued him.

The now 9-year-old gelding ran 100 times in his career, winning 21 races and more than $513,000 for a variety of owners, including Moss. When she saw that U.S. Gold was losing in cheap claiming company at Monmouth this summer, Moss arranged to buy him and retire him.

The Ocala Breeders' Sales fall mixed sale begins Monday with weanlings the dominant sales category.

"I fully expect our weanling market to be very strong," said OBS general manager and sales director Tom Ventura.

The following is an alphabetical list of Florida stallions who were graded stakes winners and have first weanlings going to market.

Fappie's Notebook: The son of Notebook earned $561,085 and won six races, including the Grade 3 Deputy Minister Handicap. He also placed in four additional stakes.

If last week's Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Eastern fall yearling sale is any indicator, there is still plenty of life left within Maryland's breeding industry.

The two-day auction (Oct. 4-5) at Timonium set records in nearly every category, and was topped by a Maryland-bred colt by Silver Deputy who brought $500,000 - the first auction horse ever to reach the half-million-dollar mark in Maryland.

ARCADIA, Calif. - In the days after A to the Z finished a game second in an allowance race at Del Mar on Aug. 27, trainer Paula Capestro's phone seemed to be ringing constantly.

"People kept saying, 'Is the horse for sale?' " Capestro said.

Not wanting to sell the 4-year-old A to the Z on behalf of owner Darel Ray, Capestro and her husband, Andy, decided to buy the gelding for an undisclosed sum.

"I was going to lose him," Paula Capestro said. "I wanted a nice horse. I'm hoping I can improve him a bit."

The first part of the reformatted Tattersalls October yearling auction in Newmarket, England, broke the European record for gross on Thursday when sales reached $86,359,014.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Lane's End stallion Kingmambo will stand for $300,000 in 2005, putting him in company with fellow Lane's End sire A.P. Indy as North America's second most expensive stallions.

The highest-priced North American stallion is Storm Cat, who stands at Overbrook Farm for a $500,000 fee.

Fasig-Tipton Midlantic's Eastern fall yearling sale produced a star-quality price on Tuesday, the Timonium, Md., sale's second day, when a Silver Deputy colt brought $500,000 from agent Mark Reid.

The $500,000 colt came from the Litz Bloodstock agency's consignment and is out of Dreams of Glory, a Seattle Slew mare who is a full sister to stakes-placed Mackenzie Slew and is the dam of winner Dreamy Song, by Unbridled's Song.

As of 5 p.m. Eastern, that was the two-day auction's highest price.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Hancock III's Stone Farm and Mr. and Mrs. Robert McNair's Stonerside Stable, highly successful partners in the sale ring and on the racetrack, will sell much of the bloodstock they own together, Arthur Hancock confirmed Tuesday. The partners bred 2000 Kentucky Derby winner Fusaichi Pegasus, whom they sold as a yearling for $4 million at Keeneland July in 1998.

The two couples will disperse five mares and five yearlings they own together, starting at the 2004 Keeneland November sale, Hancock said.

LAS VEGAS - Dansili, Banks Hill, Heat Haze, Intercontinental, and now Cacique. From five named foals, Hasili has produced these five major stakes winners, and she is certainly worthy of consideration for Broodmare of the Year honors. All were by the late international sire sensation Danehill (by Danzig), with the exception of Heat Haze, who is by Green Desert (another son of Danzig).