LEXINGTON, Ky. - Three days before its Sept. 27 end date, the 2004 Keeneland September yearling sale became the top-grossing Thoroughbred auction in history when Friday's 11th session pushed total income to $318,245,700 for 2,819 yearlings.

The previous record for gross income was held by the 1999 Keeneland November breeding stock sale, which sold 3,461 horses for $317,666,000.

The Keeneland September yearling sale, which earlier this week became the first Thoroughbred yearling sale to gross $300 million, is taking aim on another record as Keeneland's most lucrative auction of any kind.

Keeneland's top-grossing auction is its November breeding stock sale, which set the mark in 1999 when it sold 3,461 horses for $317,666,000. As it entered the 10th of 14 sessions on Friday, the September yearling sale was within striking distance of equaling that standard.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Down the long and winding trail of the 14-day Keeneland September sale, very few freshman sires make a mark among the top 20 leading sales sires. That group is consistently dominated by the stalwarts of breeding, such as Storm Cat, A.P. Indy, Kingmambo, Seeking the Gold, and Gone West, among others.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Rancho San Miguel in Paso Robles, Calif., has added a pair of young stallions to its roster for the 2005 season. The farm, owned by Tom Clark, will stand Grade 1-placed stakes winner Marino Marini and also has relocated former Gainesway stallion Formal Gold from Kentucky.

Marino Marini, a 4-year-old Storm Cat colt, will stand for $10,000. Formal Gold, an 11-year-old stallion by Black Tie Affair, will carry a $7,500 fee.

ELMONT, N.Y. - When High Peaks runs in Sunday's $100,000-added Schenectady Handicap for New York-bred 3-year-old fillies at Belmont Park, she will try to become the first stakes winner produced by her dam, Phari.

Tom Bush, High Peaks's trainer, remembers Phari well. Bush trained Phari, a daughter of Black Tie Affair, the 1991 Horse of the Year and Breeders' Cup Classic winner.

Ocala Week, Oct. 8-14, is the time when the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders' and Owners' Association holds its annual membership meeting and sponsors several industry-related activities. In addition to that schedule, the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company conducts its fall mixed sale.

Charles Hesse, a road builder and sand and gravel contractor with headquarters near Monmouth Park in New Jersey, is the breeder of one of the nation's current top 2-year-olds, Park Avenue Ball.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Northern California breeders, who have lacked a steady local venue to sell yearlings in the last decade, have thrown support behind Tuesday's Northern California yearling sale at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton.

Although the sale, conducted by the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association, is not expected to approach the impact of the established Del Mar yearling sale held each August, Tuesday's sale will fill a void left by the departure of the American Equine Sales Company, which held sales in August in recent years in northern California.

As the record-breaking Keeneland September yearling sale wound toward its Sept. 27 conclusion, there were still six-figure horses selling at the auction's late sessions.

Feb. 1 could mark the end of a Florida Thoroughbred landmark, the Franks Farms Southland division in Ocala, Fla. The 1,100-acre nursery currently is under contract with a developer who plans to transform most of the property into an equestrian community.