LEXINGTON, Ky. - Breeding shares in Smarty Jones, the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner who will eventually stand at Three Chimneys Farm in Midway, Ky., are being offered at $650,000 each, according to reliable sources.

The Farish family's Lane's End operation will bypass the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga yearling auction this year, Bill Farish confirmed Tuesday.

The Lane's End consignment will point for the Keeneland September yearling auction instead of the August sale.

"For years we've been selling our yearlings in September," Farish said. "We look at it every year on a year-to-year basis, and when we looked at our crop this year, we thought we had a better lineup for September rather than dividing the consignment up."

The Barretts June sale of 2-year-olds and horses of racing age got under way Tuesday, with a $70,000 Western Fame gelding the session's early leader. The one-day sale was to auction 212 lots.

Just an hour into the session at Fairplex in Pomona, Calif., 3-year-old Rockin the Ship got a final bid of $70,000 from Ted West. West was acting as agent on behalf of G. Chris Coleman.

That was the high price as of 5 p.m. Eastern, when 29 horses had gone through the ring.

LAS VEGAS - Among the many big races over the July 4 weekend is the American Oaks on Saturday at Hollywood Park, a race that could be renamed the International Oaks because of the presence of six foreign-based fillies.

Misty Heights and Steel Princess are from Ireland; Boulevardofdreams and French Lady are from New Zealand; Dance in the Mood is from Japan; and Kalatuna is from France.

Machiavellian, a prominent European stallion and sire of Grade 1 or Group 1 winners Street Cry and Almutawakel, was euthanized late last week because of laminitis. He was 17.

Machiavellian's laminitis had prompted Sheikh Mohammed al Maktoum's Dalham Hall Stud in Newmarket, England, to withdraw the horse from the breeding shed in the spring.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - B. Wayne Hughes, who bought Lexington's historic Spendthrift Farm for an undisclosed price Friday, says he doesn't plan to stand stallions there himself.

"I'm not really interested in being in the stallion business," said Hughes, who earlier signed contracts to stand Malibu Moon and Action This Day at nearby Castleton Lyons. "This is a place I can bring my grandkids, and they can stay there and play. It's big enough that they can do what they want there, and I can have mares and babies there in one place."

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Smarty Jones, the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner, will stand at Three Chimneys Farm in Midway, Ky., upon his retirement from racing in a deal that bloodstock insiders said will put his total value at about $48 million.

That would make Smarty Jones the second most expensive stallion prospect to be syndicated behind Fusaichi Pegasus, the 2000 Kentucky Derby winner whose total value was put between $60 and $70 million in a deal engineered by Coolmore Stud.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - California-based owner and breeder B. Wayne Hughes has privately purchased the famed Spendthrift Farm in Lexington, Ky., in a deal that closed Friday.

Hughes and his trainer, Ron Ellis, visited the 700-acre nursery in April.

"He's been back and forth there a few times, and once he decided to buy it, the deal closed pretty quickly," Ellis said Friday. The price was not disclosed.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Sons of the Mr. Prospector stallion Gone West are the hottest properties in breeding today, and there is no wonder. Among third-crop stallions (the oldest foals only 4) this season, the two leading sires by earnings are Elusive Quality and Grand Slam, both by Gone West. They rank first and fifth in the general sire list, with two other sons of Gone West, Mr. Greeley and West by West, also in the top 50.

The popular racing adage that a good horse can come from anywhere will come to life in Sunday's $1 million Queen's Plate at Woodbine.

Robert Krembil and his son, Mark, who have been breeding horses on their multi-million dollar Chiefswood Farm in King, Ontario, for just three years, have two homebreds in the Plate, while Larry Regan, who has spent 53 years in the business, finally has his first homebred starter.

The Krembils, who caught the racing bug from Robert's father, Jake, began purchasing horses at yearling sales in 1992 and had moderate success.