Aided by Fusao Sekiguchi's extravagant bidding, the Japan Racing Horse Association's July foal sale achieved a world-record top price of $4.5 million and a sale-record gross of more than $71 million by its close Tuesday.

Flamboyant Japanese entrepreneur Fusao Sekiguchi kicked off the Japan Racing Horse Association's July foal sale in spectacular style Monday on Hokkaido, paying a world-record $4.5 million for a colt by Sunday Silence's son Dance in the Dark.

The price broke the previous foal auction record of $4.4 million, which Satish Sanan paid at England's 1997 Tattersalls November sale for the Caerleon colt Padua's Pride.

The Japan Racing Horse Association's July foal sale will take place on the island of Hokkaido on July 12-13, and some of the sellers and pedigrees will look familiar to Americans.

The catalog of 310 horses includes seven lots from Darley Japan, part of Sheikh Mohammed al Maktoum's global breeding empire. Those include a King's Best filly from the family of Irish Oaks winner Alydaress; a Lujain colt out of Group 1-placed Katakana; and a Fantastic Light filly from the family of Kentucky Oaks and Alabama Stakes winner White Star Line.

Quantum Merit's victory in last Saturday's Grade 2 Firecracker Breeders' Cup at Churchill Downs carried on the legacy left behind by his breeder, Jerry Nielsen, who died earlier this year.

Nielsen, the president of the New York Thoroughbred Breeders at the time of his death, and his wife, Joanne, bred Quantum Merit, a New York-bred son of Hansel. Since her husband's sudden death in the spring, Nielsen and the couple's son, Jerry Jr., have continued on with the family's breeding operation, which is based at Sunnyfield Farm in Bedford, N.Y.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Joey Franco, the 2003 California-bred horse of the year, has been retired and will be sent to stud for the 2005 breeding season.

Unraced this year, Joey Franco was unable to return from an injury that curtailed his 2003 season, owner-breeder Jerry Frankel said.

No stud plans have been announced, though negotiations continue.

"We were very close," said trainer Darrell Vienna of getting Joey Franco to return to the races. "The decision was made not to take a chance."

How can anyone be thrilled about taking on the duties of Maryland Horse Breeders Association president at a time like this? Bill Boniface has asked himself that question more than once since June 30, when he was elected to serve as the 31st president of the Maryland Horse Breeders Association, the nation's oldest state breeders organization at 75.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently released a national five-year farm study. Included in the data is a survey of some two million acres employed in Florida agriculture from 1997 through 2002.

George Farr bought his first racehorse in 1988 with his father, Bill, but after just four races, that purchase, a filly, was retired.

"I wanted to make her into a broodmare, and my father said to me, 'You're on your own,' " said Farr. "Actually, I got three foals out of her from a season I bought to Briartic for just $3,000."

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Satish Sanan, who recently launched an initiative to develop a code of ethics for the Thoroughbred bloodstock market, will boycott the select yearling market this year as what he called "a symbolic protest."

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Pohave accomplished quite a lot in the 1:21 that it took him to win the seven-furlong Grade 1 Triple Bend Handicap at Hollywood Park last Saturday. He became the third stakes winner at the highest level for his sire, 1994 Horse of the Year Holy Bull. Pohave also became the first Grade 1 winner bred by Henry and Tim Pabst, and the gray gelding has come two-thirds of the way to matching his $750,000 cost as a yearling.