The bulls and the bears maybe having it out on Wall Street, but there is no uncertainty in the Florida 2-year-olds in training market. The Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's two-day June auction completed the 2004 schedule of six sales, between February and June, with record-breaking numbers. The statistics for the June sale show that 314 horses sold for gross receipts of $7,394,600, an average price of $23,550. Both the gross and the average were records for the sale. Last year 249 lots sold for an average of $18,412.

Trueamericanspirit, the 4-year-old New Jersey-bred aiming for his second consecutive stakes score in Sunday's Lincroft Handicap at Monmouth, was given a name inspired by Sept. 11. But he also reflects the spirit of the Swales family and the long battle to preserve New Jersey racing.

"The days of just surviving are hopefully behind us, and now we can all start thriving," said Tom Swales IV, Trueamericanspirit's breeder/owner.

The two-day Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's June 2-year-old sale ended Wednesday with strong gains across the board, including a sale-record average of $23,550.

A $200,000 Successful Appeal filly bought by Carrol Castille was the session- and auction-leader. Norman Casse's Cardinal Hill Farm agency sold the filly, who is out of stakes-placed Half Mast, a Tunerup mare who has produced four winners from four starters so far.

Smarty Jones's racing plans for the remainder of the year are set, but his future beyond that - including where he will stand at stud - were still unclear as of Wednesday afternoon.

Smarty Jones, trained by John Servis, is pointing for the Sept. 6 Pennsylvania Derby at Philadelphia Park, the Oct. 2 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont, and the Oct. 30 Breeders' Cup Classic at Lone Star Park.

The Ocala Breeders' Sales Company opened its June 2-year-old sale Tuesday, with a $110,000 Lost Soldier filly the session's early leader.

Sold as Hip No. 194, the filly is a daughter of the unraced Salt Lake mare Tooosalty. She went to Buzz Chace, agent. Niall Brennan, agent, sold the filly on behalf of the John Franks estate.

Currently named Not Tooosalty, the filly is a half-sister to stakes winner Cupid Season and winner The Dempsey Look. She had breezed an eighth of a mile in 10.40 seconds during the auction's under-tack preview last weekend.

LAS VEGAS - Arch, winner of the 1998 Super Derby, was expected to be the heir apparent to his late sire, Kris S., when he first entered stud at Claiborne Farm in 1999. After a rocky start, Arch is beginning to realize that promise.

A colt by Stormy Atlantic posted the fastest quarter-mile time at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's under-tack show on Sunday in Ocala, Fla. Hip No. 282's time of 21 seconds was the fastest over the distance for the under-tack show, which ran Saturday and Sunday to showcase 2-year-olds on offer at the company's juvenile sale, scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday. Hip No. 282, a chestnut son of the Pentelicus mare Blaze DeWitt, was to sell through the agency of Tony Bowling and Bobby Dodd. Three 2-year-olds shared the under-tack show's fastest eighth-mile time of 10.20 seconds.

Claiborne Farm in Paris, Ky., has privately purchased an interest in the breeding rights to Grade 2 winner Strong Hope and will stand the colt at the end of his racing career, the farm announced Monday. The 4-year-old colt's owners, Eugene and Laura Melnyk, plan to race him for the rest of the season before retiring him to Claiborne for the 2005 season.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Birdstone's Belmont Stakes win on June 5 will be most famous for ending Smarty Jones's Triple Crown bid and his unbeaten record. But it was also a redemptive moment.

Birdstone, one of the nation's top juveniles last year, had been lackluster this spring. His Belmont victory not only restored a measure of his success but also brought some to his sire, Grindstone, the 1996 Kentucky Derby winner, whose most recent book of mares had been buoyed by Birdstone's performances as a juvenile.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Every sport has traditions, but no sport has a sense of time and continuity like horse racing. The 136th Belmont Stakes shows the link between horses and families, with the winner, Birdstone, bred and raced by Marylou Whitney and her husband, John Hendrickson.