A sale-record $450,000 filly boosted Fasig-Tipton Midlantic's May juvenile sale in Timonium, Md., to new marks for gross receipts and average price.

Led by a $450,000 Silver Deputy filly that Buzz Chace bought for Charles and Marianne Hesse, the two-day sale ended Tuesday with a $13,227,800 gross for 354 juveniles, up 35 percent from last year's total for 322 lots. The average price soared 23 percent, from $30,451 last year to $37,367, but the median price remained unchanged from last year at $22,000.

Golden Eagle Farms has sold its stallion Avenue of Flags privately to an unidentified owner in New Mexico, and the horse will relocate to Double LL Farms in Brosque, N.M., for the 2005 season.

Avenue of Flags, a 16-year-old son of Seattle Slew, stood this year at Golden Eagle in Ramona, Calif., for $15,000. He is the sire of Grade 1 winners Joey Franco and Notable Career and two-time Grade 2 winner Fleet Lady, among other stakes-winners.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - The 2-year-old auction season continued to show unprecedented strength at Tuesday's final session of the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic May juvenile sale in Timonium, Md., where a sale-record price of $450,000 was reached. The previous record of $360,000 was set in 1998 and matched in 1999.

LAS VEGAS - Successful Appeal was a stakes winner at 2, 3, and 4, and when he went to stud he was expected to be one of those stallions who would be an immediate hit because of his precocious pedigree and race record. It is only May, but freshman stallion Successful Appeal has already zoomed to the head of his class with three winners from six starts, including two stakes winners, Lunarpal and Double D Appeal.

Brereton C. Jones Jr., owner of Airdrie Stud and former governor of Kentucky, made a presentation Monday at the Kentucky Horse Racing Authority's monthly meeting in Lexington on behalf of the Kentucky Equine Educational Partnership, which was formed earlier this month as an all-breed promotional and lobbying group.

The partnership, originally named the Kentucky Equine Educational Alliance, has so far raised more than $350,000 to start an educational campaign about the horse industry's economic impact on Kentucky.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - War Emblem, the 2002 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner whose low libido caused problems in his first season at Japan's Shadai Stallion Station last year, has covered about 50 mares in 2004, a dramatic improvement. In 2003, his initial year at stud, War Emblem covered only seven mares, getting four of those in foal.

Shadai spokesman Eisuke Tokutake explained that while War Emblem isn't any more interested in breeding than he was in 2003, the farm has found an unusual strategy that seems to help. They let him choose his own mates.

In the days before Tuesday's Barretts May sale of 2-year-olds in training in Pomona, Calif., Barretts president Gerald McMahon predicted an increase in prices from last year and said the sale would "take the pulse of the California industry."

But growth to record levels for average and median at the sale took him by surprise.

In the one-day sale, the average price increased 22.5 percent, to $37,371, and the median grew 58.8 percent, to $27,000.

The Fasig-Tipton Midlantic sales are one facet of Maryland's Thoroughbred industry that continues to spiral to new heights of success. And it's hard to recall as much excitement as surrounds this year's edition of the 2-year-olds in training sale, scheduled to start at 10 a.m. Monday at the sales pavilion in Timonium. Expect to see sales records fall at the two-day sale, which features a weighty catalog of 631 2-year-olds.

During a recent lunch break, Dennis Elliott reminisced about his son Stewart's early days as a fledgling jockey. Stewart Elliott, of course, won the Kentucky Derby on Smarty Jones.

"It was 23 years ago, and the family had just returned to the States from a five-year tour in Hong Kong," Elliott said. "I wanted Stewie to finish school and get a diploma, as he was only 15 at the time, but he had other things on his mind, like horses and becoming a jockey."

The first time Ron Clarkson set eyes on Sandhill Charm, he was determined to buy that daughter of Vanlandingham.

"It was one of those things," said Clarkson, 65, a longtime owner and breeder in Ontario. "She didn't really have much pedigree but when they brought her out of the stall, I said, 'Wow.' I had to have her."

Clarkson paid $29,000 (U.S.) at the 2000 Keeneland January sale for the stakes-placed filly, a little more than he wanted to spend, but the risk has been worth every penny.