LAS VEGAS - Four weeks away and counting.

The Kentucky Derby is limited to 20 starters based on earnings in graded stakes, and time is running out for the 3-year-olds who need to acquire sufficient earnings to be included in what is expected to be a full and wide-open 20-horse field for this year's Derby. The horses in Saturday's Santa Anita Derby and Illinois Derby are having their final preps, and both stakes should be very revealing.

Two University of Kentucky entomologists gave local horsemen some practical advice and research updates in the fight against mare reproductive loss syndrome Tuesday.

The Melbourne Sunday Herald in Australia has reported that Robert Sangster, 68, one of the prominent racehorse owners who helped build Coolmore Stud into a global powerhouse, is undergoing treatment in London for pancreatic and liver cancer.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - When Evil Elaine, whose son Favorite Trick was named juvenile champion and Horse of the Year in 1997, died on March 22, she left a great legacy at Summer Wind Farm in Georgetown, Ky.

Karen Bailey, daughter of farm owners Jane and Frank Lyon Jr., will always be thankful for that.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Although Elusive Quality is not well known to the general public, this son of Gone West has become a favorite among perceptive breeders, and with racers such as Smarty Jones, winner of last weekend's Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn, Elusive Quality is destined to become more and more popular.

Want a formula for success in the horse business? Start with the right mare. Just ask Stanton "Bo" Smith and his wife, Stella.

The Smiths, of Millstone, N.J., found that mare with Fancy Pan, the first racehorse they ever owned. Now, 17 years later, the Smiths are making plans to attend this year's Kentucky Derby to follow St Averil, a grandson of Fancy Pan.

It was a winter of content for Florida's breeding industry. The mild weather was undoubtedly responsible for the breeding sheds being visited early and often. Pregnancy rates are running extremely high, according to reports from several major farms.

"The young stallion prospects who were given the time to make the transition from being racehorse to a working stallion have, for me, at any rate, been getting the job done," says Roy S. Lerman of Lambholm South in Reddick.

Lerman was referring to his first-season stallions Lido Palace and Express Tour.

The Fasig-Tipton Texas 2-year-old sale at Lone Star Park improved its results from 2003 in most categories Tuesday, showing some signs that this year's strong market for select juveniles is helping to boost regional markets.

The one-day Texas sale in Grand Prairie sold 192 lots for $3,507,800, up 42 percent from last year, when 152 juveniles sold. The average price also rose, by 12 percent, to $18,270. The median, though, fell 18 percent to $8,250. The buy-back rate fell from 43 percent last year to 31 percent.

Rowdy Angel, dam of Pine Bluff and Demons Begone and the second dam of Fusaichi Pegasus, died March 22 of natural causes. The mare was 25 and had been pensioned since 1995. She died at Dr. and Mrs. Gary Lavin's Longfield Farm in Goshen, Ky.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - When Friends Lake scooted across the finish line to win the Grade 1 Florida Derby, he became the best homebred runner for Mary and Chester Broman. A chestnut son of A.P. Indy and Antespend bred at the Bromans' Chestertown Farm near Babylon, N.Y., Friends Lake is the second serious challenger (Read the Footnotes is the other) for the classics this year bred in New York.