LEXINGTON, Ky. - Florida's two select juvenile auctions launched the 2-year-old sale season in extraordinary style, and the question now is whether the March 2 Barretts auction, which features a dispersal of The Thoroughbred Corporation bloodstock, can keep the boom going.

Graeme Hall (by Dehere out of Win Crafty Lady, by Crafty Prospector) entered stud last year, and when the breeding season ended, the multiple Grade 2 stakes-winning millionaire had covered 77 mares. "We have 16 on the ground already," said Phil Hronec, manager of Winding Oaks Farm, where Graeme Hall stands, "and I could not be more pleased with their appearance."

ARCADIA, Calif. - There may be a future state champion lurking among the 24 California-breds that will sell at Tuesday's Barretts March Sale of selected 2-year-olds in-training in Pomona.

In two of the last three years, the California-breds offered in the sale have included a 2-year-old who went on to win a championship - Officer in 2001 and House of Fortune last year.

Officer was bought for $700,000 by The Thoroughbred Corporation at the 2001 Barretts March Sale and went on to win the Del Mar Futurity and Champagne Stakes that year. He now stands at stud in Kentucky.

New York sire Manlove is keeping good company at the top of the current list of leading grass sires of 2004.

Manlove, who stands at Liberty Stud Farm in Ghent for $3,000, is in second place on the list with $332,550 in progeny earnings with his turf runners and is surrounded by stallions whose stud fees are significantly higher. California sire In Excess, who tops the list, stands for $25,000. Theatrical, third behind Man-love, stands in Kentucky for $75,000, and another Kentucky sire, Royal Academy, fourth on the list, stands for $20,000.

Shine Again, a million-dollar earning mare bred by Mrs. Richard C. duPont, tops the list of 2003 Maryland-bred champions announced Friday by the Maryland Horse Breeders Association.

Shine Again (by Wild Again-Shiner, by Two Punch), the fourth generation of her family foaled and raised at duPont's Woodstock Farm in Chesapeake City, was named horse of the year, champion older female, and champion sprinter.

Other divisional champions are:

MIAMI - An improving economy, the infusion of overseas money, and a solid catalog all combined for a record-breaking session at Tuesday's Fasig-Tipton Select 2-year-old-in-training sales held at Calder Race Course.

LAS VEGAS - The Kentucky Derby is only nine weeks from Saturday, and while America's most prestigious race appears wide-open as of this date, there are a handful of colts who will prosper at 1 1/4 miles.

MIAMI - Six years ago, a Japanese businessman named Fusao Sekiguchi spent $4 million on a yearling, outbidding Satish Sanan. Two years later, that son of Mr. Prospector, named Fusaichi Pegasus, won the Kentucky Derby.

Sekiguchi and Sanan went toe to toe again in the sales ring on Tuesday, with Sekiguchi spending $4.5 million to outbid Sanan on a son of Fusaichi Pegasus and set a world record at the Fasig-Tipton selected 2-year-olds-in-training sales at Calder Race Course.

Be My Guest, a Group 2 winner who sired the 1990 Belmont Stakes winner, God and Go, and several European champions, died Feb. 19 in Ireland of the infirmities of old age, according to a report in the Racing Post. The stallion, who had been pensioned from Coolmore, was 30.

AUBURN, Wash. - Taiaslew was named Washington-bred horse of the year for 2003 at the state's annual awards banquet at Emerald Downs.

Taiaslew, a son of Slewdledo who races for Shelli Tracy and Stan Ryan, earned the accolade by winning 4 of 7 starts, including the Grade 3 Alberta Derby and three other stakes.