LEXINGTON, Ky. - Sword Dance, sire of Grade 1 winner Marlin and numerous other stakes winners, has been pensioned at the age of 20.

"His fertility has just been dropping and dropping," said Larry King of Stonehedge Farm in Williston, Fla., which has stood Sword Dance since the early 1990's. "Some specialists have looked at him, and they can't come up with any reason for it. We've done scintigraphy and X-rays, and he seems physically fine. He's not showing any pain, but his sperm count just kept going down. It's been kind of mystifying."

ARCADIA, Calif. - Barretts has released the catalog for the March sale of 2-year-olds in training, which this year will also feature a 54-horse consignment of racing stock from the dispersal of The Thoroughbred Corp.

The one-day sale March 2 in Pomona will begin with the dispersal horses at 2 p.m. and follows with 174 2-year-olds in training.

Since the death of The Thoroughbred Corp. owner Prince Ahmed bin Salman in 2002, The Thoroughbred Corp. has slowly been selling its holdings.

The 54 horses comprise 48 horses of racing age, five juveniles, and a yearling.

The industry's oldest 2-year-olds in training sale takes place on Tuesday at Calder Race Course, starting at noon Eastern. The Ocala Breeders' Sales Company has cataloged 204 2-year-olds, mostly bred in Florida or Kentucky, three more than the 2003 sale.

A Pennsylvania-bred star who made headlines in Europe, a farm with a roster of leading sires, and a perennial leading breeder were among the top Pennsylvania performers in 2003.

The most accomplished Pennsylvania-bred runner of 2003 was Russian Rhythm.

Despite a strong opening session that produced a sale-record top price of $425,000, the Barretts winter mixed sale in Pomona, Calif., closed Tuesday evening with declines across the board.

The Barretts winter mixed auction in Pomona, Calif., got off to a good start Monday with a $425,000 session-topper and increased gross and average.

At Monday's session, the first of two days' selling, Grade 2 stakes winner Taste of Paradise easily brought the day's highest price of $425,000. Purchased by David Bloom, Taste of Paradise, winner of last year's San Diego Handicap, was consigned by Berkey Bloodstock Services, agent. He was sold to dissolve a partnership and was cataloged as a racing or stallion prospect.

LAS VEGAS - This is Part 6 of a series on the 2004 freshman sires, with particular emphasis on how to play their offspring. Listed alphabetically, the sires are followed by their pedigree and the state or country where they stand.

Kinghaven Farms in Ontario, one of Canada's most important Thoroughbred farms, will close its Thoroughbred operation by the end of the year, according to a report in The Blood-Horse.

Kinghaven owner David Willmot told the trade publication that he will remain a Thoroughbred breeder and keep his own mares but will board those mares at another operation. Willmot and his family will continue to live at Kinghaven.

In recent years, Kinghaven Farms has operated largely as a boarding farm for clients and stands no stallions.

Susan Annette Saxon Hundley, co-owner of Saxony Farm in Versailles, Ky., with her husband Bruce, died of cancer at her home on Saturday. She was 62.

Saxony Farm, a family-run Thoroughbred breeding and cattle farm, raised a number of stakes winners, most notably Arazi, the 1991 Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner and 2-year-old champion, for longtime Saxony client Ralph Wilson Jr.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - The Keeneland July sale, once the pinnacle of the select yearling sale season, has been canceled for the second year in a row. The Keeneland Association in Lexington announced Friday that it would again offer select yearlings only in September this season.

Keeneland sales director Geoffrey Russell said that "Keeneland and consignors agreed to meet annually to reconsider the possibility of returning the July sale to the schedule."