LEXINGTON, Ky. - Second of June confirmed his superiority over Silver Wagon, last year's Hopeful Stakes winner, with an emphatic victory in the Jan. 17 Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream Park. They have met twice, with Second of June winning each time, the second even more impressively than the first.

Because he has a name that repeats his date of birth, Second of June is widely known as the youngest classic hope from this year's crop of 3-year-olds, and he may be the youngest colt in decades with a serious following for the classics.

Tom Ventura, general manager and director of sales for the Ocala Breeders' Sales Co., anticipated a good winter mixed sale - and he got it. The two-day consignors' preferred part of the annual OBS January mixed sale, held Jan. 19 and 20, generated robust statistics in just about every category.

The gross of $5.78 million for 290 lots was well above last year's $3.19 million for 198 lots. The overall average jumped by 23.6 percent to $19,925. The buy-back rate slipped from roughly one out of three last year to one out of four this year.

In 2003, Maryland had one of the nation's top-ranked sires, a deep group of 61 stakes winners, and a repeat performance by the state's leading breeders. The following is a list of the year's top Maryland performers:

Leading breeders: Sondra and Howard Bender

The New York breeding and racing program enjoyed a superb year in 2003. While the achievements of Funny Cide have been well documented, news from the breeding shed also was good.

Statistics provided by the New York State Thoroughbred Breeding and Development Fund, and posted on the New York breeding and racing program's official website, nybreds.com, show increases last year in several breeding categories.

ARCADIA, Calif. - A massive catalog of 714 horses of all ages will be offered at the January mixed sale at Barretts in Pomona on Monday and Tuesday, the largest such sale the company has offered.

The sale includes dispersals by Lakeview Thoroughbred Farm, Helen Smith, and Black Oak Farm, and a large consignment of horses of racing age owned by The Thoroughbred Corporation.

Dollar Bill, the graded-stakes-winning millionaire owned by Gary and Mary West, will miss the 2004 breeding season.

A 6-year-old Peaks and Valleys horse, Dollar Bill was to enter stud this season at Signature Stallions in Ocala, Fla., but he has not recovered sufficiently from an injury to his right front fetlock. Dr. Larry Bramlage, the equine orthopedic surgeon who repaired the injury, recommended that the stallion miss the breeding season.

A $300,000 Valid Appeal mare named Silk Appeal topped a strong day of selling at the Tuesday session of the Ocala Breeders' Sales Co.'s winter mixed sale in Ocala, Fla.

George Steinbrenner's Kinsman Stud Farm bought the 11-year-old Silk Appeal, who is in foal to popular stallion Montbrook. Kelli Mitchell consigned the mare on behalf of Einar Robsham, who is dispersing his breeding stock.

LAS VEGAS - This is the fifth part 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.

Keeneland concluded its five-day January horses of all ages sale Friday with across-the-board increases.

Keeneland sold 1,258 horses for gross sales of $49,344,900, an increase of 58 percent from the 2003 auction. The average price of $39,225 and the median of $13,000 also rose sharply, climbing 49 percent and 30 percent, respectively.

The number of foals nominated to the Breeders' Cup rose 7.3 percent in 2003, reversing a decline caused by Mare Reproductive Loss Syndrome, Breeders' Cup announced on Friday.

Foal nominations were 14,927 last year, compared with 13,910 in 2002. The numbers have not fully recovered from 2001, however, when foal nominations were 15,104.

Nominations to the Breeders' Cup dropped off in 2002 because of a sharp increase in late-term abortions in central Kentucky mares, a phenomenon that is still poorly understood.