LEXINGTON, Ky. - The estate of John Franks, the prominent Louisiana-based owner and breeder who died Dec. 31 at age 78, announced this week that it would begin reducing Franks's numerous bloodstock holdings in February.

The reduction will begin at Fasig-Tipton Kentucky's winter mixed sale on Feb. 8-9, where John Sikura's Hill 'n' Dale agency will consign about 200 of the Franks broodmares. The estate also plans to sell off some of Franks's 2-year-olds, yearlings, and racing stock in the months to come, and Sikura will oversee that as well.

Grade 1 winner You, an earner of more than $2 million in her racing career, has been withdrawn from the upcoming Keeneland January sale.

You, a 5-year-old You and I mare, was in the catalog as Hip No. 742 as part of the Mill Ridge consignment. But Mill Ridge announced Tuesday that You's owner, Edmund Gann, has decided to retain the mare. Gann will breed You this spring.

LAS VEGAS - This is Part 3 in a series on the freshman sires of 2004, with particular emphasis on how to bet their offspring. The sires' names are followed by their pedigree and the state in which they stand.

ARCADIA, Calif. - The Barretts sales company is adding a 2-year-olds in training sale to its calendar on June 29, giving the Southern California sale venue three juvenile sales in a four-month span.

But unlike the internationally prominent March sale or the locally popular May sale, which produce runners that often begin their careers in the summer, the summer sale of 2-year-olds in training and horses of racing age is expected to handle horses that will be active in the second half of the year throughout the Southwest and California.

Most owners or breeders had a conventional introduction to the Thoroughbred business. They went to the races with friends, grew up around farms, or lived near a racetrack. Not Bill Schettine, owner of Signature Thoroughbreds, one of Ocala's major stallion stations. He jumped in with only a few months of book learning.

Five years ago, Schettine, who owns a construction company that lays natural gas piping, was flying in a helicopter, monitoring a pipeline that was being constructed through the Ocala area.

For the first time in more than a decade, a win in the Maryland Juvenile Championship races may not result in being named champion Maryland-bred 2-year-old.

On Dec. 31 at Laurel Park, White Mountain Boy pushed his record to 3 for 3 with his dominating victory in the $100,000 Maryland Juvenile Championship for colts and geldings. Pour It On went from last to first to capture the $100,000 Maryland Juvenile Filly Championship at 36-1, while overwhelming favorite Richetta, seeking her fourth consecutive stakes victory, failed to hit the board.

LAS VEGAS - This is part two of a series on the freshman sires of 2004, with particular emphasis on how to bet their offspring. The sires' names are followed by their pedigree and the state in which they stand.

Grand Lodge - sire of such champions as Sinndar, Grandera, and Indian Lodge - was euthanized Dec. 24 at Woodlands Stud in Australia. An 11-year-old son of Chief's Crown, Grand Lodge had broken his knee in a paddock accident on Sept. 4.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Joe Taylor, the famed former manager of Gainesway Farm and father of Taylor Made Farm's founders, left a long legacy of teaching when he died on Dec. 19 at age 79.

Taylor never went to college himself, but a lifetime of raising horses made him a professor to dozens of central Kentucky's horsemen. He was master of many subjects, as John Gaines, former owner of Gainesway, wrote in the foreword to Taylor's 1993 book, "Joe Taylor's Complete Guide to Breeding and Raising Racehorses."

The racing of horses in the area that is now the state of Georgia has been a sport since pre-colonial times. There have been all sorts of hunt meets for flat runners and jumpers, but there never has been state-authorized parimutuel betting on these races.

This could change as early as next month when the Georgia House of Representatives Committee on Regulated Industries takes up House Bill 781, which would permit parimutuel wagering.