LEXINGTON, Ky. - With a commanding victory in the nine-furlong Remsen Stakes at Aqueduct Nov. 29, Read the Footnotes established himself as one of the top staying 2-year-old colts of his crop. Already the winner of the Nashua Stakes, Read the Footnotes defeated the Grand Slam colt Master David by 3 3/4 lengths, with the third-place runner 14 1/2 lengths behind the winner.

Roy and Pat Chapman don't want to fling around words like Kentucky Derby just yet. But there seems little doubt that the Chapmans, long-prominent Pennsylvania horsepeople, have a genuine Triple Crown hopeful.

Adam Staple is a pedigree guru. That is, his role as stallion coordinator for Ocala's Signature Stallions often requires him to advise breeders as to which stallions best suit their mares, and if none do - which rarely happens, he says - to recommend an outside stallion.

Staple can point with pride to his 14-year-old broodmare, Seattle Moon, by Seattle Dancer. She is the dam of Vous, his homebred 2-year-old, winner of this past week's $100,000 Hollywood Wildcat Stakes at Calder Race Course.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Jim Equils was not sure what to think last April at Santa Anita when he and his wife, Marcia, claimed The Candi Queen for $20,000 and watched her finish last of six.

"I said, 'What have we done?' " he said.

This week, Jim Equils was able to look back on that moment and laugh. Thursday at Hollywood Park, The Candi Queen scored the most important win of her career, drawing off to a 17-length win in an allowance race over 1 1/16 miles for California-bred fillies and mares.

The New York Racing Association has instituted a change in the nomination process for the 2004 Big Apple Triple for New York-bred 3-year-olds.

Instead of a $200 early nomination fee due in January for eligibility to each of the Big Apple Triple races, which are run in the summer, nominations will close on a normal schedule, approximately two weeks before the race.

The Big Apple Triple consists of the Mike Lee at Belmont Park in June, the New York Derby at Finger Lakes in July, and the Albany at Saratoga Race Course. The 2004 dates for these races have yet to be assigned.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Epsom and Irish Oaks winner Ramruna marked a record high point at the Tattersalls December mares sale, which concluded Thursday in Newmarket, England, with increases in gross and average.

LAS VEGAS - As the year draws to a close, it's time to look at the 2003 freshman sires. Stravinsky, a champion sprinter at 3 in England in 1999, appears headed for top honors, but there is a curious twist to his story.

The Tattersalls December mare auction in Newmarket, England, got off to a flashy start Monday with a session-topping Storm Cat filly sold for a million guineas, or about $1.67 million. A slightly smaller catalog than last year's resulted in lower gross receipts and a higher average price at the opener.

Peinture Rose, a 3-year-old half-sister to champion and sire Peintre Celebre, topped the session when she went to French bloodstock agent Frederic Sauque on behalf of an unidentified Swiss client. Ted Voute sold the filly, the first seven-figure lot he has ever sold.

Grade 2 winner Century City will enter stud in 2004 at Wintergreen Stallion Station in Lexington, Ky., for a $12,500 fee.

A 4-year-old Danzig colt, Century City won this year's Grade 2 Arcadia Handicap and the Turf Paradise Breeders' Cup Handicap. In his last start he finished third in the Breeders' Cup Mile won by Six Perfections.

November has been a month to remember for Kurt Butenhoff, a New York farm owner and breeder.

About a week after announcing the arrival of the first two stallions to stand at his new farm, Empire Stud in Hudson, N.Y., Butenhoff won his first graded race, the Grade 2 Long Island Handicap at Aqueduct on Nov. 15, with Spice Island.