Two of Maryland's leading breeding farms were looking to fill a niche, and both have succeeded.

Preakness Stakes winner Louis Quatorze will stand the 2004 season at Allen and Audrey Murray's Murmur Farm in Darlington, Md. The Pons family's Country Life Farm is replenishing its sire ranks with Parker's Storm Cat, who joins another first-year stallion, No Armistice, at the farm in Bel Air, Md.

It is welcome news for farms whose headlines the past two years resulted in losses for the Maryland breeding industry.

It should be Wando-mania at the Sovereign Awards presentation in downtown Toronto on Dec. 6 when the handsome chestnut 3-year-old is expected to garner awards for Horse of the Year and top 3-year-old colt or gelding.

A son of Langfuhr out of Kathie's Colleen, Wando became the seventh Canadian Triple Crown winner this summer and won 4 of 6 starts for earnings of over $1.6 million.

Skip Trial and Halo's Image, who stand at Bridlewood Farm in Ocala, were the principal winners on Florida Million Day at Calder Race Course Nov. 15.

Skip Trial, who turns 22 next year, is closing in on the $30 million mark for progeny earnings thanks in part to Best of the Rest, who won the $200,000 Carl G. Rose Classic on Florida Million Day, and Scapade, winner of the $200,000 Elmer Heubeck Distaff.

Halo's Image is the sire of the unbeaten Sir Oscar, who put away the previously unbeaten Wynn Dot Comma in the Jack Price Juvenile to run his unblemished streak to six.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Blane Schvaneveldt, the Hall of Fame Quarter Horse trainer, is holding a dispersal of his Quarter Horse and Thoroughbred breeding stock at his Southern California ranch on Dec. 15.

The sale includes Thoroughbred weanlings, yearlings, horses of racing age, broodmares, and the stallion Bustopher Jones.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - The success of Balto Star in the Red Smith Handicap at Aqueduct was yet another triumph for horsemanship over theory, as this gelded son of Glitterman ran the 11 furlongs on a soft turf course in 2:18.86 and won by 3 1/2 lengths.

By a horse who never won beyond seven furlongs and out of a mare by 2-year-old champion Devil's Bag, Balto Star does not have the pedigree for the realms of turf course stardom. But he wins anyway.

LAS VEGAS - The highest honor for a mare is Broodmare of the Year. The award is sometimes given to a broodmare who produced only one Thoroughbred of merit, such as Maid of Flight, who was bestowed the honor in 1964 for her son Kelso, five-time Horse of the Year (1960 through 1964).

Capote, champion 2-year-old male of 1986 and sire of Boston Harbor, the champion 2-year-old male of 1996, has been retired from stallion duty.

A statement from Three Chimneys farm in Midway, Ky., where the 19-year-old Capote had stood since 1992, said that "a combination of fertility and neurological problems . . . dictate his retirement."

A son of Seattle Slew out of Too Bald, Capote won the Breeders' Cup Juvenile and Norfolk Stakes en route to his Eclipse Award.

A $230,000 Machiavellian colt out of the El Gran Senor mare Jumilla topped a record Tattersalls December yearling sale. A total of 161 yearlings were sold at the one-day sale, for a record $5.9 million (or 3,310,200 guineas, the currency of the sale). The average price, $37,000, and median, $25,000, also were records.

John Ferguson, of Darley, signed for the sale-topper. The colt was consigned by Roy and Belinda Strudwick's Ballygallon Stud in Ireland.

The sprinter Yankee Gentleman left Hollywood Park early Tuesday morning for Kentucky, where he will begin stud duty next spring. He is expected to go to Wafare Farm, whose owner, Nathan Fox, on Tuesday confirmed he has been negotiating with Marty Wygod, the owner of Yankee Gentleman.

"My lawyer and his lawyer are just finishing up the wording," Fox said from his farm in Midway, Ky.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Twelve-year-old stallion Soul of the Matter will be relocated from Japan to EA Ranches in Santa Ysabel, Calif., in early December, well in time for the 2004 breeding season.

He arrives at a breeding farm happily getting back to the business of raising horses after a harrowing period in late October and early November when the property was threatened by California's rampant wildfires.

EA Ranches is in San Diego County, which was hard hit by the fires. Ranch owner Ernest Auerbach said the farm suffered only minor damage to fences.