LAS VEGAS - Volponi was 43-1 when he won last year's Breeders' Cup Classic, and while he is winless in seven starts this year (with five seconds and two thirds), you can be sure that Hall of Fame trainer Phil Johnson will have him at his best for this year's Breeders' Cup Classic, which may be the final race of his career.

Volponi has finished in the money 24 times in 30 lifetime starts. While many have dismissed his chances for a repeat victory in the Classic, his chances are looking better with each passing week, with the defections of Mineshaft, Candy Ride, and Empire Maker.

Two major international stallion operations, Sheikh Mohammed's Darley and John Magnier's Coolmore Stud, have announced changes in fees for their major Kentucky stallions in 2004.

Coolmore's American branch, Ashford Stud, has slashed the $125,000 fees for Fusaichi Pegasus and Giant's Causeway in 2004. Fusaichi Pegasus will stand for $85,000, Giant's Causeway for $75,000.

Ron Stolich's Blooming Hills Farm in California, which last week completed an agreement to purchase Kentucky stallion You and I, has also added Grade 2 winner Golden Gear to its stallion roster.

You and I will stand for $6,500 live foal, and Golden Gear, a 12-year-old Gulch horse, will stand for $3,000 live foal, according to Lynn Aebi, administrative manager of Blooming Hills.

The Tattersalls October yearling sale, the largest Thoroughbred yearling auction in Europe, with more than 1,000 horses cataloged, opened Tuesday with a bullish first session.

A Kingmambo colt out of Irtifa topped the opener at $915,075. Shadwell Estate Co. bought the colt, a half-brother to the stakes-placed North American winner With Certainty, from European Sales Management.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Prominent Lexington stallion farms Hill 'n' Dale and Three Chimneys have announced their stud fees for the 2004 season.

At Hill 'n' Dale, Theatrical tops the fee list at $75,000, the same as last year. Dance Brightly will drop slightly from $7,500 to $5,000. Getting fee increases are Mutakddim, who climbs from $6,500 to $10,000, and Jade Hunter, whose fee rises from $10,000 to $15,000. New stallions for 2004 are 2002 champion juvenile Vindication at $50,000 and Stormy Atlantic, who will stand for $12,500.

Fasig-Tipton Midlantic's two-day Eastern Fall Yearling Sale on Monday and Tuesday concluded on a positive note, with the average of $18,258 up 9.5 percent over last year's figure, 10 horses selling for $100,000 or more (compared to six in 2002), and many buyers in attendance.

"There was a depth of buyers, from top to bottom," said Fasig-Tipton Midlantic executive vice president Mason Grasty.

Marion Lewis, the farm manager for Farnsworth Farms from 1966 until he retired a few years ago, died this past week of cancer. Anyone who had anything to do with Florida's Thoroughbred industry for the past four decades had to know him personally or about him through hearsay.

He was a gracious, witty, and consummate horseman. Lewis would have been 70 this fall, and those with whom he had contact would quickly realize that Lewis had the attitude, drive, and good humor of a man half his age.

Racetrack business has increased in California in recent months - and so has the cost of maintaining horses in training.

Those factors have made it difficult for the management of Barretts to project the results of Tuesday's October preferred yearling sale in Pomona.

"This is a critical year because of market conditions in California," said Barretts president Gerald McMahon. "I was happy to see the Del Mar meeting and Fairplex meetings do as well as they did. I think it will help the sale."

LEXINGTON, Ky. - It has been five years since Sam and Dorothy Rubin have seen their most famous racehorse, the legendary gelding John Henry, and some things have changed for horse and humans since then.

John Henry, now 28 and in luxurious retirement at the Kentucky Horse Park's Hall of Champions, had serious colic surgery last year. And Sam Rubin, 89, sustained severe injuries in 1998 when a pick-up truck hit him head on and totaled his car.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - The dust still hasn't settled from the result in the Lady's Secret at Santa Anita last Sunday, when Got Koko emphatically denied a 12th consecutive victory to Azeri, the reigning Eclipse champion as older mare and also last year's Horse of the Year. Clearly, Got Koko has added greater interest, speculation, and drama to this year's Breeders' Cup Distaff, which practically had been conceded to Azeri.

Should Got Koko succeed against Azeri in the Breeders' Cup, perhaps some visionary in public relations will arrange a billboard campaign: "Got Koko?"