There's no shortage of stallions who have their first crop of Florida yearlings heading to the Ocala sales. The annual auction gets under way on Aug. 18 and continues daily through Aug. 21. The Ocala Breeders' Sales Company has cataloged 1,276 yearlings, with 202 designated as selected.

Slew Gin Fizz (by Relaunch) and Zamindar (Gone West) were graded or group winners. Both began their stud careers at foreign venues. Slew Gin Fizz still shuttles between Ocala Stud and Argentina, where he is a leading sire with several champions there.

Fasig-Tipton didn't have a difficult decision when it came to selecting the cover photograph for its preferred yearling sale of New York-breds at Saratoga.

The obvious choice was this year's Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner, Funny Cide, a graduate of the sale two years ago.

When the two-day sale begins Sunday evening, the buzz around the sales grounds probably will be focused on Funny Cide and the chances of finding another horse like him from the more than 220 yearlings in this year's catalog.

Maryland-breds often distinguish themselves at Saratoga, but rarely does it happen this way.

Two 2002 Maryland-bred champions - Willa on the Move and Shine Again, a daughter and granddaughter of Maryland sire Two Punch - crossed the wire one-two in the Grade 3 Honorable Miss Handicap on Aug. 1.

Bettors made last year's statebred champion older mare and sprinter, Shine Again, a multiple Grade 1-winning millionaire who traditionally has enjoyed her finest moments at the Spa, an 8-5 favorite.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - New Mexico racetrack owner Stanley Fulton paid $1.2 million to acquire the final session-topper .

ClassicStar sold the Storm Cat colt out of Grade 3 winner Broad Smile, by Broad Brush, through the Taylor Made Sales Agency.

Red Ransom, sire of the 2000 champion turf mare, Perfect Sting, and tRed Ransom going to U.K.

he 2003 Epsom Oaks winner, Casual Look, will relocate from central Kentucky to Dalham Hall in England for 2004.

Sheikh Mohammed al Maktoum's Darley operation, which owns Dalham Hall, announced Thursday that the stallion will leave Tom Simon's Vinery in Lexington, Ky. Vinery will, however, retain its majority interest in Red Ransom, a 16-year-old Roberto stallion.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Satish Sanan came to the Saratoga select yearling auction with one thing in mind: to buy a Kentucky Derby horse. Sanan is a serious market force who can bid millions on a horse he wants badly enough. But he also knows first-hand that racing's gods are whimsical.

Sanan has brushed against the Derby roses twice, first when he was underbidder on the $4 million yearling who became 2000 Derby winner Fusaichi Pegasus, and, more tantalizingly, with his 2002 juvenile champion Vindication, who fell off the 2003 Derby trail with a suspensory injury.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - The game victory of Strong Hope in the Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga has further illuminated the colt's sire, Grand Slam, as one of the bright young hopes of American breeding. In addition, the colt's successes - five victories from six starts - have added luster to the production record of his unraced dam, the Deputy Minister mare Shining Through, and will make her other progeny all the more valuable.

This naturally brings a quiet smile to the face of Strong Hope's co-breeder Tom Evans, who foaled and raised the colt at his Trackside Farm outside Versailles, Ky.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - A $2.7 million Unbridled colt bought by Padua Stables topped an evening of aggressive bidding at .

Padua bought the session-topping son of Words of War after a protracted bidding duel with B. Wayne Hughes.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - It was raining steadily in Saratoga Springs on when Fasig-Tipton's select yearling sale opened, and this made things a little less pleasant for Dr. Robert McMartin.

McMartin, a veterinarian who lately has been signing auction receipts on behalf of the prominent racehorse owner Eugene Melnyk, stood outside the sale pavilion, talking on a cell phone, sheltered from the relentless drizzle by an umbrella that a friend held over him.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Fasig-Tipton's Saratoga select yearling sale got off to a positive, but not flashy, start Tuesday night when a $1.1 million daughter of champion Jewel Princess led 65 yearlings under the hammer at the Humphrey S. Finney Pavilion.