Mayakovsky, a track-record holder at Saratoga Race Course, has been retired and will stand the 2004 breeding season at Mill Creek Farm in Stillwater, N.Y.

Phil Birsh, a New York-based breeder and owner, bought Mayakovsky for an undisclosed price from the horse's owner, Michael Tabor. Birsh said he plans on syndicating Mayakovsky, who will stand for $3,000. The horse arrived at Mill Creek Farm about 10 days ago. Mill Creek Farm, owned by Tim Little and Anne Morgan and located near Saratoga Springs, is also home to stallions Lycius and Storm of Angels.

A record number of juveniles are set to sell at Fasig-Tipton Midlantic's two-day 2-year-olds in training sale in Timonium, which kicks off Monday at 10 a.m. The 590 juveniles cataloged were foaled in 17 states, as well as Canada and Ireland, and Maryland is once again well represented. Nearly 40 Maryland-breds were scheduled to sell after scratches were announced through Thursday.

The late Carl G. Rose had the vision. Elmer F. Heubeck Jr., whom Rose hired in 1945, was the man who made it happen. Together they were the real pioneers of Florida's Thoroughbred breeding industry. Heubeck died Monday in Ocala at the age of 85.

Sales for 2-year-olds in training are ubiquitous nowadays, but before Heubeck took his wiry, unfashionably bred Florida 2-year-olds in training to the south Florida market, there was no established place for them to be sold.

Highlighted by a decline in the number of buy-backs, the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society's 2-year-olds in training sale on Thursday held steady business compared with last year's auction.

Of the 70 juveniles cataloged, just 25 were listed as sold (24 were withdrawn) for gross sales of $628,000, up from last year's $594,700 for 23 juveniles sold.

The average slipped just under 3 percent, to $25,120 from $25,857 last year, but perhaps more significantly, the number of horses who did not reach their reserves dropped from 39 to 21 (for similar-sized catalogs).

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Now that all the furor over Funny Cide has subsided, let's concentrate on his main rival in the Preakness, Peace Rules. A winner of four straight races and more than $1.1 million coming into the Kentucky Derby, Peace Rules raced up with a strong pace and stayed on through the stretch to finish a very solid third.

A slightly shorter race and a potentially less-demanding pace cannot harm the chestnut colt's chances of success in the second classic. Although Peace Rules has been sharing the limelight, the same cannot be said for his breeder, Dr. Ron Chak.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Funny Cide's rise to prominence in the Triple Crown series has prompted many in the Kentucky Thoroughbred breeding community to raise a toast to Jack, Art, and J.R. Preston.

After posting declines in its opening session, the two-day Barretts May 2-year-old sale burst back to strength Tuesday with sale-record prices.

Hip No. 256, a French Deputy filly out of West Forty Two, set a new Barretts May filly record when she sold for $375,000. Later, a Gilded Time colt out of Champaigne Amelia set a sale-record colt price of $335,000.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - After posting losses at Monday's opening session, the second and final day of selling at the Barretts May juvenile auction Tuesday in Pomona, Calif., produced a $170,000 early leader.

At 5:30 p.m., the $170,000 leader was a Smokester filly that Miller Thoroughbreds bought from Mary Knight, agent. The filly is a daughter of the Afleet mare Ultrafleet.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - A total of 45 juveniles are set to go on the auction block Thursday in the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society's annual 2-year-olds in training sale at the Woodbine Sales Pavilion.

Major consignors include agents Richard Hogan, Hill 'n' Dale Sales Agency, Huntington Stud Farm, and Cameron Training Center.

Hogan has 2-year-olds by Saint Ballado, Cape Town, Lit de Justice, and Lord Carson. Saint Martin, a Saint Ballado colt, is the first foal of a half-sister to Grade 1 winner Spellbound.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Globally influential stallion Danehill, the sire of North American champion turf mare Banks Hill and multiple Group 1 winner Rock of Gibraltar among many other stakes winners, died Tuesday in a paddock accident in Ireland.

The stallion was 17 and died after flipping over backward and hitting his head. The horse was being hand-grazed in his paddock at the time of the accident, according to a Coolmore statement.