LEXINGTON, Ky. - A fire Tuesday evening in Ocala, Fla., killed five stallions, including Grade 1 winner Traitor and popular Florida sire Darn That Alarm. The fire, the cause of which hadn't been determined by Wednesday afternoon, occurred in the stallion barn at David and Barbara LaCroix's Meadowbrook of Ocala Jockey Club farm in Ocala.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - With the Triple Crown campaign now under way, there's no better time to honor racing's classic heroes. Two of those horses, 1978 Triple Crown winner Affirmed and 1974 Preakness and Belmont winner Little Current, got important posthumous tributes on Kentucky farms this week.

"She goes so smooth you could balance a tea cup on her head" is how Bill Condren described the $380,000 sales topper at last week's Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's spring sale of 2-year-olds in training.

Les Pereira strongly believes in racing his horses in the right spots and two of his homebreds, including one that he still owns, may find the right spot in the June 22 Queen's Plate.

Pereira's Solihull, a recent maiden winner, and stakes winner Arco's Gold, are on track to start in the most prestigious race for Canadian-bred 3-year-olds.

"I said I'd never go to the Plate unless I had a really good horse," said Pereira, who was born in British Guyana and races and breeds under the Beclawat Farm name. "Last year was the first year I ran one (Adjalah)."

Tom Mina, an owner and breeder of New York-breds for many years, became more involved in the business when he bought a New York farm in February 2002.

Mina purchased 15 acres of land in Saratoga Springs and brought the mares he owned to the farm, which features an 18-stall barn and several paddocks. The property, which Mina named Five Oaks Farm for the five oak trees on the land, is located about a mile from downtown Saratoga and formerly housed polo horses.

Call it a good eye, the result of years of studying, or plain old good fortune, but Maryland horsepeople plucked a number of broodmares out of sales in recent years for a fraction of what those mares or their offspring are worth today.

Two of this year's Kentucky Derby contenders - Atswhatimtalknbout and Funny Cide - are older half-brothers to Maryland-bred youngsters.

Lucinda K's second foal, Atswhatimtalknbout, had just turned 2 when the then 8-year-old mare walked into the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky sales ring in February 2002, in foal to Belong to Me.

Since last summer, Shalini has scored two stakes wins, run close in another big race, and earned more than $250,000.

In the next year, owner-breeder Jim Briere has high expectations for the 4-year-old Shalini.

"It was always in my mind that at the end of this year or next year, she could become a more serious filly," he said.

Shalini certainly displayed that promise when she won the $150,000 Fran's Valentine Stakes at Hollywood Park April 26, one of six stakes on the California Gold Rush program for statebreds.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Thirty years ago, while Saudi Arabian prince Khalid Abdullah was conducting some family business in France, he found himself sipping coffee and idly watching trotting races on television. The scene gave him a thought.

"One day," he told himself, "I think I would like to own a horse."

They saved the best for last at Friday's final session of the Ocala Breeders' Sales Co.'s spring 2-year-old auction in Ocala, Fla. A $380,000 Double Honor filly that sold Friday brought by far the auction's highest bid as of 5:30 p.m., outstripping the auction-leading price of $175,000 for a Larrupin' filly who sold Wednesday.

A major perk of New York's breeding and racing program is that it permits mares to be bred annually to out-of-state stallions.

Funny Cide and Carson Hollow, currently among the top horses in training, are New York-breds who were sired by leading Kentucky stallions.

There are also advantages to breeding to New York-based stallions and one of them is the New York Stallion Series, which features a race for 3-year-olds of each sex at Aqueduct on Sunday - the $150,000 Times Square and the $150,000 Park Avenue.