Harold C. Plumley, who a decade ago developed a cattle farm and a Thoroughbred breeding and training facility in Ocala, has been elected and then re-elected president of the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders' and Owners' Association.

With the Ocala Breeders' Sales Co.'s 2-year-old sale going on this past week, you would have expected Plumley to make an appearance. Instead, Plumley was in Australia watching his horse Star of Florida in the Group 2 Galaxy Stakes at Randwick, according to Richard Kent, general manager of Plumley Farm.

David Moose runs a landscaping business in Baltimore County, Md., but he also has a keen eye for a horse. How else do you explain what's happened with Moose's 11-year-old mare Clap Happy (by Greinton), who now is the dam of four stakes horses from five foals of racing age?

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Two years after he jumped into racing with a flurry of purchases, Stan Fulton has built a stable that may play an important role in California and across the nation in coming years.

The vital elements are certainly in place.

This year, Fulton, 72, the owner of Sunland Park in New Mexico, has a 50-strong stable of 2- and 3-year-olds that he compiled in 23 months.

People have finally stopped being surprised by In Excess. The Irish-bred stallion, once expected to be a major runner on English turf, became a star in America instead. Despite an obscure pedigree, he has turned out to be one of the nation's most versatile and successful stallions.

After gains at its first session and declines at its second, the Ocala Breeders' Sales Co.'s spring juvenile sale in Florida saw the top prices tail off further at the next-to-last session Thursday.

As of 5 p.m., the day's highest price was $75,000 for two horses: Hip No. 646, a Storm Boot-Miss O'Keefe colt that Larry Durocher Jr. bought from Sez Who Thoroughbreds, and Hip No. 709, a Capture the Gold-Norm's Louise filly that ASG Stable and partners bought from Price Thoroughbreds, agent.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - A strange and unaccustomed quiet has settled on John Salzman's barn, because the Heat is gone. Champion filly Xtra Heat has shipped from Salzman's training barn to her owners' ClassicStar Farm in Kentucky. Now she will try to pass on to her foals the speed and gameness she showed at the racetrack.

"She's been sent home to be bred," Salzman said, adding that she left his barn April 17.

She is passing from the excitement and activity of racing life to the pastoral calm of Bluegrass farms.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Xtra Heat, North America's champion 3-year-old filly of 2001, looks likely to be retired from racing if she is bred successfully within the next 10 days.

A $175,000 Larrupin' filly out of Irish and Foxy was the session leader at 5:30 p.m. on day two of the Ocala Breeders' Sales Co.'s spring juvenile sale in Ocala, Fla.

Peter Karches signed for the filly, who came from the Halcyon Hammock Farm agency.

At Tuesday's first of four sessions, 186 lots sold for $4,528,000, well up from last year's $3,878,700 for 166 horses. Average was up from $23,366 to $24,344, and median climbed from $15,000 to $16,000 as buybacks fell from 27 percent to 25 percent.

The Ocala Breeders' Sales Co.'s spring 2-year-old sale got off to a rocky start Tuesday but quickly proved it was capable of turning out six-figure prices.

The first three horses in the ring at the auction failed to meet their reserve prices, but buyers warmed up soon afterward. As of 5 p.m. at the first of the auction's four sessions, bidders were rewarding horses who had showed speed with high offers.

The Tattersalls April 2-year-old sale in Newmarket, England, set two European price records and cruised to healthy gains across the board at its close Thursday evening.

The two-day auction produced a record 2-year-old colt when Americans Stuart and Anita Subotnick paid 260,000 guineas, or $428,610, for a son of Danehill and Silver Bubble. It also yielded a record filly when Fusao Sekiguchi offered 150,000 guineas, or $247,275, for a daughter of Sadler's Wells and Mountain Holly.

Bansha House Stables of Ireland sold the record colt, and Con Marnane consigned the top filly.