With Anticipation, winner of three consecutive Grade 1 races last year, is the standout on the list of 2002 Pennsylvania-bred champions announced this week by the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association. The PHBA will present awards to breeders of the statebred champions at the Iroquois Awards Banquet on May 23 at the Hotel Hershey, in Hershey, Pa.

Rescue Five, a New York-bred 3-year-old filly, has a big cheering section in Staten Island, N.Y.

A daughter of New York sire A. P. Jet, Rescue Five is named for a Staten Island firehouse that lost 11 firefighters during the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

Rescue Five, who won a statebred maiden race in her second start on March 2 at Aqueduct, is owned by Paul Pompa Jr. and trained by Rene Araya. Pompa wished to recognize the lost firefighters and named the filly after their firehouse. Pompa bought her for $25,000 at auction as a yearling.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - The Storm Cat mystique has struck again. A 2-year-old son of freshman sire Sea of Secrets (by Storm Cat out of Love From Mom, by Mr. Prospector) brought a world-record price for a juvenile in training last week at the Barretts select sale.

Consigned by Becky Thomas's Sequel Bloodstock, the handsome chestnut colt sold for $2.7 million to Charles Fipke, a geologist and an entrepreneur in diamonds and precious metals. Bidding for Fipke was his trainer, Bob Baffert, to whose barn the record-priced colt will go.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Spring officially arrives next week, and with it come renewed concerns about West Nile virus. The virus, which causes encephalitis in both humans and horses, killed 256 people in the United States last year. It also infected 14,717 horses, some fatally, as it spread across the nation.

Thoroughbred breeders were especially alarmed last month when researchers at the University of Kentucky's Livestock Disease Diagnostic Center in Lexington announced that preliminary testing had suggested a potential link between West Nile and some equine abortions.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Gainesway stallion Broad Brush returned to the Lexington farm Tuesday after undergoing treatment for septic arthritis at Rood and Riddle equine hospital. Broad Brush, 20, developed septic arthritis, a joint infection, in his left front fetlock and required a course of antibiotics.

Rood and Riddle veterinarian Dr. Alan Ruggles said the stallion should be ready to resume breeding around March 19 and "will receive an additional week of antibiotics and a tapering course of analgesics" for the condition.

New York Stallions, a Daily Racing Form magazine devoted entirely to New York Thoroughbred racing, breeding and sales, will be inserted free of charge in Daily Racing Form's Saturday, March 15 Eastern edition.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Lead Kindly Light, dam of Grade 1 winner and sire Gold Fever, died Feb. 28 at Claiborne Farm in Paris, Ky., because of complications from foaling. The mare was 20.

Lead Kindly Light died while foaling a Quiet American filly, who also died about 12 hours later.

Hip No. 214, a Salt Lake-Checkerspot filly from Old South Farm's consignment, breezed a quarter-mile in 21.00 seconds, the fastest worker for the distance at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's preview show in Florida. The under-tack shows took place on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, and presented lots due to sell at the OBS March juvenile sale in Ocala on March 18-19.

POMONA, Calif. - The Barretts March sale of 2-year-olds in training is likely to offer a smaller catalog in 2004 after discouraging results in some categories at last week's sale.

While a record was set for the most expensive 2-year-old purchased at sale - $2.7 million for a Sea of Secrets colt - the sale average and median fell from 2002. The average dropped 5 percent from $150,000 in 2002 to $142,186, while the median plummeted 33 percent from $90,000 in 2002 to $60,000.

Spring can't come soon enough for some New York farm owners and operators.

New York's breeding farms have been blasted by harsh winter weather that also has wreaked havoc with racing schedules at many tracks in the Northeast.

Gus Schoenborn Jr., the owner of Contemporary Stallions, the home of sire City Zip, said it is the worst winter he has experienced in two decades. Schoenborn said heavy-duty manpower has been required this winter to keep roadways clear of snow and ice at Contemporary, which is located in the town of Coxsackie in the Catskills.