LEXINGTON, Ky. - Two fillies and a colt posted 10.20-second eighth-miles, the fastest times at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's juvenile under-tack show on March 15 and 16. The two workout sessions preceded the auction house's March select 2-year-old sale on March 18-19.
The two fastest fillies were Hip No. 172, a Roar-Audy's Bird filly, and Hip No. 265, a Storm Boot-Dynamic Broad filly. The colt, Hip No. 351, is a son of Crafty Friend and Island Queen.
Freedom Lane and Coach Jimi Lee, the second and third finishers Feb. 23 in the Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs, head a field of eight for the $100,000 Ocala Breeders' Sales Championship Stakes at the Ocala Training Center, one of six stakes Monday for horses who went through the ring of an OBS sale. The final race on the card, the Championship Stakes is for 3-year-old colts and geldings going 1 1/16 miles.
Russell Woolsey rides Freedom Lane and Pat Day has the mount on Coach Jimi Lee.
ARCADIA, Calif. - John Bassett stays pretty busy at his central California farm in Tulare, near Fresno. Aside from a dairy operation, the 1,000-acre farm grows alfalfa, corn, cotton, pistachios, and wheat.
Bassett and his family have 20 acres set aside for a few broodmares and yearlings, a sporting interest that his late father, George, enjoyed for 60 years.
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.
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.
