The Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's selected 2-year-old auction at Calder Race Course in Miami began the juvenile sale season Tuesday. Despite a spate of horses listed as not sound, the market appeared healthy in the early going, with a $400,000 session-leader as of 5 p.m.

That price, for a Doneraile Court colt, was just short of last year's top price of $500,000. And though it was not close to the 2001 OBS Calder record of $900,000 for Max's Buddy, the Doneraile Court colt's sale price suggested that major money is still on hand in the select 2-year-old market.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Researchers at the University of Kentucky's Livestock Disease Diagnostic Laboratory may have found a link between West Nile virus infection and some incidents of abortion in mares, according to preliminary data from a new equine health surveillance program.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Philip Clements Jr., whose family's Timberlawn Farm near Paris, Ky., yielded champions Hurry to Market and Furl Sail, died at his Paris home on Wednesday. He was 78.

Thirteen registered New York-breds are part of the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company selected sale of 2-year-olds Tuesday at Calder Race Course.

Sez Who Thoroughbreds, which opened a division of its Florida-based commercial operation in Stillwater, N.Y., in 2001, will be represented by its first crop of New York-breds at the OBS sale.

The Sez Who Thoroughbreds consignment has colts by Silver Ghost (Hip No. 58) and Take Me Out (Hip No. 42), and a filly by Open Forum (Hip No. 3).

ARCADIA, Calif. - Officials with the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association are considering suggesting a variety of changes for the Sunshine Millions series for California-breds and Florida-breds when the event is reviewed in coming weeks.

Doug Burge, the executive director of the CTBA, said his organization and the Thoroughbred Owners of California, their counterparts in Florida, and Magna Entertainment will hold discussions in coming months on the new series, which was held for the first time at Gulfstream Park and Santa Anita on Jan. 25.

Some of Maryland's first-year stallions already have foals on the ground.

The first foal for Mojave Moon, who stands at Bonita Farm, was born on Jan. 6, and five more have arrived in the past three weeks.

"Mares were cycling early last year, and he was bred to a bunch of maiden mares," said Billy Boniface, in charge of Bonita's breeding operation.

The Ocala Breeders' Sales Company opens the 2-year-olds in training sales season at noon Eastern on Tuesday at Calder Race Course. This auction of 201 horses, the Fasig-Tipton auction on Feb. 25, and the Ocala sales on March 18-19 are what the trade designates as "selected" sales.

It used to be that the terms "select" and "selected" were often interchangeable. Not any more, because courts have found an implied warranty in the descriptive term "select." So the sales companies go with "selected."

LEXINGTON, Ky. - A new year brings a new foaling season and fresh worries about mare reproductive loss syndrome, the as-yet-unidentified disease that has caused thousands of equine abortions in central Kentucky. According to figures released Jan. 27 by the University of Kentucky's Livestock Disease Diagnostic Laboratory, which receives aborted fetuses for post-mortem examination, the abortion rate this year appears to be running significantly ahead of last year's. Since Jan. 1, 2003, the lab has received 134 fetuses, as compared to 99 for the same period in 2002.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - A pair of 2-year-old colts by Silver Charm and Two Punch ran an eighth-mile in 10 seconds to top the work tab at Calder in advance of the Feb. 4 Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's select juvenile sale.

The Silver Charm colt, a son of the Storm Bird mare Secret Harbor who will go as Hip No. 108, was the first to stop the clock in 10 seconds. The colt, a half-brother to stakes winner Concealed City, is in the Hartley/De Renzo Thoroughbreds consignment.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Prices rose across the board at the Barretts January mixed sale, helped by enthusiastic buying from racing newcomers Rich and Gaby Sulpizio.

The two-day sale saw 524 horses sell for $4,431,000, an average of $8,456 and a median of $4,000. All of those categories were higher than the corresponding sale in 2002. The average grew by a remarkable 19 percent.