A sealed-bid auction for a 20 percent stake in 2007 Horse of the Year Curlin failed to attract any qualified bids, according to the court-appointed receiver who oversaw the auction. Bids were due by 5 p.m. Wednesday.

In a statement, Sylvius H. von Saucken, the attorney for the court-appointed receiver, said that the 20 percent share is now being marketed privately to parties who had expressed an interest in the stake during the bidding process, though it is not certain that the negotiations will result in a sale.

Magna Entertainment Corp. lost $49.1 million in the third quarter of 2008 and has hired a bankruptcy advisory firm in the wake of hundreds of millions of dollars in losses over the past four years.

Juddmonte Farms in Kentucky will keep Empire Maker's fee at $100,000 for 2009, the same fee he had this year.

But Khalid Abdullah's Kentucky division also has some changes to its stallion roster and fees. First Defence, a 4-year-old Grade 1 winner by Unbridled's Song, will enter stud at the Lexington farm this year with a $20,000 fee. He is out of Juddmonte's Grade 1-winning Seattle Slew mare Honest Lady, a daughter of the great broodmare Toussaud.

Wagering on U.S. races dropped 6.9 percent in October this year compared to the same month last year, although race dates were down 4 percent as well, according to figures released on Tuesday by Equibase.

The wagering figure, which includes all worldwide commingled handle and separate-pool wagering in Canada on U.S. races, fell from $1,209,867,991 to $1,125,935,224, a decline of $84 million. The results were mitigated somewhat by a 22-day decline in total race days at U.S. racetracks during the month, from 535 last year to 513.

The stock price of troubled racetrack operator Magna Entertainment Corp. surged to $3.97 per share on Tuesday on confidence that Magna would likely benefit from a referendum that would authorize slot machines in Maryland, where Magna owns two tracks.

Magna's share price began slowly rising late in the day on Thursday, when it closed at $1.64. It rose again on Friday to $1.92, and on Monday the share price nearly doubled when it closed at $3.73. It traded as high as $4.71 on Tuesday, the day the referendum was held.

Vinery in Kentucky has reduced the stud fee for More Than Ready by $15,000 and will stand the 11-year-old son of Southern Halo for $45,000 in 2009, the farm said in a release.

The reduction is part of a wide repricing in stud fees for the vast majority of the horses Vinery will stand in Kentucky and Florida this year. Of the 14 horses Vinery will stand, 11 had their fees cut for 2009.

Youbet.com, the online horserace wagering and broadcasting company, has named David Goldberg as the company's chief financial officer. Goldberg is the former executive vice president of the global music services business for Ticketmaster, and had previously been the executive vice president of corporate development for Sportvision.

Frank Stronach's Adena Springs South in Williston, Fla., has reinstated its spring 2-year-old sale for 2009 because of customer requests, according to a statement the farm issued Friday. Adena Springs South announced in August that it would discontinue the sale, but it has been scheduled again for March 16, 2009.

"When we announced our intention to discontinue the sale, a number of our customers expressed genuine disappointment with our decision," said the manager of Adena Springs South, Mark Roberts.

Fasig-Tipton Midlantic has cataloged 389 horses for its Dec. 8 mixed sale at Timonium, Md. The company also has trimmed the auction from two days to one. The catalog, which includes about 167 pregnant mares and 150 weanlings, is available online at . Hard copies will be mailed Nov. 4.

Horseplayers who have grown accustomed to widespread signal blackouts on account-wagering platforms over the past year always had one class of signal that could be counted on: the races from the tracks in Southern California.

Now that has abruptly changed. On Wednesday, the dispute over account wagering finally reached California, and according to the Thoroughbred Owners of California - the group that rescinded its approval for Hollywood Park to send its signal to all four national account-wagering companies just prior to Hollywood opening - it was only a matter of time.