Keeneland

Talkin Man was flown from Lexington, Ky., to New York yesterday to run in today's Wood Memorial, where he is the 4-5 favorite.Thunder Gulch, who arrived in Louisville, Ky., from California last Tuesday with trainer D. Wayne Lukas and his stablemates, Timber Country and Tabasco Cat, will ship by van today to Lexington, where he is the 8-5 favorite to win the Blue Grass Stakes.And, amid all this traveling, Suave Prospect galloped yesterday morning at Keeneland and waited for the final dress rehearsals for the Kentucky Derby.

Bud Delp is running horses in back-to-back co-features at Pimlico Race Course this afternoon, including heavily favored Western Echo in the inaugural Bernard P. Bond Stakes and the venerable Sunny Sunrise in the Grade III Polynesian Stakes.But the well-known trainer won't be in Baltimore to watch them run.Like numerous other Maryland horsemen, Delp is on his way to the September yearling sale in Keeneland, Ky., where over the next nine days nearly 3,500 horses will be auctioned off.It's an annual trek for Delp and his owners Harry and Tom Meyerhoff, who over the years have had stellar success at the sale, purchasing three-time champion and Horse of the Year Spectacular Bid there for $37,000 as well other equine millionaires like Dispersal and Sunny Sunrise for bargain prices.

The May 7 Kentucky Derby lost one of its top contenders yesterday that might have challenged speedy favorite Holy Bull for the early lead.Irgun, the front-running winner of the Wood Memorial and Gotham Stakes, was pulled out of the prospective lineup after he missed a scheduled workout yesterday because of a sore right front foot.The horse had popped a gravel, an abscess that occasionally forms at the top of the hard, insensitive portion of the hoof. Trainer Steve Young said he doesn't think that he can get the horse ready in time for the Derby.

Jimmy Croll minced few words yesterday in describing the condition of his horse, Holy Bull, going into tomorrow's Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland (Ky.) Race Course."He's at the top of his game," said the 73-year-old trainer, who also owns the horse. "He's doing absolutely great."That's sad news to rival horsemen who might have hoped the horse was shopworn or tired after his awesome front-running performance a month ago in the Florida Derby. But it's good news for a sport that desperately needs a charismatic headliner to help bring it out of the doldrums.

Mike Smith, jockey for Holy Bull, said that the Florida Derby winner came off the track at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Ky., yesterday "bucking and kicking" and is ready to take on California invader Valiant Nature Saturday in the $500,000 Blue Grass Stakes.Keeneland publicist Jim Williams said he expects a six- or seven-horse field. In addition to Holy Bull and Valiant Nature, the prospective lineup includes Louisiana Derby winner, Kandaly; Chimes Band, third in the Jim Beam Stakes; Bonus Money and Mahogany Hall.

Out-of-town shippers continued their recent domination of stakes events at Laurel Race Course yesterday when lightly regarded New Jersey invader Our Royal Blue led from start to finish and won the $31,750 Notches Trace Stakes.The 21.60-1 long shot, ridden by Rick Wilson, turned back challenges from a pair of heavily favored fillies, Pleasant Dilemma and Lady Reiko.Pleasant Dilemma, winner of the Marshua Stakes at Laurel last month, finished second, followed by the previously unbeaten Lady Reiko, who faltered in the stretch after racing into contention going into the turn.

Big prices for little horses.That's how the trade magazines characterized the explosion in the thoroughbred weanling market at the recently concluded Keeneland (Ky.) sales, where prices for foals, just weaned from their mothers, jumped 25.9 percent from a year ago.Local breeders Carolyn and Ron Green from Westminster cashed in on the bonanza, selling a 9-month-old Maryland-bred filly for $280,000.Making that kind of score is almost the equivalent of winning a Grade I stakes and is the biggest payday the Greens have experienced in 25 years in the horse business.

Officials of the two auctioneering firms that will sell nearly 400 thoroughbred yearlings in Maryland during the next week hope that the strong market response at the recently concluded nine-day Keeneland, Ky., sale will carry over here.The Kentucky auction, the strongest fall yearling sale in its DTC 50-year history, grossed more than $87 million for nearly 2,500 horses, a 24 percent increase from a year ago."I'm guardedly optimistic," said Mason Grasty, executive vice president of Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Inc., the firm that will sell the bulk of the state's yearling sales crop on Oct. 3 and 4 at the Timonium Fairgrounds.

There was not much of a markup when the Maryland-bred half-sister to $2 million earner Safely Kept sold at the Keeneland (Ky.) sales on Monday.Baltimore county breeder David Hayden originally sold the Dayjur-Safely Home filly as a weanling last fall for $330,000 to William O. Reed. When Reed re-sold her Monday, she brought $350,000.The purchasers were Robert and Beverly Lewis of Pomona, Calif. A Keeneland spokesman said the Lewises are clients of trainer D. Wayne Lukas.One other Maryland-bred was sold during the first three of the four sessions.