Instead of a saddlecloth with a racing number, Xtra Heat will wear hip number 69 tonight at the Fasig-Tipton November Selected Sale of thoroughbreds in Lexington, Ky.

The Maryland filly with the ardent following has been for sale from the time she left her mother's side, and that hasn't changed despite her 24 victories and $2.2 million in earnings for her three Maryland owners. John Salzman, Ken Taylor and Harry Deitchman bought her for $5,000 in May 2000.

"I guess selling her is the right thing to do if we can get our price," Deitchman said. "It's a business thing."

Xtra Heat will enter the ring about 9:20 p.m. with a reserve of $2 million, meaning a bid must surpass that or she won't be sold. Her owners reduced the reserve from an original $2.2 million. If Xtra Heat doesn't sell, she'll return tomorrow to Maryland and continue racing from Laurel Park.

This will be the fifth auction for the giving filly. As a weanling she sold for $9,100, as a yearling for $4,700, and as a 2-year-old for $5,000. Salzman, her trainer, and his partners paid the $5,000 at Timonium. Then last year, they tried unsuccessfully to sell her at 3 in an auction on the Internet.

Xtra Heat led them on an unimagined journey. Of her 24 victories, 23 were stakes, including one Grade I, five Grade II and four Grade III. She finished second in last year's Breeders' Cup Sprint and earned the Eclipse Award as outstanding 3-year-old filly. Last weekend, in possibly her final race for Salzman, Taylor and Deitchman, she finished sixth in the Breeders' Cup Sprint at Arlington Park.

The questions swirling around the offering of the 4-year-old Xtra Heat are: Would someone race her as a 5-year-old before breeding her? Is she worth more than $2 million as a broodmare with her small frame and modest pedigree?