Marfa's leading earner, $2.8-earner Farma Way, scored grade I wins in the 1991 Santa Anita and Pimlico Special Handicaps. In the latter event, he equaled the American record for 1 3/16 miles, 1:52.55.Like Farma Way, Imaginary Lady also scored a major win at both Santa Anita and Pimlico. She captured the 1989 Santa Anita Oaks (gr. I) and Pimlico's Black-Eyed Susan Stakes (gr. II).Marfa's other stakes winners include graded winners Boundlessly, Full and Fancy, and Militron.
Texas stallion Marfa, whose 24 stakes winners include grade I winners Farma Way and Imaginary Lady, died in March. Marfa had stood the 2000 breeding season at Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Scharbauer Jr.'s Valor Farm near Pilot Point, Texas. In December of last year, he left Valor and took up residence at a West Texas farm owned by one of the syndicate members.Bred by Tom Gentry, Marfa (Foolish Pleasure--Gray Matter, by Stratmat) raced for trainer D. Wayne Lukas and L.R. French and Barry Beal. He captured the Santa Anita Derby (gr. I) and Jim Beam Spiral Stakes in the spring of his 3-year-old season in 1983 and was the strongest member of the three-horse entry trained by Lukas in the Kentucky Derby (gr. I). The entry barely went off favored at 2-1. Marfa beat his two stablemates, but ran fifth overall. Two weeks later, he ran fourth in the Preakness Stakes (gr. I).Marfa didn't race past his 3-year-old season, and entered stud as a 5-year-old in 1985 at Richard Hancock's Hancock Place near Lexington. He later stood at North Ridge Farm and Lane's End Farm, both in Central Kentucky, before taking up stallion duty at Valor in 1995.
