Ron Franklin, the Baltimore kid who nearly won the Triple Crown aboard Spectacular Bid before his riding career went off the rails, died March 7, The Baltimore Sun reports. He was 58 and had been battling lung cancer.
“I think we have just fantastic soil around here,” Louis Merryman said as a chilly wind whipped off the Susquehanna River near the town of Port Deposit, Maryland.
Highway Star has been assigned as the 124-pound highweight, and was given the outside post in a field of 11 older fillies and mares for the Barbara Fitchie, facing a tough task off the layoff in her 5-year-old debut against some sharp rivals.
New program honored the best of 2017 at the Sagamore Pendry Feb. 12
'Letters from Rockland Farm' adds perspective to BloodHorse.
Laurel returns with a nine-race program Saturday, Feb. 3.
Divining Rod, a 5-year-old graded-stakes-winning son of Tapit, has been retired from racing and will enter stud at Country Life Farm near Bel Air, Md. He will stand for $5,000, live foal guarantee.
The Fasig-Tipton Midlantic December sale will be an emotional one for Pennsylvania horseman Clovis Crane, who is selling 14 supplemented horses of racing age for his friend and partner Dr. Harry Weisleder, who died suddenly in November.
Kobe's Back, a multiple graded stakes-winning millionaire sprinter and the first son of Flatter to stand in the Mid-Atlantic region, has arrived at Bonita Farm near Darlington, Md., to stand for the 2018 season.
Grade 1 winner Dortmund has been retired from racing "for good" and will stand at Bonita Farm in Darlington, Md., for the 2018 breeding season, owner Kaleem Shah said Oct. 20.
Hunters Bay, a multiple graded stakes-winner and grade 1-placed son of Ghostzapper, got his first winner Oct. 19 when Bay of Cats broke her maiden in a 5 1/2 furlong waiver maiden claiming race at Delaware Park.
Walter May has developed a one-man show around Joe Palmer's This Was Racing. He took his show Oct. 13 to the Pons family’s Country Life Farm.
Alliance, an unraced son of Harlan's Holiday and a half brother to two-time champion grass mare Tepin and millionaire Vyjack, has arrived at Bonita Farm near Darlington, Md., to stand his first season in 2018.
Holy Boss, the winner of the 2015 Amsterdam Stakes (G2), and who is a half brother to Queen's Plate winner Holy Helena, will enter stud at owner Louis Merryman's Anchor & Hope Farm in Maryland.
Frank Stronach announced Oct. 4 he will be putting his Adena Springs property near Paris, Ky., up for sale.
The rapid growth of Thoroughbred breeding in Maryland has forced the partners backing the Heritage Stallions operation to part ways and focus on their own farms.
The Fasig-Tipton Midlantic yearling at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium, Md., begins with an Oct. 2 session starting at 4 p.m. ET and continues to 10 a.m. the following day.
For the third consecutive year and eighth consecutive meet, Laurel Park registered an increase in average daily handle during its recently-completed summer meet.
Fasig-Tipton has expanded its Midlantic fall yearling sale to two days as a result of a high volume of entries.
Ashes will be buried Nov. 11 during a celebration of the champion's life.
Awesome Banner had his final breeze, before shipping to Saratoga Race Course for the $350,000 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap (G1).
For King Leatherbury, the final stakes win of Ben's Cat will always be the memory that's front and center; the day Ben's Cat seemingly did the impossible.
Spendthrift Farm's Malibu Moon reached an important milestone June 17 when his 3-year-old daughter Shimmering Aspen became his 100th black-type stakes winner worldwide.
Pennsylvania freshman sire El Padrino's first starter became his first winner June 8 at Delaware Park, where longshot Whereshetoldmetogo rallied in the stretch to win by 2 1/2 lengths.
Attendance for the Preakness, won by Klaravich Stables and William Lawrence's Cloud Computing, was 140,327, eclipsing last year's record of 135,256.
Whitmore added the latest feather to his cap May 20 at Pimlico Race Course, where he ran down multiple grade 1 winner A. P. Indian to take the $150,000 Maryland Sprint Stakes (G3).
Four sires who have progeny entered in one of the seven turf races carded at Pimlico Race Course May 20 have already been represented by two other turf stakes winners at the Baltimore track.
Actress, a homebred Tapit filly raced by Gary and Mary West, came flying from far back to break her maiden in the 1 1/8-mile test for 3-year-old fillies by a head.
Homebred grade 1 winner Shaman Ghost took his skills to Maryland and gave owner Frank Stronach a thrill on the state's biggest racing weekend.
Bodemeister's first starters at Pimlico this weekend
Thanks in part to the lessons instilled by his former boss, trainer Todd Pletcher is nothing if not his own man now, with the enviable problem of constantly trying to kick his own bar of success to ever higher levels.
Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1) winner Always Dreaming was assigned post 4 and installed as the 4-5 morning-line favorite May 17 at the post position draw for the May 20 Preakness Stakes (G1) at Pimlico Race Course.
The Latin American Racing Channel (LARC) renews commitment to sponsor the Sir Barton Stakes on the undercard of Preakness 142 May 20. They will also donate money to the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance.
Three vans transporting five candidates for the May 20 Preakness Stakes (G1) arrived at Pimlico Race Course within minutes of each other the afternoon of May 16.
Isabelle de Tomaso's homebred Irish War Cry put in his final work for the May 6 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1) April 30 at Fair Hill Training Center near Elkton, Md., clocking six furlongs in 1:13 1/5 on trainer Graham Motion's watch.
Fasig-Tipton has cataloged 575 entries for its Midlantic 2-year-olds in training sale to be held May 22-23 at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium.
The late trainer Thomas H. Voss and two-time Eclipse Award-winning champion steeplechase horse Good Night Shirt have been elected to the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.
NYRA closes simulcasting at Aqueduct and Belmont Cafe. Laurel Park closes OTBs at Timonium, Perryville, and Boonesboro. Live racing at both tracks resumes Friday, March 17.
Maryland, My Maryland" is the title of Maryland's state song, and for nearly 300 years the state has been home to the racing and breeding of the Thoroughbred.
Cash is King's grade I winner was also named champion 3-year-old and champion sprinter for 2016.
The 1996 Preakness winner died Feb. 17 and was buried at Murmur Farm.
Page McKenney drew post 3 in the General George and shares a 122-pound highweight impost with Heaven's Runway and Stallwalkin' Dude.
That lump of coal that Pimlico Race Course fans received in their stockings came in the form of official word Dec. 20 that the home of the Preakness Stakes (gr. I) would, in 2017, also be the home to only 11 additional days of live racing.
An economic impact study of the Maryland horse industry released Nov. 21 shows that Maryland horse farming brings in more than $1.15 billion in economic activity a year, 23% higher than the $930 million it generated in 2010.
The Nov. 19 "Fall Festival of Racing" card at Laurel Park, saw a 19.6% increase in handle compared with the 2015 edition.
Son of Tiznow will stand for $3,000
Admirals War Chest became the fifth back-to-back winner of the $150,000 Maryland Million Classic Oct. 22 at Laurel Park with a dominating gate-to-wire triumph in the 1 1/8-mile stakes for Maryland-sired horses.
Will be working with Maryland tracks to find second careers for ex-racehorses
Breed locally. Sell locally, Buy locally. Those actions drive the regional Thoroughbred auctions such as the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic yearling sale that will be held Oct. 4 in Timonium, Md.
As the yearling auction season nears the finish line with two sales remaining, it appears that the year will end with modest declines in all major metrics, continuing the trends seen in recent years and earlier this year in the juvenile market.
