Major changes are underway for the Maryland Thoroughbred industry with the most substantial being the demolition and onsite rebuilding of Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore.
On a smaller yet significant scale, Shamrock Farm -- a mainstay in regional breeding for more than 70 years -- was on the docket to be repurposed into an 800-stall training center with a 1-mile track and other amenities. The acquisition of Shamrock is the state's largest investment in Carroll County in recent history and follows a two-year search and evaluation of sites across six counties.
The state Board of Public Works approved the purchase of the property in May as part of the overall plan involving Pimlico's demolition and rebuild with at least $110 million devoted to the 328-acre training-center project. Design sessions with the Maryland Stadium Authority, The Maryland Jockey Club, the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association and international architectural firm Populous were underway in August. In early October, all that planning sounded like progress though construction was a long way from starting and the list of yet-to-be answered questions would fill an infield lake.
None of it took away from the impact Shamrock made on the state's Thoroughbred industry.
Founded in 1948 by National Football League executive Art Rooney Sr., Shamrock was far more than a commercial Thoroughbred operation.
On the business side, the property was used for raising hay, straw, cattle and various horse breeds through the decades while specializing in Thoroughbreds. Shamrock was home to some of the area's most popular sires and to broodmares intended as mates for the resident stallions and others within hauling distance. The tranquility of the rolling rural hills proved perfect for raising Thoroughbred and Standardbred foals and giving racehorses time away from the track.
On the human side, Shamrock's mystique was special for generations. The facility left indelible marks on hundreds, if not thousands, of people whether they made brief visits, enjoyed the views while living nearby, worked on the property or were clients. Two beneficiaries of that Shamrock charm are Rooney's grandson Tom Rooney, president and CEO of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, and longtime farm manager Jim Steele, who with his wife Christie, raised their five sons on the farm.
As a youngster, Tom Rooney spent lots of time in lots of places with his grandfather. The elder Rooney was a revered sportsman perhaps best remembered as the founding owner and longtime leader of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
He also was devoted to all aspects of the Thoroughbred world with vested interests in many tracks such as nearly forgotten venues Liberty Bell Park in Pennsylvania and Green Mountain in Vermont as well as 51-year-old Keystone Racetrack that continues on as Parx Racing. Rooney has fond memories of those days, especially of Green Mountain where he first mingled with jockeys and watched the horses. He pinpoints those experiences for his lifelong romance with the game and its equine athletes.
"I was hook, line and sinker in love with the animal and the sport from the beginning," he said. "My grandfather bought several racetracks across the country over the course of his life. My earliest childhood memories are of being with my grandfather and my dad on the backsides and watching people walk the walk and talk the talk of everything horses and racetrack operations. Even though I came from a football family, I probably spent more time with them at racetracks than I did at any football game."
Shamrock was a brief part of that togetherness. Despite accompanying his grandfather to the farm only a few times as a teenager, Rooney said in later years the place held more than just memories.
"It was a special place for him and a special place for me because of him," he said. "He passed away [in 1988], but when I return to Shamrock I have always said I feel his presence there as much as anywhere, whether we went to Three Rivers Stadium before it was torn down or restaurants in Pittsburgh or to his house on the north side of Pittsburgh. Shamrock for me was the place where I could feel his hopes and dreams and passions that revolve around horse racing. I have special memories of my grandfather at Shamrock."
In keeping with that tradition, Rooney took his three children to Shamrock when they were under the age of 10.
"They loved seeing and petting the horses and the foals," he said. "Later I would bring them to the racetrack with me, and they have enjoyed learning to read the program and make bets, but did not get further involved. I don't know what it is about the Thoroughbred. But I think I have the DNA that has the horse obsession beyond just gambling on them."
Rooney continues to embrace all aspects of the Thoroughbred world. While serving as a United States Congressman from Florida, he was inspired to purchase the unraced filly Lucy Boo when he saw her during a family vacation to Shamrock. The daughter of Rock Slide went on to win twice and finish second in the 2015 Maryland Million Ladies Stakes at Laurel Park.
“They hired me because the previous farm manager was a Standardbred
guy and they wanted somebody to stand this Thoroughbred stallion.”
– Jim Steele,
about Christopher R.
She retired to Rooney's Moon Tower Ranch in Indiantown, Fla., where he houses a handful of yearlings and a few mares that rotate to Maryland for breeding and foaling. Another success was gaining his first stakes winner as a breeder with Coffeewithchris, a starter in the 2023 Preakness Stakes-G1, who spent time at Moon Tower as a young horse.
Unlike Rooney, who spent minimal time at Shamrock, Steele spent a half-century there as manager, and his tenure reverberates through generations of horses and humans. His responsibilities included overseeing the farm stallions and introducing incalculable guests to behind-the-scenes glimpses of a Thoroughbred operation.
A Kentucky native who grew up with horses, Steele was 27 in 1977 and working at the renowned Gainesway Farm in the heart of his home state's Bluegrass region when he accepted a job offer from Shamrock while awaiting acceptance to veterinary school.
"I didn't know if I would be here six months," he said while reflecting on the decades.
He intended to become a veterinarian but realized the Shamrock opportunity was a better option. A few years into the job, he met his future wife Christie at a Thoroughbred auction at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium and settled into a life of raising horses and children. Now reluctant retirees with the closure of Shamrock, the Steeles moved to a home with three acres 25 minutes away in 2022. They board their broodmare, her foal and yearling and steeplechase racehorse King of the Kids elsewhere.
One of their final Shamrock experiences was this summer's auction of the equipment from the usual horse supplies to large machinery and random items looking for new purpose.
"When you have a farm as big as this for a long time, you've got everything," he said. "We had a small concrete mixer, extra fence posts, tons of gates, old machinery that needed repair that had been put to the side. It was a nice day for the auction, and we had a huge crowd. Some things brought less than we thought, and others brought more."
In the 1990s, Shamrock was home to about 100 broodmares divided equally among the Rooney family and clients before the herd was downsized to about 60. One of the best-known runners born and raised at Shamrock was 2002 Preakness runner-up Magic Weisner. Through the years, the stallion roster included such notables as 1982 Preakness hero Aloma's Ruler, Rock Slide (a full-brother to Horse of the Year Mineshaft), Mid-Atlantic mainstay Outflanker and Christopher R.
The latter, a Rooney family homebred who chalked up 16 stakes wins, was the reason Steele got the job in the first place.
"They hired me because the previous farm manager was a Standardbred guy and they wanted somebody to stand this Thoroughbred stallion," Steele said. "He was a high-weighted male sprinter in the nation. They wanted somebody that could do that sort of thing."
Bred by Art Rooney, Christopher R. won 22 races, earned $405,515 and secured Maryland-bred Horse of the Year honors in 1975 for Shamrock and Maryland training legend Beverly "Tuffy" Hacker. The son of Loom retired after three starts in 1977 and covered a few mares that first season at Glade Valley Farm before joining Steele at Shamrock for the 1978 season. Christopher R.'s first crop of 10 foals came out running with seven winners in 1980 and he found success -- if not stardom -- as a stallion until his death at age 21 in 1992.
"He was a class act, he really was," said Steele. "Over the years, I've had a lot of Thoroughbred stallions. There were two sets and they kind of repeated. Christopher R. was Rock Slide. Outflanker was Dancing Count. They were very similar. He was a great horse. If he hadn't been by Loom, we would have gotten a whole lot of mares to him. Even so, he sired nice horses. They weren't great sale horses, but they were good racehorses."
That mantra would fit many of the Shamrock stallions, who found ways to impact the game without threatening to lead many lists. Outflanker sired Kosmo's Buddy, the dam of 2021 Horse of the Year and top-five freshman sire of 2025 Knicks Go. Rock Slide lived to age 25, siring among others $707,075-earner Ariana D. Dancing Count sired Grade 1 winner Countus In and was the broodmare sire of 1991 Preakness and Belmont Stakes-G1 winner and champion Hansel.
Another Preakness winner, Aloma's Ruler, called Shamrock home for several years and helped teach Steele a few things.
"The first time I bred him it took four hours," Steele said. "The horse did not want to work. It got so bad I asked one of the guys to get me a chair. I sat on the chair with the stallion for four hours."
The mare was not amused, and neither was Steele who learned -- eventually -- that Aloma's Ruler was a fair-weather stallion.
"He didn't have any libido in February; by May he was great," Steele said. "We put him under lights, like you would do with a mare, and that moved him up. Light length helped, we learned to handle him better and it all worked well. The psychology of it was interesting."
More recent Shamrock stallion Barbados, who now stands in West Virginia, made sure the farm received another dose of success. Bred by the farm, 3-year-old Barbadian Runner sold for $5,000 as a yearling to Scott Groh and trainer Henry Walters and has piled up $643,690 in earnings (through Oct. 2) while winning five times in his first two seasons.
"I thought we were going to hit a home run with him at the sale, but that just goes to show you that you never really know," said Steele. "Now he's gone on and hit a home run for himself."
Steele said the stallion that attracted the most attention was Nicanor, famous for being a full-brother to Kentucky Derby-G1 winner Barbaro.
"He had a fan club," Steele said. "They would send birthday cards and Christmas cards. About once a year his fans would get together and see him in person. Sometimes people would call if they were in the area and ask to see him."
The farm hosted all sorts of folks from international industry members to youth groups.
"People loved coming by and seeing the foals in the spring," he said. "The spring was the nicest. We had open houses, and we did tons of tours: Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, you name it. The University of Maryland would bring their breeding classes so we were teaching, too."
In welcoming so many guests, Shamrock built a reputation as a vital part of the community in a kinship that Steele hopes will continue with the new version of Shamrock.
If and when the training center becomes a reality, everyone agrees that Art Rooney would approve.
"He used to go to Pimlico early to watch horses train so he'd love that the farm was becoming a training center," Steele said. "He was very interested in everything we did. He would walk the farm every night when he'd visit -- have a cigar, either chew it or smoke it, and ask questions. 'How's this going over here?' 'Which mare's doing that?' and 'What's that foal like?' He cared about the farm and the horses we were raising."
Tom Rooney believes his grandfather would understand the economics of his prime real estate.
"He probably would rather it stay as a stud farm but with the way our sport is condensing, the farm might no longer be economically viable," he said. "So, for the state to show interest in that property and become a legacy for Thoroughbred racing, he would be satisfied. I am hoping they will keep that name Shamrock as a testament to his passion for the sport. Carroll County has always been very supportive and it is one less housing development in an area known for country and farms. To keep it looking like that is a victory for the community of Woodbine and Carroll County."
Additional reporting by Joe Clancy
