Bert and Diana Firestone, who owned and/or bred more than 175 major stakes winners in the U.S., Ireland, England, France and Japan over the decades, were back in the spotlight as homebred Winchester, a son of homebred turf champion Theatrical (Ire), carried their colors to victory in the Manhattan Handicap-G1. Residing on Newstead Farm in Upperville, Va., the Firestones had campaigned seven Eclipse Award champions, headlined by the iconic filly Genuine Risk. Other champions included Honest Pleasure, What a Summer and homebreds General Assembly, Paradise Creek, Theatrical (Ire) and April Run (Ire).
- Philadelphia Park closed for live racing and training in August to allow for a four-week maintenance break, and reopened with a name change – becoming Parx Racing. Both the race track and casino now had the same name. The Parx name was adopted for the casino in the summer of 2009.
- Maryland-bred Richard’s Kid vaulted to millionaire status with his second consecutive victory in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic at Del Mar, the only $1 million race in California. The $600,000 winner’s share of the purse boosted the 5-year-old’s lifetime earnings to $1,566,370, making him the 20th Maryland-bred millionaire and ninth-richest Maryland-bred runner of all time.
The Bob Baffert-trained son of Lemon Drop Kid became the third horse to win back-to-back runnings of the Pacific Classic in 20 renewals, joining Bobby Frankel-trained Tinners Way (1994-95) and Skimming (2000-01).
- Kaleem Shah’s Tapit colt Concord Point shipped from trainer Bob Baffert’s California base to win the $750,000 West Virginia Derby-G2 at Mountaineer. Concord Point’s victory was Baffert’s third major East Coast stakes win of 2010, following Lookin At Lucky’s Preakness-G1 and Haskell-G1.
- The Jim Stable’s Ben’s Cat remained undefeated in five starts and got his first stakes win in the Mister Diz at Laurel Park. Bred, owned and trained by King T. Leatherbury, the 4-year-old son of Parker’s Storm Cat ridden by Rosemary Homeister Jr. covered 6 furlongs in 1:09.08 in his first start on the turf.
- Pensioned Maryland sire Citidancer was euthanized due to complications of laminitis at the age of 23. The son of Dixieland Band, sire of Grade 1 winners Urbane and Hookedonthefeelin, had launched his stud career at the Pons family’s Country Life Farm in 1991 and had been retired from active stud duty since 2005. He was buried at the farm.
