The Jockey Club debuted its new program, the Jockey Club Interactive Registration, on the internet as a new way for Thoroughbred owners and breeders to complete most registration requirements electronically from their homes or offices.

• In an unprecedented achievement for Maryland, Thoroughbred racing’s two most prestigious national journalism awards for 1996 went for articles that appeared in publications based in this state.
  
  Don Clippinger won the 1996 Eclipse award for magazine writing for his story “Focusing on the big picture: how TV relates to racing,” which appeared in the March/April issue of Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred, and Tom Keyser won the Eclipse for newspaper writing for his overall coverage of racing during 1996 for The Baltimore Sun.
  
  
• Smoke Glacken delivered as promised in the Black Gold Handicap Jan. 12, launching his 3-year-old campaign with virtually no opposition from only two other starters in the race. The win improved his record to five wins and one second from seven starts, with $309,520 in earnings.
  
  As a 2-year-old, he’d impressed with wins in the Tyro Stakes, Sapling Stakes-G2 and Hopeful Stakes-G1, before he was sidelined for the rest of the year with sore shins after finishing fifth (to Maryland-based Traitor) in the Futurity Stakes-G1.
  
  Smoke Glacken made seven more starts, all stakes, as he won the Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash-G2, Jersey Shore Breeders’ Cup Stakes-G3, Riva Ridge Stakes-G3, Southwest Stakes-G3 and Mountain Valley Stakes, before retiring with $759,560 in earnings. He later won the Eclipse Award as the champion sprinter of 1997.