Breeders’ Cup Mile-G1 winner Wise Dan was a 2007 son of Wiseman’s Ferry, who moved to Gayle Gerth’s Lenhartsville farm in 2009. Fort Larned won the $5 million Breeders Cup Classic-G1 to propel E Dubai to the top of the region’s sire ranks. Larry Karp bought E Dubai, a son of Mr. Prospector, from Darley after the 2010 breeding season to stand in Pennsylvania.
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The Maryland Jockey Club, Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, and Maryland Horse Breeders Association announced a 10-year agreement for racing at Pimlico Race Course and Laurel Park. The deal allowed for long-term stability, year-round racing and stabling, a solid purse structure and a foundation for the future of Maryland racing.
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Russell Road, the most accomplished West Virginia-bred to race in his home state, recorded his 18th stakes win in November. Mark Russell’s millionaire moved into a tie for fourth on the list of stakes wins by a regional-bred.
Russell Road retired in 2016 at age 10 with 22 stakes wins, third all-time. Ben’s Cat upped the mark with his final stakes win in 2016, his 26th. -
Recently retired Plum Pretty, a Grade 1 winner at 3 and 4, sold for $4.2 million as a broodmare prospect at Keeneland November. Bred by Silent Indy Stables and DDS Stables in Pennsylvania, the Medaglia d’Oro filly was the first session’s top price and the sale’s most expensive broodmare prospect.
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Award-winning journalist and racing historian Joseph B. Kelly was remembered after his death at 94. A lifelong resident of Baltimore, Md., Kelly covered racing for nearly 70 years. He won a national honor from the Thoroughbred Racing Association for a story about disqualified 1968 Kentucky Derby winner Dancer’s Image, was a two-time winner of Pimlico’s Old Hilltop Award for excellence in racing coverage, and served as an on-air reporter (with fellow Baltimore Sun writer Jim McManus, later known as Jim McKay) from the Pimlico rooftop for Baltimore’s first live telecast in 1946.
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Declan’s Moon, undefeated Eclipse Award-winning 2-year-old male of 2004, headlined the 2013 Retired Racehorse Project’s 100-Day Challenge. Based off the previous year’s Trainer Challenge created by RRP founder and president Steuart Pittman, the new challenge would evaluate jumping, conformation, movement and trainability, and focus primarily on the horses’ characteristics and abilities.
Declan’s Moon, ridden and trained by Pittman and representing Country Life Farm, was voted in a landslide as the horse best suited for dressage.
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Hurricane Sandy pummeled the New Jersey shore and Monmouth Park management responded, acting as a rapid response center under the direction of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the State of New Jersey, and Red Cross. When the storm hit Oct. 29, no horses or humans were injured, but training was scrapped for the rest of the year. More than 1,400 utility trucks and approximately 3,000 workers from across the country were stationed at the track, and another 4,000 people rendered homeless from Sandy were housed in tents in the parking lot and grandstand.
