After Real Quiet’s Kentucky Derby-G1 victory and Preakness-G1 performance, both over former Maryland-based Victory Gallop, the racing world was ready for a Triple Crown winner.

With former Maryland-based jockey Kent Desormeaux aboard for trainer Bob Baffert, Mike Pegram’s $17,000 yearling purchase had a daylight lead at the top of Belmont’s long stretch but was caught at the wire by Victory Gallop by the slimmest of noses – the narrowest Belmont loss of any Derby/Preakness winner.

• Ann and Henry Stern’s Saluter, with trainer/jockey Jack Fisher aboard, won his fifth consecutive Virginia Gold Cup – a 20-mile run over 115 fences. Joe Clancy Jr. wrote, “The five straight wins in a race as important as the Gold Cup outdistance any other steeplechase streak. Nobody won five, period.” 
  The next year the Virginia-bred won it for a sixth time.
  
  
• After 10 years of effort, trainer Michael Dickinson unveiled his new Tapeta Farm in Maryland’s Cecil County. The training facilities included a 7-furlong gallop made with Dickinson’s patented Tapeta mixture, three turf gallops, an exercise machine, and miles of potential trails and fields. 
  Dickinson’s Tapeta footing, an all-weather synthetic material, is used for racetracks and training tracks worldwide, including Presque Isle Downs and Fair Hill Training Center, among others.
  
  
• Carolyn Hine’s Skip Away ran away with the Pimlico Special-G1. Grabbing the early lead, the Sonny Hine trainee coasted to a 31⁄4-length victory as the 1-5 favorite. His 128-pound impost was the most weight carried by a Pimlico Special winner since War Admiral in 1937. 
  The Special was Skip Away’s fifth consecutive Grade 1 victory and part of a nine-race win streak. The Hall of Famer retired at the end of the year with Horse of the Year honors and earnings of $9,616,360.