The landscape of New Jersey Thoroughbred racing looked to change drastically when Greenwood Racing Inc., parent company of Philadelphia Park, its off-track wagering sites and telephone wagering operations, announced it had entered an agreement to lease and operate Garden State Park for seven years.

The lease was part of an agreement Greenwood struck with International Thoroughbred Breeders, which included the acquisition of Freehold Raceway in Freehold, N.J., for $45 million.

Less than three years later Garden State Park ran its last race and has since been developed.

• Major summer stakes in the region included a shocker in the Delaware Handicap-G3, when longshots Amarillo, Tuxedo Junction and (109-1) Timely Broad rounded out the top three spots after favorites Relaxing Rhythm and Eclipse Award champion Ajina faded. Amarillo, trained by Monmouth Park-based John Forbes, paid $85.80 to win; the trifecta returned a staggering $29,088. 
  Laurel’s Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash-G2 went to Hobeau Farm’s sprint-division leader Kelly Kip, who set a stakes record for trainer Allen Jerkens.
  The Haskell went to a reformed Coronado’s Quest. Bred and co-owned by Maryland resident Stuart Janney III and trained by Shug McGaughey, the son of 1988 Haskell winner Forty Niner was believed too psychologically unstable to go to the Kentucky Derby-G1, but turned things around that summer, defeating, among others, Belmont Stakes-G1 winner Victory Gallop.
  
  
• Ryehill Farm’s multimillionaire Awad was retired to stand at stud at Northview Stallion Station in Chesapeake City, Md. The son of Caveat had a seven-year campaign in which he won four Grade 1s, finished among the top three in 30 stakes, 23 graded, set course records at Saratoga (which still stands) and Arlington Park (never broken), and earned $3,270,818 from 70 starts. Evidence of the company he was keeping: in 1996 he was winless in 11 starts, yet earned $770,786.
  
  
• Jersey Girl maintained a perfect 3-year-old record ( 7-for-7) and won her third Grade 1 in a row in Saratoga’s Test Stakes. Bred in New Jersey by Mac Fehsenfeld and sold as a 2-year-old for $220,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Florida February sale to trainer Todd Pletcher, the daughter of New Jersey-bred star Belong to Me scored in the Acorn and Mother Goose in her previous two starts.
  Exiting the Test with slab fracture, Jersey Girl was expected to run the next year but was sidelined again and retired. A finalist for an Eclipse Award, she was the 1998 New Jersey-bred Horse of the Year, and later produced Cigar Mile-G1 winner Jersey Town.
  
  
• Glenview Farm’s Prime Legacy – who raced for a $2,500 claiming price on the flat in 1993 and a $10,000 tag over jumps in 1994 – upset the Midsummer Hurdle Handicap at Delaware Park for his first win in more than a year. Glenview’s owner, Doris Rabon, originally purchased Prime Legacy to be a show horse after his uneventful flat career, but after taking a closer look at his breeding, she decided to give him a try over hurdles.
  
  
• Hookedonthefeelin was a star on the rise after her 4-length victory in Hollywood Park’s Grade 2 Landaluce Stakes. Said her rider Gary Stevens, “I haven’t had a 2-year-old win like that since Serena’s Song.” Owned by Mike Pegram and trained by Bob Baffert, the chestnut daughter of Maryland sire Citidancer was bred in Maryland by a partnership consisting of Country Life Farm, Joseph Flaherty and Helen Wells, who sold her as a weanling at the 1996 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic December Mixed sale for $38,000.