A winner of three of four starts, Thomas Nichols’ homebred Jolly Johu led Maryland 3-year-olds and was a possible contender for the Kentucky Derby.

Sidney Waite, manager of Nichols’ Rolling Ridge Farm, explained the colt’s name: “We really wanted to name him Jolly John. But we figured that name might be taken. So as a second choice we changed the ‘n’ in John to a ‘u’. The name Jolly Johu really doesn’t mean anything at all.” 

Bobby Adams had both of Nichols’ horses of racing age in training, and wasn’t sure Jolly Johu was the best when compared to stakes-placed 3-year-old Eager Native (who appeared on the magazine’s cover). Both were sons of Restless Native and grandsons of the only horse Nichols purchased, a Tom Fool filly named Evilone. Jolly Johu was out of modest winner Avie (by *Gallant Man) and Eager Native was the first foal of unraced Eager Em.

Evilone was the dam of three stakes winners, including Alabama winner Tona. Avie later produced stakes winner Avum and stakes-placed Averell, both behind dozens of graded/group winners. Avie’s final foal was champion and sire Lord Avie.

Jolly Johu proved better than Eager Native. Only Jolly Johu competed in the classics – he didn’t make the Derby, but was fourth in the Preakness and second in the Belmont. He made 73 starts, won 10, won or placed in 21 stakes and earned $366,840.

• Martha Green took a $1 investment of a mean, in-foal broodmare, and turned it into a success worth thousands with the resulting foal, Ten Dimes. 
  
  Green grew up in Manhattan, and distressed her parents by working with horses instead of going to college. She broke yearlings with the Schoenborn brothers in New York, moved to South Carolina, then Kentucky, before building her roots in Maryland as a trainer.
  
  Green, who described herself as “mean,” died in January 2023 at age 83. She said in a 1981 Maryland Horse profile that, “I’m hard to get along with. There’s only one way to do things, and that’s my way… But I’m doing what I want to do, and that’s what counts.”.
  
  
• Cleveland Skinker, breeder of 1965 Maryland-bred Horse of the Year Miss Spin at his Flamingo Farm in Brookeville, Md., died at 89. He got into racing by purchasing two racehorses for $200 in 1911: “I’ve spent the rest of my life trying to get even.” 
  
  
• For the first time, a Maryland-bred race was worth $50,000-added as Pimlico’s Jennings Handicap was increased from $30,000. The only other state-bred race with a purse of such size was the California Breeders Champion Stakes at Santa Anita.