The career of Maryland track announcer Dave Rodman was told by Vinnie Perrone. A radio disc jockey as a teenager in New Orleans, La., Rodman eventually found his way to the announcer booth at Jefferson Downs in his home state in 1981, moved to Louisiana Downs, and arrived in Maryland in 1991. He’s been the voice of the Preakness ever since.
A Maryland-bred colt sold for $2 million at the Keeneland April 2-year-old sale, equaling the record (set a month earlier) for a juvenile at public auction. Bred by Katherine Willson of Point Lookout Farm in Woodbine, out of her Assert (Ire) mare Three Grand, he was from the first crop of Northview Stallion Station sire Not For Love. Purchased by Michael Tabor, he was headed to trainer D. Wayne Lukas. Named La Salle Street, the colt lost all three starts.
Buckland Farm, the 495-acre establishment near Gainesville that had a long history as one of Virginia’s most prominent Thoroughbred facilities under the ownership of Thomas Mellon Evans, was sold for $2.9 million to Marylander William Blake, who planned to use it as a cattle farm. The birthplace of 1981 Kentucky Derby/Preakness winner Pleasant Colony and numerous other stakes winners, Buckland was operated by Evans as a horse farm for slightly more than 40 years, until his death in 1997.
Jerold “Jerry” Hoffberger, one of Maryland’s most prominent breeder/owners, was remembered after he died unexpectedly just two days after his 80th birthday. The lifelong horseman had arranged, in 1966, the $2.5-million syndication of Kentucky Derby/Preakness winner Kauai King – the first Maryland-bred to win the Kentucky Derby – who entered stud at Sagamore Farm.
Hoffberger also stood at the helm of two of Maryland’s most famous enterprises: the Baltimore Orioles baseball team, and the National Brewing Company (makers of National Bohemian beer). After selling the Orioles to Washington, D.C., lawyer Edward Bennett Williams for $12 million [in August 1979], he plunged headlong into the Thoroughbred business, developing Sunset Hill Farm in Woodbine, where he stood a number of top Maryland sires, including Run the Gantlet.
A remembrance of a racing pioneer was provided by veterinarian Dr. James V. Stewart, son of Caroline Stewart, one of the first women licensed to train Thoroughbred racehorses, who had recently died age 93.
“It is a story we so wanted her to tell, but her modesty and natural reserve” would not allow her to tell it herself, said Dr. Stewart. “It should not be seen as a summary with an end, but as an effort to preserve some of her remarkable experiences.”
Fruits of Love, a 4-year-old Virginia-bred son of Hansel, won the $500,000 Dubai Turf Classic on Dubai World Cup day at Nad al Sheba racecourse, setting a record for 11⁄2 miles in 2:28.45. It was the second career stakes win for the international campaigner who also ran in England, Ireland and Hong Kong.
Sold as a weanling at Keeneland for $70,000 by his breeders, Mr. and Mrs. Roy Ash, he earned $1,089,543 in 23 starts, while winning three group races.
