Making his first start outside of California, George Papaprodromou-trained Imperative, ridden by Kent Desormeaux, went off at 26-1 in the $1.5 million Charles Town Classic-G2 and beat another California shipper, defending champion Game On Dude, by 1½ lengths.

Imperative would race in the Charles Town Classic five times, finishing second the next year and winning again in 2018. He and Game On Dude, the latter a finalist on the 2024 National Hall of Fame ballot, earned a combined $9.8 million lifetime. 

Two of the region’s greatest runners – Pennsylvania-bred steeplechase legend  Flatterer and Maryland-bred sprinter extraordinaire Safely Kept, both in the National Racing Hall of  Fame – died within two days in April. Flatterer, at 35, had been the oldest Hall of Famer and Eclipse Award winner. Owned by Bill Pape, Jonathan Sheppard and George Harris and trained by Sheppard, Flatterer won four Eclipse Awards (1984-86) and 24 of his 52 career starts, 13 of them stakes.

Safely Kept, bred by JoAnn and David Hayden, won the Eclipse Award in 1989 as champion sprinter (male or female), was named Maryland-bred Horse of the Year twice and a state-bred champion each of her four seasons on the track. She captured 24 of 31 starts, 22 stakes, and earned $2,194,206, with her greatest victory the epic 1990 Breeders’ Cup Sprint-G1. The daughter of Maryland sire Horatius was 28. 

Stewart Strawbridge’s Guts For Garters (Ire) topped the 15-horse field in the 118th Maryland Hunt Cup, edging Imperial Way by a nose. After being well beaten in the Benjamin H. Murray Memorial allowance on the Grand National card a week earlier, trainer Sanna Neilson was concerned the gelding wouldn’t be able to handle the longer, more arduous Hunt Cup. 

“I really thought about not running, and kept asking myself what was wrong,” said Neilson. “But [jockey Jody Petty] kept saying not to worry about it, that the horse had a bad day. . .” 

It may have been a racing first – the cancellation of the remainder of Parx’s card after one race on a bright and sunny afternoon due to a family of foxes living in a drainpipe near the turf course. A spokes­person for the racing office said it was feared the foxes would run onto the track during a race and potentially cause injury to horses and riders. The family was successfully relocated and racing resumed the next day.