Fasig-Tipton Midlantic’s Eastern Fall Yearling sale extended to three days due to the large number entered – 756 – compared to 601 in 1998 and 638 in 1997.The sale numbers reached a zenith in 2006, when 1,053 horses were catalogued over three days, with 658 selling.
The Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association named NFL Hall of Famer Sam Huff its inaugural Owner of the Year for the Mid-Atlantic region. Huff and partner Carol Holden operated Sporting Life Stable in Middleburg, Va. In addition to campaigning multiple stakes winner Bursting Forth, Huff was founder/president of the West Virginia Breeders Classics. The award recognizes contributions made by Thoroughbred owners in five major North American regions.
Frank Stronach’s Tap to Music won the $500,000 Delaware Handicap-G3, giving trainer Joe Orseno the richest win of his career. He was at one time one of Delaware Park’s most active claiming trainers.
Later that year Orseno sent out Perfect Sting to win the $500,000 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes-G1. The next year he won the Preakness-G1 with Red Bullet and two Breeders’ Cup races – the Juvenile with Macho Uno, and Filly & Mare Turf with Perfect Sting.
Monmouth hosted jumpers as part of a promotion in July. The steeplechase concept returned to Monmouth because of tradition. “It’s for marketing,” said Bob Kulina, the track’s vice-president of racing. “You don’t generate the purse dollars [with wagering handle], or at least we don’t.”
Trainer Janet Elliot sent out Greg Hawkins’ Campanile to win the $50,000 Midsummer Hurdle Handicap-G2. Among the runners was Ninepins (GB), who won Monmouth’s last steeplechase in 1992. He wound up third.
Dale Baird became the first Thoroughbred trainer to saddle 8,000 winners when he hit the mark in July at Mountaineer Park. The 64-year-old horse- man, based at the West Virginia track (formerly Waterford Park) since the 1960s, was also the first to reach the 6,000 and 7,000-win milestones.
Baird was the winningest trainer in history, with 9,445 wins, and still active when he died at age 72 in an automobile accident in late December 2007. He had more than 125 wins a year for 39 consecutive years, topped by 349 in 1981.
The top-priced Mid-Atlantic-bred at the Keeneland July sale was a Danzig colt out of multiple Grade 1 winner Strategic Maneuver, born in Pennsylvania and consigned by Eaton Sales agent for breeder Betty Moran, who sold for $1.15 million to Demi O’Byrne. Moran was also the breeder of a Kentucky-bred Gone West colt bought by B. Wayne Hughes and The Thoroughbred Corp. for $2.5 million, the third-highest price of the sale.The Danzig colt, named Ishiguru, was a group winner in Ireland at 3 and earned $115,032 in nine starts.
