Jim Gagliano, president and CEO of The Jockey Club, grew up in New Jersey and turned dream summer jobs at Monmouth Park into a launching pad for his rise in the Thoroughbred industry. His journey included a vast array of experiences, and stints in Pennsylvania and Maryland, before taking his current position in 2010.
Virginia-breds Valid, Long On Value and Stellar Wind each won Grade 3 stakes in February. Gulfstream Park was the location for the Edward P. Evans-bred Valid's win in the Fred W. Hooper and Snow Lantern Thoroughbreds-bred Long On Value's score in the Canadian Turf, while Keswick Stables and Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings-bred Stellar Wind recorded her first stakes victory in Santa Anita's Santa Ysabel.
All three sold as yearlings -- Valid for $500,000, Stellar Wind for $86,000 and Long On Value for $3,000.The legacy of longtime New Jersey horsewoman Ramona Barney, who died the previous September at age 86, lived on through the 5-year-old mare Amblin Easy. A fourth-generation Barney-bred by New Jersey sire Private Interview, Amblin Easy won in allowance company at Parx for her new connections, LC Racing and trainer Butch Reid, who claimed her for $25,000 less than a month after Barney's death.
Amblin Easy made her first stakes starts that May and June, finishing third in both, and was eventually retired to the LC Racing broodmare band. Her first two foals are stakes winner Ninetyprcentmaddie and stakes-placed Ninetypercentbrynn, who combined earned nearly $900,000 through 2024.
A look back at auction results in 2014 saw three Mid-Atlantic-breds sell for more than a million: broodmare prospect Princess of Sylmar ($3.1 million), broodmare Her Smile ($1.5 million) and a Brushwood-bred yearling by Bernardini out of Mushka named Crowned for $1.2 million. The two most expensive Mid-Atlantic-sired yearlings, each bringing six figures, were from the first crop of Country Life Farm sire Friesan Fire.
Crowned never raced, but her third foal for her buyer, Godolphin, is 2025 Fountain of Youth-G2 winner Sovereignty.
