A new format was instituted for the 15th annual Eastern Fall Sales at Timonium. For the first time horses sold on a Sunday, in two selected sessions. Also new was an "open" session held Monday. Sunday's average of $7,397 for 155 sold was the second highest on record and the gross of $1,146,600 ranked fourth all-time. The Monday session averaged $3,061 (79 sold).

Sellers were split on the new format, with two of the strongest critics Joe B. Hickey Jr. of Windfields Farm and Robert Leonard with Glade Valley Farm. Both felt the sale was badly damaged by the admission of lower quality "open" yearlings, with Leonard stating the sale was "designed as a select auction and should so remain." Others took the opposite view that more breeders were helped. Editor Snowden Carter pondered: "Maybe both sides could be made happy by the creation of a separate catalogue for Monday night's horses. And the name of Monday night's sale could be changed, too."
E.P. Taylor's Windfields Farm led consignors for the fourth time in five years, selling 12 in the select portion for an average of $13,667. The top price for the farm, and the sale, was $40,500 for a Nearctic colt out of a *Forli half-sister to Hay Patcher.

Windfields Farm continued to grow, as Taylor purchased a 130-acre parcel (Deepwell Farm), to add to the 1,600 acres already in production. Eight stallions stood at Windfields, the most valuable Northern Dancer (America's leading sire in 1971), Tentam and Halo. But leading the Maryland sire ranks through the first 10 months of 1975 was "the least expensive" -- Rambunctious. The 15-year-old stallion's offspring had earnings of approximately $600,000, with Ramhyde at $55,000 his biggest winner.

Top Maryland breeder/owner Milton Polinger was shifting the bulk of his racing stable back to Maryland. He had moved his runners to the coasts after becoming a member of the Maryland Racing Commission five years earlier to avoid the possibility of a conflict of interest.

Asked how he happened to change that view, Polinger said: "Well, no one else seemed to feel that way."

One horse no longer in his stable was stakes-winning 2-year-old Gentle King. The decision to sell was made to keep his stable in the black. Buddy Delp was chosen to train Polinger's 25-horse stable.

The next year Polinger homebred What a Summer was named Maryland-bred champion 3-year-old filly. Gentle King was champion older male in 1977, a year after Polinger's death.