Friends since childhood, Bob Manfuso, George Huguely, Jeff Huguely and Tommy Manfuso enjoyed success as owners of Fourbros Stable. The first horse they purchased together in 1973 -- unraced 2-year-old filly Crackerfax -- earned more than $70,000, most coming from seconds in the Barbara Fritchie, Geisha, Majorette and All Brandy handicaps.

Tommy expained the idea for Fourbros: "We have two cliques in our partnership. The younger brothers and older brothers. George and I have been friends for more than 25 years, and our wives are good friends, too. So we're the Older Brothers. . .

"Well, it was the Younger Brothers who got the idea for a racing stable. Naturally, I had been going to the races all my life with Dad [former national president of the Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association and longtime breeder John Manfuso] and once in a while I even owned a horse that he bred. But I had never put up any real money to start a stable. So the Younger Brothers' idea sort of appealed to me."

Crackerfax won the Geisha and Queen Anne handicaps later that year and retired with earnings of $129,019. One of Maryland's most successful partnerships over the next two decades, Fourbros Stable dispersed in 1993. Among their best runners was stakes winner and leading Maryland sire Shelter Half. Fourbros also bred the likes of Vaulted and her stakes-winning dam Aube d'Or, the second and third dams of Horse of the Year Knicks Go, as well as the first three dams of Grade 1 winner and producer Hookedonthefeelin.

Dr. Tom Bowman discussed Thoroughbred reproduction (which he noted that, until the official Thoroughbred birth date moves to a more reasonable time -- like the middle of March -- fertility rates will never be as good as they can be), his thoughts on problems related to breeding, and the care of foals with Lucy Acton.

A 1969 graduate of the University of Georgia School of Veterinary Medicine, with a master's degree in reproductive physiology from the University of Maryland, and a post-doctoral fellowship in animal reproduction at the University of Pennsylvania, Bowman also had years in residence at a large breeding farm, Thor Ramsing's Thornmar Farm in Chestertown, which he joined in 1970. Thornmar stood five stallions, who were booked to about 120 mares for the upcoming breeding season.