Garden State Park was sold to a real-estate development group, which would leave New Jersey with no year-round racing after 2001. Francis Murray, chairman of International Thoroughbred Breeders, did not disclose the purchase price. However, he said it would cover the company's $14-million debt on the property.
In Cherry Hill, some six miles east of center city Philadelphia, Garden State was under a seven-year lease to Pennwood, a joint venture of Greenwood Racing and Penn National Gaming. The lease, drafted and signed in late 1998, stipulated that ITB retained the right to sell the 225-acre property after the first 12 months.
The New Jersey track closed the stable area that winter, resulting in a stabling crisis at Philadelphia Park. "We have room for 1,500 horses and we received applications for 2,200," said the Pennsylvania track's racing secretary Ed Vomacka. Horsemen on the grounds were allocated 1,200 stalls, with 300 assigned to out-of-town outfits.
When it came to horses, Pennsylvanian Marshall Jenney did it all: rode, drove, bought and sold. The region lost a giant after the proprietor of Derry Meeting Farm died at age 60 in late November.
Wrote longtime Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association executive Mark McDermott: "Jenney's record over the years is well documented. Was there anything more impressive than his 'wall of fame' outside his yearling barn at Saratoga? Danzig, Storm Cat, Selkirk, Mrs. Penny, Tikkanen and Yankee Affair are just a few of the renowned horses who first saw the light of day at Derry Meeting."
Breeder Jonathan Sheppard won a free season to The Cool Virginian and sent the Double Zeus mare Romanissimo to the Virginia-based stallion in 1991. The result was 2000 Colonial Cup-G1 winner Romantic. "Even a blind pig sometimes. . ." laughed Sheppard of the chance mating. "It certainly wasn't pedigree analysis or anything. The only reason we sent that mare down there was because we got a freebie."
It was the Pennsylvania-bred gelding's fifth stakes win.
The topper at Fasig-Tipton Midlantic's December sale was the 9-year-old Smarten mare Poised to Pounce, in foal to Polish Numbers. Her first foal, by the same sire, was stakes winner Quick 'n Smart. Consigned by Chanceland Farm as agent, the mare sold for $142,000 to David and JoAnn Hayden's Dark Hollow Farm and William Beatson. The mare's weanling filly sold at the same sale for $125,000 to Richard Golden.
The foal Poised to Pounce was carrying was future multiple stakes winner Play Bingo. All five foals bred by Dark Hollow and Beatson were winners.
