"Jockey Sue Graham has the picture right up there on the wall. A photo finish. The day she beat Chris McCarron a nose on the wire at Bowie. When she was pregnant. 'I tell him he got beat by two girls,' " said Graham, while holding her daughter Shannon. Graham, a 28-year-old native of New Castle, Del., who rode her first race in June 1971, was the only Maryland rider to routinely bring a baby to work with her in the afternoon. Shannon would eat, sleep and watch races on closed circuit television in the trailer that served as a women's jockeys' room on days her mother rode. "Somebody's always willing to watch her when I'm not there," Graham explained.
Maryland's Thoroughbred foal production registered an all-time high in 1973 according to figures released by The Jockey Club. Of the North American total 27,255 (also a record), Maryland ranked fourth in production with 1,476, exceeding by more than 100 the record year of 1971. Kentucky topped all states with 4,043, followed by California (4,007) and Florida (2,472). Virginia ranked fifth with 1,037.
Pennsylvania ranked 15th (430) and New Jersey 18th (393), with West Virginia (157), South Carolina (153), North Carolina (80) and Delaware (6) also represented.
Dr. Herman Kossow's 4-year-old filly War Exchange notched her first stakes win with a 4-length victory over Gala Lil in Bowie's Conniver Handicap. Bred in Maryland by Dr. A.E. Verdi, the Carlos Garcia-trained gray was the second stakes winner for stallion Wise Exchange, who stood at Maryland's Stymie Manor Farm.
While it was her only stakes win, War Exchange did much more as a broodmare. Her graded stakes-winning daughter Barbarika is the second dam of Hall of Famer and sire Curlin. Other descendants include Eclipse Award-winning juvenile filly Countess Diana.
The growth of Dr. Allen Wisner's Maryland equine veterinary hospital in Lineboro and the 36-year-old practitioner's history of how it all began were covered by Lucy Acton. "Brought up around the Maryland race tracks where his father Vernon was a familiar figure for many years, first a jockey and then a trainer, Allen Wisner was a teenaged veterinary helper for Dr. I.W. Frock of Glyndon when he wasn't galloping horses," wrote Acton. "With a slight build and weathered face, Dr. Wisner looks like a jockey today and says he probably would have become one had his high school grades not been good."
Wisner was in the national spotlight during the 2002 Triple Crown season when breeder/owner/trainer Nancy Alberts' Magic Weisner finished a fast-closing second in the Preakness. Alberts credited Wisner for saving the colt's life as a foal and named him -- albeit misspelled -- in tribute.
A horse auctioneer audition was held by the Fasig-Tipton Company at Timonium before a small, hand-picked audience prior to that evening's sale. "Selling" five horses were Rick Opfer, Brice Ridgely, Ryan Mehan, Mike Jennings, Rodney Hoffman, H.C. Wise, John Holder, Hunter deButts, John B. Cook and Calvin Jones.
Opfer and Ridgely were employed by Fasig-Tipton as bid spotters. The other eight men came to Timonium especially for the auditions, traveling from Virginia or Kentucky. The eight "buyers" who turned in scorecards were Tyson Gilpin, Ralph Retler, Larry Ensor, Laddie Dance, Steve Dance, Jed Steffey, J. William Boniface and Ronald Hahn.
The entire audition was recorded for future reference.
