"He's up in the long barn," Audrey Murray gestured in front of her home at Murmur Farm in Darlington, Md. "Wait until you see him." Led out by Wilcon Cardona, the dark bay gelding is respectful but still pivots and spins, keenly interested in the mower manicuring a nearby paddock. His eyes are clear, sharp and laser-focused; his ears honed to the activity around him like radar. At 22, he is tall, broad and powerful. His seal-brown coat explodes with dapples.

 

Once he realizes a camera is pointed his way, he poses, stock still, first with Cardona and then with Murray. Her smile speaks volumes. Along with her husband, the late E. Allen Murray Jr., Audrey bred, raised and raced Celtic Innis through seven seasons and $648,638 earned in their orange and green diamond silks. They stood his sire, Yarrow Brae, at Murmur Farm for several years. By Deputy Minister, Yarrow Brae won the 1998 Illinois Derby-G2 for Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas.  Celtic Innis' dam Harp Innis won twice in Kentucky before being purchased by the Murrays for $47,000 in 1997. The daughter of Phone Trick produced six winners for the Murrays. Celtic Innis was by far her best, but full-brother Clever Yankee won six races including the 2006 H.B.P.A. Governor's Cup at Charles Town. Celtic Innis was also one of the first horses the Murrays sent to trainer Tim Keefe.
"He was with me for all the years he was running," Keefe said. "I always remember a horse like this not just because he was very honest and a good racehorse -- he won several races and accrued a good amount of earnings -- but he was the type that always could run. What he really taught me more than any other horse was you never judge a book by its cover."

Keefe distinctly remembers being unimpressed when the ungainly youngster arrived at his Laurel Park barn in 2004. "They sent me two or three 2-year-olds that year -- and I remember first looking at him and he was big, awkward and very incorrect in front. Probably the type you really wouldn't bid on at an auction, to be honest with you. And I just sort of rolled my eyes and thought, 'Oh my God, this horse will never amount to anything.' " 

Day by day, Celtic Innis won over his trainer even if there were moments, like the gelding's first start at Pimlico Nov. 10, 2004, when Keefe's initial doubts again raised their ugly heads.
"I still remember being in the paddock for his first start at Pimlico. Allen Murray was with me, and Celtic Innis was walking around the paddock, the groom had the shank clipped underneath him -- no shank over the nose or anything -- and he was just walking around, first time out." Keefe turned to Murray and said, "I don't know what kind of racehorse he's going to be, but if he's no racehorse he'll certainly be someone's nice show horse or something."Celtic Innis never did make a show horse."He was very well mannered and just a lovely horse to be around," Keefe said. "But obviously, he did turn out to be a very good racehorse for us."
In three starts during his freshman season, Celtic Innis was third, second and first, respectively. Keefe brought him out as a 3-year-old in allowance races for his first three outings in 2005 before moving up to stakes company after scoring at Laurel March 31.

The horse then rewarded his connections with a win in that first black-type contest, the 6-furlong Maryland Stallion Station Stakes at Pimlico April 23, 2005. Two more victories followed -- an allowance on the Preakness undercard and the Coronado's Quest Stakes at Monmouth June 11.
"He won the Coronado's Quest, which was not an easy race," Keefe said. "Then he went back [to Monmouth] and ran in the Jersey Shore Breeders' Cup Stakes-G3. Tommy Turner rode him again in that race, and he ran second to a horse called Joey P, who was unfreakinbelievable."The occasional forays outside their home state were enjoyable -- and usually fruitful -- but to the Murrays, breeders since 1959, nothing matched Maryland Million Day.

“He’s up on the hill with
the retired mares. He loves it.
Normal maintenance, no issues.
No one has been on his back.
He’s happy up there with his mares.”

– Audrey Murray, about Celtic Innis

 

"Obviously being owned by the Murrays and with my affinity for Maryland Million, it's our big day," Keefe said. "So we really geared his schedule around that, as I always have for all their horses. Come hell or high water, we'd try to make that race. And he did, almost every year." To be precise, Celtic Innis entered the starting gate for the Maryland Million Sprint in 2006, 2008, 2009 and 2010. He won in 2008 and was second in the other three. So important was that race, the Murrays and Keefe chose it as the gelding's final start as an 8-year-old in 2010. Battling down the stretch, Celtic Innis lost by a half-length to Jack On the Rocks.

Celtic Innis retired with war-horse statistics of 45-9-12-12. In addition to the Coronado's Quest and Maryland Million Sprint he captured the Chesapeake Stakes at Colonial Downs and the Vincent Moscarelli Memorial atDelaware Park. He placed in 15 stakes, three graded. The next logical step was a second career with Keefe's wife, Rumsey, an accomplished event rider. He was happy and healthy. It made sense. Just not to Celtic Innis. 

"He never really settled into farm life, being in work and everything," Keefe said. "He loved his routine at the racetrack. He loved going out every morning at the same time, he loved his rider back then -- Shannon Necker. And he was a little tough, too. Not easy to ride. He was good, but always very business-minded and never really acclimated to farm life and going out for hacks or going eventing and showing. He just never really clicked. We tried him for a little bit, but clearly his best stuff was going to be someplace where he could do the same thing every day, same time and everything. Audrey found a good niche for him at the farm as a babysitter. And he's obviously done great doing that." After about six months with the Keefes, Celtic Innis returned to Murmur. That's fine with Audrey Murray, who has no problem with her horse's preferred retirement. 

"He's up on the hill with the retired mares," she said. "He loves it. Normal maintenance, no issues. No one has been on his back. He's happy up there with his mares."Mindset played a strong role with Celtic Innis on the racetrack, and not much has changed. "You can't see it when you look at him, but he had that inner drive," Keefe said. "He had soundness, and he had the ability. He always wanted to win, to be the first one to get to the wire. And not a lot of them have that."