Maryland | Horse Racing Free Tips

Northview Set for Fasig-Tipton Midlantic December

Northview Stallion Station will be busy at the upcoming Fasig-Tipton Midlantic December Mixed and Horses of Racing Age Sale on Tuesday, Dec. 8. The consignment will offer nearly 50 head, including a 27-horse reduction of breeding stock for Joseph Besecker.

Perhaps more importantly, the annual Midlantic sale will allow the Chesapeake City, Maryland-based farm the opportunity to show off stock from their growing stallion roster, including the first weanlings from Irish War Cry (Curlin) and Hoppertunity (Any Given Saturday).

“Our game is to bring the best we can for the market in the Mid-Atlantic region and in Maryland and not to price ourselves out of the market,” said Northview’s Bloodstock Manager Paul O’Loughlin. “We try to go for sire power and horses with pedigree, and what’s affordable to the Maryland breeders.”

A New Jersey-bred and homebred for Isabelle de Tomaso, Irish War Cry shone as a juvenile, breaking his maiden on debut and then taking the Marylander S. On the Derby trail at three, he won the GII Holy Bull S. and GII Wood Memorial S., and later ran second to Tapwrit (Tapit) in the GI Belmont S. He came back at four to win the GIII Pimlico Special S.

O’Loughlin says that Irish War Cry’s first crop was popular with breeders from the beginning.

“It’s always a good sign when you see the first foals and people come back again. Then you know they’re good,” he said. “He’s giving them the Curlin stamp and they look pretty good from what I’ve seen. All the breeders are still interested in him and there have been inquiries already for the coming year.”

Northview will offer one Irish War Cry weanling, a colt out of the stakes-placed Pret Say Eye (Ready’s Image), selling as Hip 118.

Northview’s other first-crop weanling sire Hoppertunity began his career at stud as the richest stallion to enter stud in the Mid-Atlantic. The Bob Baffert trainee earned a pair of Grade I scores in the Clark H. at three and Jockey Club Gold Cup S. at five. In his 34 starts, he ran in the money 22 times, and was seven-times Grade I placed. At seven, he retired with earnings of over $4.7 million.

“Hoppertunity doesn’t need any introduction,” O’Loughlin said. “He ran all over the world and danced every dance with every horse around the country. He’s stamping his progeny pretty well. They’re big, strong, and have plenty of bone. They look very racey.”

The son of Any Given Saturday stood his first two seasons at Northview’s Pennsylvania location, but upon the farm’s recent consolidation, he will stand his first year in Maryland in 2021.

“He bred over 100 mares in his first two seasons, so especially now being in Maryland, it looks like he’ll continue to be popular,” O’Loughlin noted.

Northview will consign Hip 132, a son of Hoppertunity out of the Silvikova (Badge of Silver) at the upcoming Fasig-Tipton sale, while two additional weanlings by the young sire will be offered as Hip 94 with Becky Davis and Hip 127 with Bill Reightler.

In addition to watching the development of the progeny from Hoppertunity and Irish War Cry, Northview also anticipates seeing the first crop of 2-year-olds hit the track next year for three-time graded stakes winner Madefromlucky (Lookin at Lucky).

“He didn’t have huge books, but he had enough to sustain a good 2-year-old season,” O’Loughlin said. “The yearlings are pretty sharp-looking for a horse that was a distance horse, so we’re excited.”

Founded in 1989 by Richard Golden, Northview Stallion Station has since been home to several of Maryland’s leading sires including Not For Love (Mr. Prospector), who topped the state’s sire list on 14 occasions, as well as Great Notion, Maryland’s leading sire by earnings since 2018.

While restricted to a smaller book nowadays at the age of 20, Great Notion is still producing winners. During this year’s Maryland Million program at Laurel Park, his progeny accounted for four of the eight winners on the stakes card.

“He’s loved by everybody in Maryland,” O’Loughlin said. “Outside of Maryland, they show up everywhere. He’s even had runners at Royal Ascot. It’s an honor for Northview to have the best active stallion in the Mid-Atlantic at the minute.”

O’Loughlin said that Golden’s son Michael oversaw the operation’s consolidation process this year and has additional plans to better the farm moving forward.

“Michael is very enthusiastic. He’s serious and plans to do a lot of remodeling. We’re going to make it a powerhouse moving forwarding, bringing new stallions and rebuilding the farm–what Maryland needs.”

O’Loughlin said he is confident in Maryland’s breeding program, and has high hopes for Northview’s growth in the coming years.

“The Maryland Horse Breeders’ Association is doing a great job in getting people to stay and breed here,” he said. “Northview Stallion Station is doing their utmost best to bring in the best stallions they can and afford people to keep them in Maryland. It’s encouraging for the future. To have better horses, we need better mares and we need more people to stay here. But it’s working.”

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Misread Tattoo Causes Confusion In Maryland: Rescued Mare Is Not Saskawea

A recently rescued Thoroughbred mare in Maryland has left quite a few people puzzled over the past few days. According to an article on Canadian Thoroughbred, she was originally believed to be the Canadian earner of over $750,000, Saskawea. When the story started to circulate, racing fans immediately took notice.

The mare now named Quizzical Quartz was saved from a neglectful situation by Days End Horse Rescue in 2019. Due to a mistake when reading her lip tattoo to try to identify her and the fact that the two horses had almost identical markings, they incorrectly came to the conclusion that she was the Ontario-bred 16-year-old stakes winner by Stormy Atlantic, Saskawea. This was quickly checked by Canadian Thoroughbred and proven to be false.

After Canadian Thoroughbred tracked down the last known owner of Saskawea through public auction records, Tommy Wente of St. Simon's Place in Lexington, Ky was not pleased upon hearing of the mistake made in regards to the mare he purchased for $2,500 at the Keeneland January sale in 2017. He went on to mention that she does not have foals anymore, but has had embryos flushed and surrogate mares producing Quarter Horse foals.

Days End Horse Rescue took action within an hour of being notified and apologized for the misunderstanding.

“We so regret there was an impact to Tommy, he was getting calls,” said DeEtte Hillman, Equine Programs Director for Days End, to Canadian Thoroughbred's Jennifer Morrison. “We had supplied all the content for the story, nothing appeared in print and it has since been re-written.”

Quizzical Quartz is now thriving in her next career as a riding horse with her adopter, Devon Griffin.

Climax Stallions Announces Fees For 2021 Roster

After a very successful year across the country for Climax Stallions, 2021 looks to be equally as promising.

Topping the roster this year is stallion, St Patrick's Day, who will stand again for $5,000 LFSN at Journeyman Stallions in Ocala, Fla. St Patrick's Day, the full brother to the brilliant, American Pharoah, concluded the 2020 breeding season with 116 mares bred.

Next on the Climax Stallions roster is Curlin to Mischief, California's co-leading second crop sire by winners, blacktype winners and blacktype horses. Leading his progeny is top juvenile stakes winner, Good with People. Despite his recent success, Curlin to Mischief's 2021 fee will remain at $3,500 LFSN standing at Rancho San Miguel in San Miguel, Calif.

Concluding the list is Editorial, who will stand the 2021 season for $2,500 LFSN at a new location, Freedom Hills Farm in Taneytown, Md. Uncle Mo has quickly become a sire of sires which looks to brighten the future for his half-brother, Editorial. Editorial will be finishing up his shuttling duties in Peru, where he bred a nice book of mares, and head back to the U.S. for 2021 and beyond.

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Maryland’s Sagamore Farm Will Now Produce Whiskey, Not Racehorses

Sagamore Racing, the Maryland-based breeding and racing operation founded 14 years ago by Under Armour chief executive Kevin Plank, is getting out of the sport. Its horses have been in the gradual process of being sold off, and the historic 530-acre Sagamore Farm in Glyndon will transition into supplying rye, corn and limestone-filtered spring water to support a Plank-backed whiskey distillery.

Sagamore led all breeders of Maryland-breds by earnings in 2019, and at its peak during Plank’s tenure the farm housed 100 horses. The news comes 10 years to the date that Sagamore Racing color bearer Shared Account upset the GI Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at 46-1, which marked the first elite-level win for the stable.

The Baltimore Sun and WBAL radio both broke the story around the same time on the morning of Nov. 5.

Plank told the Sun that his decision to exit the Thoroughbred business is not related to Under Armour’s woes in the athletic apparel sector. Shares in the company’s stock have plummeted nearly 70% in value over the last five years. In a Nov. 3 article, the financial news outlet Motley Fool attributed the decline to “executive shake-ups, brand missteps, and an extremely difficult competitive environment.”

Plank was upbeat about his new venture in his WBAL radio interview, saying he was cognizant that he has a duty of stewardship to protect the farm in the heart of Maryland’s horse country that formerly stabled Alfred G. Vanderbilt Jr.’s breeding and racing operation between 1933 and 1986.

“I’m a revolution guy, not an evolution guy, and [I believe in] being intentional in what you’re doing,” Plank told WBAL. “And [when we] started looking at what we can do with racing, I said, ‘We’re either 100% behind it and we’re going to go make it win, or you’re not. So that’s what we just looked at, the racing aspect of the operation, and said, ‘It’s time for us to move.’

“Horse racing, it is a terrific sport, and it’s a passion; a labor of love,” Plank continued. “And now I get to move this and transition into a passion and labor where I think we’re going to make the world’s most famous rye whiskey.”

Sagamore Racing will attempt to go out on a high note when it sends out Global Campaign (Curlin) in Saturday’s GI Breeders’ Cup Classic. The six-for-nine colt is 20-1 on the morning-line coming off a wire-to-wire win in the GI Whitney S. at Saratoga Sept. 5.

“How about the serendipity of the bookends between Shared Account [and Global Campaign]?” Planks asked rhetorically in his WBAL interview. Back when Shared Account won, Plank said, “we were just a couple of years into horse racing. I didn’t even know how big of a deal winning the Breeders’ Cup was at the time.”

Plank continued: “It brings in an old Under Armour saying that I’ve used, which is, ‘We were always smart enough to be naïve enough to not know what we couldn’t accomplish.’ And so it felt like that first victory for the Breeders’ Cup was like, ‘Yeah, every farm does this every year, don’t ya?’ So to be here 10 years later, and to be at the Breeders’ Cup and be in the Classic of all things, [we know] Global Campaign will be longer odds than most of them. But there’s a reason that horse is in the race and he’s got a shot.”

Sagamore Farm was bequeathed to Vanderbilt by his mother for his 21st birthday in 1933. Vanderbilt would go on to become the owner and president of Pimlico Race Course while serving at various times as head of the New York Racing Association and The Jockey Club. Over the decades, Sagamore was home to three eventual Hall of Fame horses, most notably the 21-for-22 Native Dancer, who won both the 1953 Preakness and Belmont S. The Queen of England even kept a broodmare on the property during its heyday.

Vanderbilt sold the farm to a developer in 1986 and it eventually sunk into disrepair. Plank purchased it in 2007, and in 2011 he told the New York Times that he had a 20-year plan in place to grow the stable while championing Maryland racing and breeding.

“Buying the first string of horses in 2006 and then [having the] privilege to call Sagamore Farm home for the last 14 years [has] been an amazing journey that we’ve had of being in the racing business,” Plank told WBAL. “There’s just so many great memories here. But like many things, it’s time for us to turn the page right now, and to start a new chapter out here in Sagamore Farm. And so that 14-year run we had is something that we’re super proud of, and we’ll always love it. The trophies will live on.”

Plank said his plan is to keep Sagamore Farm open to the public as a “community asset,” with the distillery hosting public tours. Native Dancer’s gravesite on the property is expected to remain intact, and a small number of retired Thoroughbreds will remain on the farm as pasture horses, according to WBAL.

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