Maryland

Two days after Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI) announced its intent to acquire the intellectual property rights to the GI Preakness Stakes and the GII Black-Eyed Susan Stakes for $85 million, the firm's chief executive officer, Bill Carstanjen, said Thursday during a quarterly earnings conference call that the state of Maryland remains "in control" of the overall Thoroughbred racing product and its infrastructure, but that CDI's "real team of experts" is ready to assist if asked to help grow those assets. Although Carstanjen detailed the annual fee structure for licensing the...

Stepping into the shedrow of Laurel Park's Barn 22 late in the morning on a dark day, all is relatively quiet. Outside of the office, a groom rakes up loose pieces of straw as the horse residing in the first stall peers out inquisitively, all the while his neighbor to the left lies curled up in freshly tossed bedding. Further down, a wheelbarrow sits parked outside of the fifth stall, which is where you'll find trainer Henry Walters as he finishes mucking out. After setting aside the pitchfork and giving...

At a time when Maryland's racing and breeding industry looks ahead to a new era, with the redevelopment of historic Pimlico Race Course officially underway, it seems only fitting that one of the most successful Maryland-breds in recent years would return to his home state to enter stud. Multiple graded stakes-winning millionaire Post Time (Frosted) retired this past December and joins the stallion roster at Northview Stallion Station in Chesapeake City, Md. For his debut season at stud this year, Post Time will stand for an introductory fee of $4,000...

Northview Stallion Station has pensioned Great Notion (Elusive Quality) ahead of the 2026 breeding season. A top stallion in Maryland, Great Notion, who will turn 26-years-old Jan. 1, sired 55 stakes winners led by MGSW Future Is Now, MGSW Havelock and millionaire GSW Coastal Mission. On the track, the son of Elusive Quality broke his maiden on debut at Churchill Downs for Silverton Hill and trainer Darrin Miller. Silverton Hill, who purchased Great Notion as a yearling at Keeneland September in 2001 for $82,000, raced him across the country, winning...

Racing journalist and horseman Josh Pons has been named the recipient of the 2024 Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award, presented by the Ryan family's Castleton Lyons, for excellence in thoroughbred racing literature published in 2024. He received the winner's $10,000 check during a Nov. 6 reception at the Lexington, Ky., farm. Pons won for 'Letters from Country Life: Adolphe Pons, Man o' War, and the Founding of Maryland's Oldest Thoroughbred Farm', a retrospective of the Golden Age of racing as viewed through a remarkable trove of correspondence to his grandfather,...

Eclipse Award-winning jockey Axel Concepcion, who was named top apprentice in 2023, will return to the Mid Atlantic and make his first appearance at Colonial Downs this summer as the 20-year-old has joined the local riding colony for the 2025 summer session. "It feels great to be here," Concepcion said. "I want to take advantage of these opportunities that the trainers are giving me. My goal is to win as many races as I can and to try to win a title." No stranger to the Mid Atlantic circuit, Concepcion...

As noted last week, trainers can only amplify--not magnify--a horse's genetic legacy. D. Wayne Lukas was able to draw our attention to assets we might gladly replicate, but not even he could actually alter the genes available. In suggesting that he met his brief even more usefully with future broodmares than with sire prospects, this attorney admittedly left a star witness in the street in Serena's Song (Rahy)--whose 18-for-38 record, inside 30 months, advertised the toughness underpinning her class even more lavishly than Terlingua and others. But the point duly...

With all eyes on Maryland this week as Saturday's 150th running of the GI Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course takes center stage, a unique organization that highlights all that Maryland's Thoroughbred industry has to offer aims to keep that focus year-round. The Maryland Thoroughbred Partnership (MTP), launched earlier this year, was created by Maryland Thoroughbred industry leaders to educate the general public about the expansiveness of the industry behind the nationally recognized sport of horse racing, which makes up a large part of the state's greater equine industry. The...

The Maryland Jockey Club, Inc., a newly formed nonprofit entity charged with overseeing live Thoroughbred racing at Laurel Park, Pimlico Race Course and a new, state-of-the-art training facility built in Carroll County Maryland, has named its inaugural Board of Directors, the Maryland Thoroughbred Racetrack Operating Authority announced Friday. The MTROA, established to secure the long-term stability and modernization of Thoroughbred racing in the state, played a central role in establishing The Maryland Jockey Club, Inc. as a nonprofit operator that prioritizes the interests of horsemen, fans, and the broader Maryland...

If the countdown on their website is any indication, Colonial Downs can't wait to put on a show come Virginia Derby weekend during an inaugural three-day Spring meet held March 13-15. The New Kent, VA-based track, though known primarily for it's famous Secretariat Turf Course, stands ready to host a new dirt feature on the 'Road to the Kentucky Derby' in the Virginia Derby which will see a field of Triple Crown hopefuls travel 1 1/8 miles with Derby points being awarded to the top five finishers on a 50-25-15-10-5...

Let's acknowledge straightaway that this cursory look at some (and only some) of the major regional programs can represent little more than a gesture of respect. As a rule, after all, we're talking about stallions that serve an almost exclusively local market, and those that do so best will have a corresponding local reputation that scarcely needs amplifying. Moreover the same caveats apply, here, as to our recent survey of Kentucky options: namely, that the one or two we single out are purely subjective picks; and, above all, that you...

Bill Knauf, who has served Monmouth Park in a variety of roles--most recently its vice president of business development--for over a quarter-century, will take up the position of president and general manager of The Maryland Jockey Club Inc., a new 501(c) (4) organization to manage and operate Thoroughbred horse racing in the state. "We have found the perfect person to lead Maryland's groundbreaking efforts to reimagine and renew the racing experience," said Greg Cross, chairman of the Maryland Thoroughbred Racetrack Operating Authority (MTROA). "Bill not only has operating experience, but...