Maryland Million

If the saga over the supposedly pending sale of now-closed Turf Paradise was a soap opera, its title would surely be "AZ the World Turns." The state's racing is hanging in the balance amid an increasingly acrimonious long-term feud between the track's owner and horsemen, leading one trainer at last Thursday's Arizona Racing Commission meeting to liken the horse community's predicament to children "being used as pawns in a divorce battle" by vindictive parents on the verge of a nasty split. Although TDN's original story about that Oct. 12 commission...

The longest shot on the board got elevated to victory via disqualification of the 5-1 rival who beat him by a neck in the featured $150,000 Classic S. on the 38th annual Jim McKay Maryland Million program Saturday at Laurel Park. Ain't Da Beer Cold (Freedom Child), dismissed by the betting public at 36-1, led the field until the quarter pole under Jevian Toledo when Market Maven (Super Ninety Nine) seemingly put him away. But Ain't Da Beer Cold refused to quit, digging in and reclaiming the lead a half-furlong...

Betty McCue has been selected as the winner of the Maryland Million 2023 Joe Kelly Unsung Hero Award. Presented by the Board of Directors of Maryland Million Ltd, the award honors the memory of Maryland Million publicist Joe Kelly and celebrates important characteristics that are valuable, but sometimes go overlooked. McCue runs EHM Stables with her sister, Evelyn Martin, offering lessons, boarding, lay-ups, sales and leases. In addition, McCue is very active in pony racing. She maintains a large stable of ponies and is an avid participant in the U.S....

The legendary 26-time stakes winner and fan favorite Ben's Cat and star foxhunter Mountain Dew are the newest inductees into the Maryland-Bred Thoroughbred Hall of Fame after a vote by a committee of Maryland racing industry members coordinated by the Maryland Horse Breeders Association and Maryland Racing Media Association. A son of Parker's Storm Cat, Ben's Cat did not debut until his 4-year-old season after breaking his pelvis at two, an injury that required six months of stall rest. He won his first two career starts in claiming company and...

Dale Capuano will conclude his 41-year training career with the ending of the year, transferring his 35-horse stable over to his nephew Phillip Capuano. "I've been thinking about it the last couple of years. This business, for me anyway, it's all I do," Capuano, one of the leading trainers in Maryland history, said. "I've reached a point in my life where I want to do some other things besides get up at 4 o'clock in the morning and work six or seven days a week. It's time for me to...

Located in the heart of historic Reisterstown, Md., just down the road from Sagamore Farm, Hall of Fame steeplechase trainer Jack Fisher's Kingfisher Farm, and GreenMount Farm, the birthplace of 2021 Horse of the Year Knicks Go (Paynter), sits the newly opened Maryland Horse Library and Education Center. The one-of-a-kind facility, honoring the robust history of horses in Maryland and serving as a hub for educating the next generation, is housed in the Maryland Horse Breeders Association (MHBA)'s building. The stately brick structure with large, white columns, was originally built...

Sam Huff, who made his mark in both the NFL and in thoroughbred racing as an owner-breeder and the co-founder of the West Virginia Breeders Classics, died Saturday. Huff, who had been suffering from dementia since 2013, was 87. Huff, a third-round draft choice of the New York Giants in 1956, discovered racing during his time in New York when he would frequent Aqueduct and Belmont. Huff was traded to the Washington Redskins before the 1964 season and retired in 1969. After his playing days were done, he devoted more...

One-to-five favorite Hello Beautiful (Golden Lad) glided unopposed through the Laurel Park homestretch in the $100,000 Distaff S. to win a Maryland Million Day stakes for the third consecutive year while 12-1 frontrunner Prendimi (Dance With Ravens) uncorked a gritty display of tenacity to finally break through in his third attempt to win the  $150,000 Classic S., the feature event on Saturday's eight-stakes card for the offspring of in-state stallions. A trio of Maryland stallions registered two-win days on the 36th annual Jim McKay Maryland Million program: Great Notion, the...

Great Notion, Maryland's annual leading sire by earnings since 2018, showcased the prowess of his progeny on the 35th Jim McKay Maryland Million program at Laurel Park Saturday by accounting for four of the eight winners of stakes carded for the offspring of stallions standing in Maryland. The grand slam marks the 11th consecutive year that Great Notion has sired at least one winner on Maryland Million day. Not to be outdone, jockey Sheldon Russell blasted home a quartet of winners as well, three of them in stakes. He captured...

For parts of 2017 and 2018, Bob Haynes couldn't have been doing worse. He was in his mid-sixties and heart problems had left him struggling to deal with everyday life. He had no energy and spent his days lying in bed. Today, that dark period in his life is just a memory. He has recovered mentally and physically and is optimistic about his future. He owes his turn of fortune to the doctors who performed open heart surgery on him and to those who worked with him during a four-month...