Timonium

Trainer Gary Contessa selected a Street Sense filly as grand champion of the 87th annual Maryland Horse Breeders Association (MHBA)'s Yearling Show. The show was held Sunday at the Timonium Fairgrounds with the filly bred by the late Robert T. Manfuso out of GSW Belterra (Unbridled) prevailing. The winner is owned by Katharine Voss of Chanceland Farm and shown by the farm's manager Casey Randall. "We all know that on a horse, the engine is in the rear, and she's got like a 400 horsepower engine in that rear end,"...

The Week in Review, by T.D. Thornton Two months before Arlington International Racecourse is scheduled to run what is feared to be the historic track's final race, Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI), the gaming corporation that owns the up-for-sale landmark, has reportedly requested an application for 2022 race dates from the Illinois Racing Board. But as columnist Jim O'Donnell of the Daily Herald in suburban Chicago put it in his Friday scoop of this story, "What the carnivorous CDI will do with the application remains to be seen." With a July...

TIMONIUM, MD - The Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale returned to its traditional May spot on the calendar with an ebullient session topped by a $1.5-million son of Quality Road at the Maryland State Fairgrounds Monday. The seven-figure purchase was the co-highest priced colt ever sold at the Timonium auction, tying the price of a Curlin colt sold in 2017. "It was unbelievable," Midlantic Sales Director Paget Bennett said at the close of business Monday. "The activity in the barn area over the weekend was strong and all of...

The under-tack show ahead of next week's Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale begins Tuesday morning at 8 a.m. at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium. Catalogued hips one through 195 are slated to work Tuesday, with hips 196 through 390 working Wednesday and hips 391 to 587 working at the show's final session Thursday. The Midlantic sale will be held next Monday and Tuesday with bidding beginning each day at 11 a.m. Last year's Midlantic sale, which was delayed until late June due to the pandemic, was topped by...

Difficulties with the dirt track base repair and cushion resurfacing project at Laurel Park continue to mount, with the loose-ended timetable for the work now expected to extend at least until the start of July. Executives with The Stronach Group (TSG), which owns both Laurel and Pimlico Race Course, said during a Friday tele-meeting that they now need to pause work on the problematic and expensive project at Laurel until management can relocate of all horses stabled at Laurel to other facilities in Maryland. This news was delivered two weeks...

A total of 204 horses of all ages, including broodmares, yearlings and weanlings, have been cataloged for the main section of the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Mixed Sale to be held Tuesday, Dec. 8, at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium. "As the last mixed sale of the calendar year, Midlantic December annually provides quality buying opportunities for both regional and national breeding and racing operations," said Midlantic Director of Sales Paget Bennett. "This year's catalogue offers large groups of in-foal mares and weanlings that should be attractive draws to prospective buyers."...

The Timonium race meet that got scrapped because of the pandemic this summer could to be back in action in 2021. The Maryland Racing Commission approved a 10-date slate for next year at its Oct. 22 meeting, with a new wrinkle to the schedule. "One thing that is a little different here, they're also requesting, in addition to the seven days they normally would run during the state fair, [permission to operate Sept.] 10th, 11th and 12, which is a weekend after the fair is closed," J. Michael Hopkins, the...

TIMONIUM, MD - With action building throughout the day, the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Fall Yearlings Sale concluded with a bevy of six-figure transactions Tuesday and statistics nearly on par with the 2019 auction in Timonium. "Overall, it was a very, very solid sale statistically," Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning, Jr. said at the close of business Tuesday evening. "The average is virtually identical to last year and the median is identical to last year. The RNA rate overall is just slightly over 20%. The gross is up significantly because of the bigger...

In advance of the upcoming Midlantic Fall Yearlings Sale in Timonium, Fasig-Tipton has announced that the following COVID-19 protocols will be in place in accordance with Maryland regulations: -Screening measures, including temperature checks and health screening questions, will be in place to gain admittance to the sales grounds for all staff, participants and attendees; -Cloth face coverings are required in accordance with U.S. CDC recommendations; -Participants will not be allowed to congregate. At least six feet of distance must be maintained between people; -Seating capacity in the sales pavilion will...

Fasig-Tipton has catalogued 553 yearlings for its 2020 Midlantic Fall Yearlings Sale to be held Oct. 5-6. The auction, which will be held immediately following the rescheduled GI Preakness S. Oct. 3, will be conducted at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium. Hips 1-200 will be offered in the Monday session, which will begin at 1 pm. The sale will begin with a large group of New York-breds, which are catalogued together as hips 1-154. Hips 201-553 will be offered in the Tuesday session, which will begin at 10 am....

Due to current travel restrictions in place in New York State to prevent the spread of COVID-19, officials at Fasig-Tipton have announced that the Saratoga Fall Sale, scheduled for Oct. 20, will not go forward as planned. It will instead be combined with the company's Midlantic December Mixed and Horses of Racing Age Sale and will take place in Timonium Dec. 7 and 8. Governor Andrew Cuomo's New York Travel Advisory requires any individuals that travel to New York--from any of the states currently listed--to complete a mandatory 14-day quarantine...

TIMONIUM, MD - The Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale, delayed two months due to the coronavirus pandemic, opened Monday with trepidation in the air, but the clouds of fear and doubt dissipated and, for two days at least, there was a feeling of a return to normalcy in the industry. The auction featured solid demand for horses at all levels and concluded with a remarkable 19.2% buy-back rate. "We had a terrific day Monday and I said I hoped and prayed that we could keep the momentum going and...