Current Champions

Maryland Bred Champions of 2011

Horse of the Year Ben's Cat 2YO male Jack's in the Deck

2YO filly Plum 3YO male Poseidon's Warrior

3YO filly Bold Affair Older female Ask the Moon

Turf runner Ben's Cat Older male Ben's Cat

Sprinter Ben's Cat Steeplechaser Incomplete

Past Champions

2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010

Horse of the Year \| Older Male \| Turf Runner \| Sprinter
BEN'S CAT
	(dk.b./br.c., Parker's Storm Cat�Two Fox, by Thirty Eight Paces) Breeder: K. T. Leatherbury Assoc. Inc. Owner: The Jim Stable Trainer: King T. Leatherbury
Jeremy Rose hopped off Ben�s Cat after the Maryland Million Turf Sprint in October and started talking. �Awesome. Just awesome. People said it was close. At no point was it close,� the jockey said of the 1-length win. �I had so much horse. To me, he�s the best horse at that distance on that surface in the country. He�s in the top three or four horses I�ve ridden and I�ve ridden some decent ones. He�s better than just a Maryland horse or just a Mid-Atlantic horse.� Rose might still be talking if he didn�t have to ride another horse. The Maryland-bred Horse of the Year for 2011 is that kind of Thoroughbred. Bred and trained by Maryland legend King T. Leather�bury, Ben�s Cat won six of his 11 starts, all in stakes, and earned $588,250 in 2011 while racing for Leatherbury�s The Jim Stable. The now 6-year-old son of former Maryland sire Parker�s Storm Cat took down champion sprinter, older male and turf runner honors as well, joining Heros Reward (2007-�08) and Les Arcs (2006) as the only Maryland-breds to be awarded as many divisional titles in one year. Sprinting on the turf, he lost just once � in the $200,000 Parx Dash in June � by a head. �He should have won that race,� Rose said. �I got him beat that day, got him shuffled a little bit around the turn. Otherwise, he�s undefeated at that distance on that surface.� His most important win came in the $350,000 Grade 3 Turf Mon�ster Handicap at Parx in September. He won twice on the main track � in Laurel Park�s Laurel Dash and Mister Diz Stakes, both which came off the turf. And he was a star at Pimlico on the day before the Preakness when motoring to victory in the Jim McKay Turf Sprint. Like most witnesses, Rose wanted to tackle the Breeders� Cup with the Maryland-bred but never got the chance when Leatherbury opted to pass on a shot at a $1 million purse on one of racing�s biggest stages in the Turf Sprint. Instead, the product of Leatherbury�s Thirty Eight Paces mare Twofox settled for being a local hero. Fans at Laurel on Maryland Million Day reveled in the victory as if they were partners in the horse, congratulating Leather�bury, showing off winning tickets, angling to get into the background of the winner�s circle photo. Considering that he broke his pelvis at 2, spent six months in a stall and first raced as a 4-year-old � for a $20,000 claiming price � the gelding�s feats grow more remarkable all the time. �There�s an old saying, horses come in all shapes and sizes, only some run faster than others, so who knows?� Leatherbury said. �I�m lucky, just lucky. Just a routine breeding thing that I�ve done many times. This one happened to hit, hit the jackpot. I had no idea he was going to be anything like this or I would have never run him for $20,000. He just got better and better and now he�s at the top of his game. Now he�s as good as he can be.� Ben�s Cat connects to a long line of Leatherbury�s by now deep and successful breeding program. Twofox placed in stakes. Her full-sister, Maryland-bred champion Thirty Eight Go Go, won graded stakes and $871,229, while another full-sister, Endette, produced $918,874 earner and Maryland-bred champion Ah Day. Twofox�s half-sister Notches Trace was also a Maryland-bred champion. The champion turf runner and sprinter of 2010, Ben�s Cat has 14 wins from 20 starts and $800,230 to his credit. The pursuit of $1 million starts in early April at Pimlico, but not before a well-deserved break (with turnout mate and relative Ah Day) at the farm of Charles and Barbara Stanley near Chesapeake City. �He got a chance to get out and roll around in the mud, kick up his heels,� Leatherbury said of the time off. �It�s the first chance he�s had to get a real break, and it was good for him. Rap on wood, he�s got no problems.�

Two Year Old Male
JACK'S IN THE DECK
	(dk.b./br.c., Speightstown�Poised to Pounce, by Smarten) Breeder: Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Bowman Owner: Skeedattle Associates Trainer: Robin Graham
Willie White and Lou Rehak have worked together for 33 years. They meet for an hour and 15 minutes every morning. At Laurel Park. From 6:30 to 7:45, the long-time friends watch their horses (trained by Hamilton Smith and Robin Graham), tell a few stories, hear a few lies and then go to work, selling overhead doors at their Mid-Atlantic Door Group, 15 minutes from Laurel. �We swing by there every morning. Both Robin and Ham know to train the horses between 6:30 and a quarter of 8,� White said. �The horses come out, we watch them, we drink a cup of coffee, read the paper, talk to all the guys around there, it�s a great way to start the day. We�ve been doing it for 20 years. There are so many characters in the racing business, so much fun, there�s a new story every day.� Last year, White and Rehak wrote another story for Skeedattle Associates. The 20-year partnership of White, Rehak and Bob Orndorff campaigned Jack�s in the Deck to a three-win campaign, including the Grade 2 Futurity at Belmont Park, to earn the Maryland-bred 2-year-old title. Bred by Dr. and Mrs. Tom Bowman, Jack�s in the Deck earned $217,010 in eight starts. The dark bay son of Love of Money finished off the board once from May to December. All because of a private yearling show by Becky Davis in the fall of 2010. The Bowmans� daughter showed the fourth foal from the unraced mare Thracian to Graham and Skeedattle while they were looking at some yearlings. White was hooked. �He just had a great walk, a big bold walk, a great shoulder,� White said. �We just thought he looked like our kind of horse. We were able to make a deal that day.� Educated and Delaware-certified at Lynn Ashby�s training center, Jack�s in the Deck came to Graham at Laurel and had her hooked too. He made his debut at Delaware Park, finishing second. Maiden races at Delaware failed to fill so Jack�s in the Deck went north for the $150,000 Futurity at Belmont and upset a field of six at 14-1. �Robin did a really great job with him,� White said. �When the Futurity came up, she was very confident that he was that kind of horse. With a precocious 2-year-old at that time of year for that kind of purse available, we thought we should take a shot. It worked out really well.� It was a rare time when a Skeedattle winner�s circle wasn�t overflowing. �None of us were there. My two daughters had babies a week apart. When he was winning the Futurity, my daughter was having her baby,� White said. �We were sitting in the waiting room and my partner Lou Rehak happened to be there with us, my wife, and the other siblings were there when it happened. As we were listening to the race call on the phone, things got very excited, people weren�t sure if we were having a baby or winning a race. It was a great day all around.� Jack�s in the Deck returned to finish third in the Grade 2 Sanford Stakes at Saratoga before picking up an allowance at Delaware Park in August. He finished fourth (but was elevated to third) in the Maryland Million Nursery, then two weeks later won the First State Dash at Delaware. The Maryland Juvenile Championship wrapped up his season � he was second upon the disqualification of King and Crusader. �He goes out there and tries every time. He doesn�t like the winter tracks. The jocks say he�s running but not getting a hold of the track,� White said. �He�s had the winter off and now he�s back in training. We�ll put him on the grass in the spring. Robin had him on the grass earlier and thought he really liked it. Hopefully he�ll have a good future there.�

Two Year Old Filly
PLUM
	(ch.f., Pure Prize�Bamba, by Not For Love) Bred and owned by Dark Hollow Farm Trainer: Rodney Jenkins
Four starts, three wins, a second, $86,070 in the bank. Plum did little wrong in 2011, rocketing to the Maryland-bred 2-year-old filly cham�pi�on�ship for owner/breeder Dark Hollow Farm and trainer Rodney Jenkins. Despite the success, Dark Hollow�s David Hayden insisted his filly �flies under the radar� with an attitude of calm and cool until she gets into a battle. �If she goes out by herself, 1:04 (for 5 furlongs) is blis�tering,� said Hayden. �But if she goes out with other horses, she�s really competitive and goes in a minute. She�s as tough as she has to be.� Plum (whose work tab includes bullets and the opposite) had to be plenty tough in her final start of 2011, a head victory over More Than a Cruise in the $75,000 Maryland Juvenile Filly Championship Stakes at Laurel Park going 7� furlongs on Dec. 17. The daughter of Pure Prize angled out from behind horses, summoned a challenge in mid-stretch and just got there for Travis Dunkelberger. Hayden and his wife JoAnn bred Plum�s dam, Bamba, a daughter of Not For Love, and sold her as a yearling. When her racing career ended, they bought her back and added her to their broodmare band. Plum, the third foal out of Bamba, called attention to herself at the farm. �When you live on the farm like we do, you can look out the window and see these alpha personalities,� Hayden said. �You remember them and she was one. She just made you pay attention to her.� Plum was sent to Fasig-Tip�ton�s 2010 Eastern Fall Year�ling Sale at Timonium. Hayden wanted $40,000. . . the bids stopped at $35,000.So Plum came home, grew up and in 2011 went to the racing stable � joining Jenkins at Laurel in time to make her debut in mid-September. Racing exclusively at her home track, she finished second going 1 mile, then rattled off three successive wins � a mile and a sixteenth maiden special on Nov. 2, a first-level allowance at a mile on Nov. 25, and then the stakes � to claim the divisional title. Hayden laughed when asked about the decision to send Bamba to Vinery Kentucky stallion Pure Prize. �The genius behind it was Not For Love [Bamba�s sire]was bred by the Phipps family and Pure Prize was too,� he said. �They�ve already done a whole lot of work breeding the best to the best for years and years, so we figured �why not?� � There�s a yearling full-sister at the farm now.

Champion 3-Year Old Male
POSEIDON'S WARRIOR
	(dk.b./br.c., Speightstown�Poised to Pounce, by Smarten) Breeder: Bred by Dark Hollow Farm and William P. Beatson Owner: Swilcan Stable Trainer: Robert E. Reid Jr.
When you are named for the Greek god of the sea, who was also known as �Earth Shaker,� you better be ready for a fight. Maryland-bred 3-year-old champion Poseidon�s War�rior lived up to his name � running nine times in 2011 (once every month from April through December), winning four and gaining a reputation as a tough customer in any Mid-Atlantic sprint. Racing for trainer Butch Reid, the son of Speightstown earned $244,937 to prevail in a strong division that included four-time winner Concealed Identity. The year started with back-to-back fourths in stakes company at Parx Racing and Presque Isle Downs. Shifted to a second-level allowance at Parx in June, Poseidon�s Warrior won gate-to-wire by 10 lengths over older rivals, �with speed to spare,� noted the chart. His time for 6 fur�longs was 1:08.18. Sold by Cash Is King Stable to Tom McGrath�s Swilcan Stable after that race, Poseidon�s Warrior delivered another powerful win, this time in the East Hanover Stakes at Penn National in late July. He battled up close early under Frankie Pennington and drew off late to score by 6� lengths in 1:09.36. Reid tried Saratoga and the Grade 1 King�s Bishop next, and Poseidon�s Warrior drew a few looks as a live longshot before fading to sixth behind Caleb�s Posse and Uncle Mo. No matter, the dark bay colt went back to work and finished second to Royal Currier � in a 1:07.51 track record-setting performance � in the $250,000 Gallant Bob Stakes at Parx, then put together another two-race skein. He dominated restricted foes in Delaware Park�s New Castle Stakes in October, getting 6 furlongs in 1:09.08 and winning by almost 2 lengths. In November, Poseidon�s Warrior faced off with Royal Currier once more and whipped his rival by 3� lengths in the Le Bagoter Stakes at Penn National, with the clock stopping at 1:09.67. A third behind Royal Currier and J J�s Lucky Train in the Valley Forge Stakes at Parx on Dec. 20 did little to diminish the campaign. The champion spent the winter at Eisaman Equine in Florida, and will return for a 2012 campaign. �He was just a notch away from the best sprinters,� said Reid of 2011. �Maturity will help him. Another year older, he might put some of that 3-year-old stuff behind him and improve. He�s going to have to earn it, but the [Grade 1] Breeders� Cup Sprint is the goal.� Bred by Dark Hollow Farm and William Beatson, Poseidon�s Warrior hails from a long line of Maryland heroes tracing back to Counterflight, a $1,500 Timonium auction purchase by owner/breeder John Merry�man in 1964. Counter�flight never raced, but produced 10 winners from 11 foals, including stakes winner Lady Lyndy (dam of $711,804-earner Smart �n Quick). Another Lady Lyndy daughter, Poised to Pounce, earned $62,420 on the track and continued the tradi�tion � producing Mary�land Million Classic-winning $455,240-earner Play Bingo, stakes winner Quick �n Smart, and now Poseidon�s Warrior, her last of nine foals. Beatson (a real estate developer in Annapolis) and Dark Hollow�s David Hayden bought the Smarten mare (carrying Play Bingo) in 2000 and sold most of her offspring. Poseidon�s Warrior was sold for $90,000 as a 2-year-old. �She got runners, just a great mare,� Hayden said of Poised to Pounce, who died in 2009 while carrying a Hard Spun foal. �Poseidon�s Warrior is a really, really nice horse and we�re happy he�s done as well as he has. We probably should have kept him, but he�s fun to watch.� His half-sister Popeye�s Lady (by Forest Wildcat) is part of the Dark Hollow broodmare band now.

Champion 3-Year Old Filly
BOLD AFFAIR
	(ch.f., Two Punch�Hunka Hunka Lori Z, by Colonial Affair) Bred and owned by Charles Reed and Michael Zanella Trainer: Howard Wolfendale.
Chip Reed has owned horses for 30 years, all the way back to when he had them with trainer Richard Ferris at Bowie Race Course. Mike Zanella bought his first horse in 1999. Reed�s longtime friend decided he wanted to get involved, so they put up $3,500 apiece to buy a yearling daughter by Colonial Affair at the 1999 Fasig-Tipton Mid�lantic Eastern Fall Yearling sale. �He always wanted to own horses. The first horse he was involved in was a multi-stakes winner,� Reed laughed. �He hasn�t tasted a lot of what I�ve tasted in the 30 years. We�ve had good luck together. Zanella�s first purchase, Hunka Hunka Lori Z, won seven races, including the Caesar�s Wish and Stefanita Stakes, and earned $266,533. Reed and Zanella have been enjoying the game ever since. Hunka Hunka Lori Z�s third foal, Bold Affair, won four races in 2011, including the $200,000 Jostle Stakes at Parx Racing, en route to the Maryland-bred 3-year-old filly championship. �It�s been fun,� Reed said. �It�s a thrill to have a nice horse.� Educated with Lynn Ashby in Delaware, the daughter of Two Punch joined Howard Wolfendale at Laurel but didn�t make her first start until April of her 3-year-old season. �She was real big so we were real slow and gave her a lot of time. Howard kept saying that her stride was so long that she could be nice, she would work well, but she had a lot of bumps and bruises along the way because she was so big. We just took our time. When she worked in the morning, it didn�t look like she was going as fast as she was, but her stride was so long, it was surprising to everybody. Howard knew after the second or third work that she could be okay.� From April 10 to May 20, Bold Affair won her first two starts, a maiden special and allowance, both at 6 furlongs at Pimlico, by a combined 11� lengths, then finished third in the Miss Preakness Stakes. She tackled the Jostle in June, winning by a length over Strike the Moon. A month later, she finished third in Monmouth�s Dearly Preci�ous Stakes before taking a breather. The chestnut returned on Dec. 13 at Parx, battling stakes winner Jealous Girl to take a 6-furlong allow�ance by a neck. �Ramon (Dominguez) said she would have won the Miss Preakness but she got stuck on the rail. We learned a lot that day, she has to be on the outside,� Reed said. �We got Stewart Elliot and said, �Look, just keep her to the outside [in the Jostle].� She went seven or eight wide and closed like a choo choo.� Reed and Zanella also campaign Bold Affair�s now 6-year-old full-sister, Lori Z�s Punch, who has won four races and $160,325. Based at Green Willow Farm in West�minster, Hunka Hunka Lori Z hasn�t been in foal since she gave birth to Bold Affair. �This is it, unless we can get her in foal again,� Reed said. �She has Cushing�s disease, the vet we�re using in Kentucky thinks we�re 50/50 to get her in foal this year, that�s what we�re hoping.� As for 2012, Bold Affair (an earner of $212,880) finished second to stakes winner Red�s Round Table in allowance company in January and aimed for a showdown with that rival in the Grade 2 Barbara Fritchie in February. After a Bold Affair win, you better get down to Reed�s Corner Stable Restaurant in Timonium or Columbia. �Oh yeah, we have a good following,� Reed said. �It�s a lot of fun. You�re not going to make a whole lot of money in the game so any time you win, you�ve got to enjoy it.� Bold Affair has done her share.

Champion Older Female
ASK THE MOON
	(b.m., 2005, Malibu Moon�Always Asking, by Valid Appeal) Breeder: Mr. and Mrs. Charles McGinnes and Country Life Farm Owner: Farnsworth Stables Trainer Marty Wolfson
Two races do not make a career, but they can go a long way toward boosting a reputation. Maryland-bred older female champion of 2011 Ask the Moon won the right two races this summer � back-to-back Grade 1 triumphs at Saratoga � to vault into the upper echelon of the national distaff picture. The daughter of Malibu Moon ran away with the Ruffian, going wire-to-wire at a mile and an eighth, while pulling an 18-1 shocker, on July 31. She parlayed that triumph into another front-running masterpiece, this time at 1� miles as the favorite, in the Personal Ensign Invita�tional on Sept. 3. The victories earned her two more Grade 1 starts, both defeats, and a ticket to Fasig-Tipton�s Nov�em�ber mixed sale � where she sold for $800,000 as a broodmare prospect to SF Bloodstock, a group headed by Australian Gavin Murphy. Not bad for a $75,000 claim in five months earlier. Through her first 29 starts, Ask the Moon raced for trainer Ned Allard and owners Cheval Corporation and Millicent Johnsen � winning eight times. She captured the 2007 Maryland Juvenile Filly Championship and placed in several other stakes at Mid-Atlantic tracks. On June 15, 2011, Allard took her to Belmont Park and she was claimed by Farns�worth Farm and trainer Gary Con�tessa. Second that day, she finished third in the Sky Beauty Stakes two weeks later, then joined Marty Wolfson�s stable at Monmouth Park. The Ruffian and Personal Ensign were her first two starts for Wolfson. �It�s beyond anything we ever thought,� said the trainer�s assistant Heather Irions at Saratoga. �She�s a lot of fun, she�s eager to train and happy about training, she�s just all class.� Ask the Moon faltered in the Grade 1 Lady�s Secret at Santa Anita in October, then finished sixth behind Royal Delta in the Breeders� Cup Ladies� Classic-G1 at Churchill Downs to end her season with two wins from seven starts and $352,160 earned. The champion Maryland-bred 2-year-old filly of 2007 nearly didn�t come to be. In 2003, breeders Charlie and Cynthia McGinnes sent a mare to Country Life Farm stallion Malibu Moon with a right to a return breeding. The mare failed to get in foal, but Malibu Moon had moved to Kentucky�s Spendthrift Farm and gone up considerably in price � putting the return in question. Despite the changes, Country Life honored the return, the McGinnesses sent another mare (Always Asking, by Valid Appeal) to Kentucky and named the Pons family�s farm co-breeder of a future Grade 1 winner. �They didn�t have to do that, because it wasn�t in the original contract� said Cynthia McGinnes. �It just goes to show you that when you do the right thing good things happen. Ask the Moon was our first Breeders� Cup starter so it�s nice to produce a horse that made it on to the national scene after all these years.� Now 19, Always Asking gets bred every other year because of her age. She has an Old Fashioned yearling filly and is being bred to Exchange Rate in 2012.

Champion Steeplechaser
INCOMPLETE
	(b.g., 2001, Press Card�Sioux Lady, by Poker) Breeder: Hugo Procopio Owner: Robert A. Kinsley Trainer: Ann D. Stewart
Things happen in seven years. Wars, itches, long college careers. And, every now and then, complete career overhauls for Thoroughbreds. Seven years after starting 22 times as a 3-year-old, Incomplete is a Maryland-bred steeplechase champion. The son of Press Card won one timber stakes and placed in two others to win the crown in his fifth season as a steeplechase horse for owner Bob Kinsley and trainer Ann Stewart. The success was a long way from the horse�s career beginning, which included two starts as a juvenile in 2003 and then the busy 3-year-old season. That arduous journey started Jan. 19, 2004, and didn�t end until New Year�s Eve. He made all the local stops � Laurel, Pimlico, Timonium, Colonial Downs � and won twice (for claiming prices of $10,000 and $15,000) for Marilyn Procopio and trainer Greg Wilson. By March 2005, Incomplete was out of options � he finished seventh while racing for a $5,000 tag at Laurel � and was sold to horsewoman Dawn Williams. She remem�bered him from his flat days and had worked with his half-brothers Calico Sioux and Sioux Sunset (who went on to second careers as a stee�ple�chaser and a show horse, respectively). Williams in turn sold Incomplete as a fox�hunter for Stewart�s daughter Beth Garner, only Incomplete was no lady�s hunter. Author of Maryland Hunt Cup winners Ivory Poacher, Swayo and Askim (NZ), among others, Stewart went to work and created a timber star. Incomplete won his first three National Steeplechase Association starts, including the 2009 My Lady�s Manor stakes by more than 10 lengths. The progress derailed slightly in 2010, but he returned in 2011 with three quality starts in a five-start campaign. In the spring, he finished second by a neck to Private Attack in the Grand National and lost his rider with a mistake while well beaten in the Maryland Hunt Cup. Stewart regrouped for fall, rare for her. �If they win the Hunt Cup for me, they don�t come back in the fall, but it�s hard to tell your owner that that was your star performance,� she said. �After the Hunt Cup, it was hard to be confident.� Stewart started Incomplete at Middleburg, Va., on Oct. 1, and he finished 71 lengths behind the winner in little more than a tightener. Two weeks later, Incomplete overpowered seven others, including stakes winners Aero and G�day G�day, in the $50,000 Inter�national Gold Cup at Great Meadow in The Plains, Va. Seven days after the Gold Cup score, Incomplete looked like a winner late in the $50,000 New Jersey Hunt Cup at Far Hills, N.J., before a mistake at the second-last nearly dislodged Mark Beecher. Incomplete dropped back to fourth, regained stride and closed to be second in a game effort. The 2011 season gave Incomplete four wins and two seconds in 10 NSA starts over jumps.