2005 Maryland-bred champions

Horse of the year Older male
Cherokee’s Boy

B.h., 2000, by Citidancer—Cherokee Wonder, by Cherokee Colony; bred and owned by ZWP Stable; trained by Gary Capuano. Foaled at Halcyon Farm, Lutherville.
“It’s about time he got some respect,” proclaimed Foard Wilgis, co-owner of 2005 Maryland-bred horse of the year and champion older male Cherokee’s Boy. Wilgis can be forgiven for expressing irritation over what he has perceived as a lack of recognition for the runner he terms his “iron horse.”

The versatile son of Citi­dancer has performed admirably in all four of his seasons on the race track, winning stakes from ages 2 through 5. He was voted Maryland-bred champion juvenile of 2002. But it was as a 5-year-old that Cherokee’s Boy truly exploded, asserting himself as perhaps the Mid-Atlantic’s top handicap runner with five stakes scores at four different tracks, and seven victories in 12 starts overall. By the time he closed out 2005 with a crushing six and a quarter-length triumph in Laurel Park’s Jennings Handicap, he had moved into 16th place among all-time Maryland-bred money-earners, with $969,886.
Along with their trainer, Gary Capuano, Wilgis and his partner, David Picarello (the “W” and “P,” respectively, in ZWP Stable—the “Z” member dropped out years ago), sent out Cherokee’s Boy to take Delaware Park’s Brandywine Handicap, Monmouth Park’s Skip Away Stakes and Salvator Mile Handicap-G3, and Charles Town’s HBPA Governor’s Cup Handicap in 2005; he also finished second in Delaware’s Eight Thirty Stakes and in Laurel’s Maryland Million Sprint (immediately behind 2005 Maryland-bred champion sprinter Saay Mi Name), and third in Laurel’s Charles H. Hadry Stakes. In a remarkably consistent campaign, he missed hitting the board only once.

Furthermore, Cherokee’s Boy won from seven furlongs to a mile and an eighth; on fast tracks and in the mud; as a frontrunner and as a stalker. “He does it all,” proclaimed Wilgis.
In 1992, Wilgis and Picarello jumped into Thoroughbred ownership when they bought Cherokee’s Boy’s dam, Cherokee Wonder, as their first horse, paying $5,500 for the yearling filly at the Fasig-Tipton December Mixed sale. She provided a extraordinary return on investment, winning eight of 51 starts, including stakes victories at Laurel and Delaware, while earning $284,005 over five seasons.

The pair ventured into breeding next, sending Cherokee Wonder to Chimes Band. More success. A 1999 filly, Runnin Wonder, resulted from that match, and she ultimately placed in both the Heavenly Cause and Carousel Stakes. Even better, Cherokee Wonder produced Cherokee’s Boy the next year.

But Wilgis and Picarello’s fabulous roll skidded to a halt in 2001 when one of the brutal realities of the game manifested itself: Cherokee Wonder, in foal to Citidancer, contracted colic. She died that spring, and despite valiant efforts to rescue her foal, the colt lived less than two weeks.

Runnin Wonder may yet make up for those losses. Retired after three seasons on the race track, she joined Wilgis and Picarello’s broodmare band, producing her first foal, a Maria’s Mon colt, in 2005, and then was bred to Harlan’s Holiday.

And, of course, there’s the “iron horse.” Cherokee’s Boy now boasts a lifetime record of 16 victories in 40 starts, a dozen of those wins occurring in stakes races. Declared “one hundred percent healthy” by Wilgis, Cherokee’s Boy is slated to return to the Mid-Atlantic handicap ranks this season to defend his horse of the year title—and in the process earn even more respect.

Two-year-old filly
Celestial Legend

Ch.f., 2003, by City Zip—Lunar’s Legend, by Polish Numbers; bred by William Fitzgibbons Sr. and David H. Wade; owned by Richard Schultz and David Menard; trained by Dale Capuano. Foaled at Sycamore Hall Farm, Chesapeake City.
Undefeated in four 2005 starts, Celestial Legend swept to her divisional championship with the same ease that she polished off her rivals in Laurel Park’s Toddler Stakes and the Meadowlands’s Holly Stakes. Eager for the lead, she put away any foe foolish enough to challenge her in the opening furlongs of both of those races, and then drew away to score by daylight margins. Earlier, in a September allowance at Laurel, she pulverized her field by 13 lengths.

“It’s nice to have a young horse that has this type of talent,” noted her trainer, Dale Capu­ano. “We just kind of try to find the right spot for them. Her owners have been great. They don’t press me.”

Given the results thus far, why would any owner meddle? As a yearling Celestial Legend passed from one set of partners to another when co-owners Richard Schultz and David Menard purchased her for $45,000 from co-breeders Bill Fitzgibbons and David Wade at the 2004 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July Yearling sale.

Fitzgibbons campaigned Celestial Legend’s dam, Lunar’s Legend, after purchasing her as a yearling for $13,500 at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic December Mixed Sale in 1994; over three seasons she won four races, worth $44,007 in earnings.
When Fitzgibbons retired Lunar’s Legend, he persuaded Wade, the longtime manager of Richard Golden’s Sycamore Hall Farm in Chesapeake City, to join him in breeding the mare. Wade had previously overseen the successful management of Fitzgibbons’s stakes-producing broodmare Arctic Cloud.

Wisely, Fitzgibbons deferred all mating decisions regarding Lunar’s Legend to Wade, who, on his own or in partnership, has now bred six stakes performers, two of whom have been voted Maryland-bred champions: Sparkling Number (3-year-old filly in 2001) and Celestial Legend. Wade arranged for Lunar’s Legend—her previous foals include the stakes-placed Legendary Journey—to be bred to City Zip, a son of Carson City.

That mating resulted in Celestial Legend, and since then Lunar’s Legend has produced a Broken Vow colt, who as a weanling sold for $18,000 at the 2004 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic December Mixed Sale, and a Not For Love yearling. Bred to Domestic Dispute for 2006, she is booked to City Zip.

Two-year-old male
Vegas Play

B.c., 2003, by Exploit—Power Play, by Fast Play; bred by Nancy M. Leonard Living Trust; owned by Harry C. Meyerhoff and Tom O. Meyerhoff; trained by Grover G. Delp. Foaled at Glade Valley Farms, Frederick.

El Viento B.c., 2003, by El Corredor—Taft Lil Queen, by Irish Open; bred by Mr. and Mrs. Charles McGinnes; owned by Establo Viva Mi Calle; trained by Salvador Correa. Foaled at Thornmar, Chestertown.

Both a blessing and a curse, the dead heat produces twice as many winners while halving the prize. Faced with a textbook case of glass half-full/glass half-empty, the owners and breeders of Vegas Play and El Viento likely take an optimistic view of the tie between their colts for 2005 Maryland-bred champion juvenile male.

Vegas Play made his reputation on both turf and dirt, breaking his maiden on Colonial Downs’s grass course, while notching his initial stakes score, the Maryland Juvenile Championship Stakes on Laurel Park’s main track. Both races were contested at one mile. He also finished third in Delaware Park’s one-mile Whirling Ash Stakes.

Offered on the final day of the year and restricted to state-breds, the Maryland Juvenile Championship was fraught with trouble for Vegas Play, who overcame monumental difficulties, particularly an unscheduled collision with the inner rail, to prevail by a half-length. The victory pointed up both his athleticism and determination, encouraging indications for father/son co-owners Harry C. and Tom O. Meyerhoff, as well as for their trainer, Buddy Delp, the team that sent out Spectacular Bid to Horse of the Year honors in 1980.
Bred by the Nancy M. Leonard Living Trust, Vegas Play was bought by the Meyerhoffs for $40,000 at the 2004 Keeneland September Yearling sale. Nancy Leonard and her husband, Dr. Robert Leonard, bred and campaigned the colt’s dam, 14-year-old Power Play (by Fast Play), who won two stakes, including the Grade 3 Delaware Handicap in 1997 as a 5-year-old, and placed in 10 other stakes, most notably the John A. Morris Handicap-G1 at Saratoga. In five seasons on the track she earned $469,176.

Vegas Play is Power Play’s first stakes winner, although the mare’s 2000 filly Skipper’s Mate (by Skip Away) is stakes-placed.

In 2005, Power Play foaled an El Corredor filly who was sold for $77,000 as a weanling at Keeneland’s 2005 November Breeding Stock sale; and she is due this spring to the cover of Dixie Union. At press time the Leonards’ plans for Power Play in 2006 remained undetermined.

Interestingly, the only other time Maryland-bred co-champions were named, the Leonards also shared the glory. In 1969, their 2-year-old Rollicking was named juvenile champion along with Duc by Right. Rollicking would go on to a long and distinguished stud career at Glade Valley Farms in Frederick, a facility then managed and co-owned by Dr. Leonard.
Seldom does a Maryland-bred warrant a divisional championship based on races outside the continental U.S., yet El Viento earned his half of the juvenile crown while competing exclusively at Puerto Rico’s El Comandante, where he utterly obliterated his competition.
El Viento took four of his seven starts, with a pair of second-place finishes, winning from the absurdly short distance of one and a half furlongs to a mile and a sixteenth. Three of his four scores occurred in added-money events—the Clasico Jose C. Vidal, the Clasico Dia del Fana­tico Hipico and the Clasico Agustin Mercado Reveron (all Grade 1 in Puerto Rico)—each contested on an off track. Overall, he banked $135,500 for owner Establo Viva Mi Calle and trainer Salvador Correa.

Stalwart Maryland owner/breeders Charles and Cynthia McGinnes bred El Viento, the second foal produced from their Irish Open mare Taft Lil Queen. With Buzz Chace as agent, the colt sold for $150,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Eastern Fall Yearling sale in 2004. He was sold privately as a 2-year-old to Establo Viva Mi Calle.

On the track in the late 1990s, Taft Lil Queen proved to be both versatile and durable, winning 11 of 53 career starts—in dirt sprints and routes, as well as on the turf. Like her son, she excelled over an off surface, and she counted among her victories the 1998 Cy-Fair Stakes at Sam Houston Race Park, while placing in six other stakes events.
Not covered in 2003, Taft Lil Queen produced a Kafwain filly in 2005, and was bred back to Not For Love.


Three-year-old male
Declan’s Moon

Dk.b./br.g., 2002, by Malibu Moon—Vee Vee Star, by Norquestor; bred by Brice Ridgely; owned by Jay Em Ess Stable; trained by Ronald W. Ellis. Foaled at Spring Meadow Farm, Cooksville.

Hopes and expectations ran high for Declan’s Moon when he stepped onto Santa Anita’s main track on March 5, 2005, for the mile and a sixteenth Santa Catalina Stakes-G2. His stature as the Eclipse Award-winning 2-year-old male had catapulted the gelding into the role of favorite not only for the Santa Catalina, but also for the Kentucky Derby. So no one was particularly astonished when Declan’s Moon easily annexed the Santa Catalina by two lengths, extending his undefeated streak to five races, validating his divisional leadership and raising the hopes and expectations of his connections even higher.

Which made the news that Declan’s Moon emerged from the Santa Catalina with a bone chip in his left front knee—necessitating minor surgery and precluding his participation in the Triple Crown races—all the more devastating for owners Samantha and Mace Siegel, the California-based daughter/father duo who race under the name of Jay Em Ess Stable, and for Declan’s Moon’s trainer, Ron Ellis.

Declan’s Moon, now a two-time Maryland-bred champion, having reigned as the state’s Horse of the Year and champion juvenile male in 2004, was purchased by the Siegels for $125,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Eastern Fall Yearling sale in 2003 as part of agent Bill Reightler’s consignment. Bred by veteran Maryland horseman Brice Ridgely, the Malibu Moon gelding was tabbed a potential star even before he entered the sales ring, taking top honors in a class of 23 state-bred colts and geldings at the 2003 Maryland Horse Breeders Association’s Yearling Show judged by Barclay Tagg.

His dam, Vee Vee Star, raced for Ridgely, finishing third in a pair of stakes—the Black-Eyed Susan-G2 and Caesar’s Wish—while victorious in two of 10 starts.
Declan’s Moon was Vee Vee Star’s second foal. Since his birth she has produced the 3-year-old Dave’s Jet (by Unbridled Jet), who brought a final bid of $70,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Eastern Fall Yearling sale; and the 2-year-old colt Ron’s Partner (by Partner’s Hero). She was barren for 2005. In an attempt to recapture the magic, Vee Vee Star was bred to Malibu Moon for this year.

Declan’s Moon never returned to the races in 2005. After he recovered from surgery, he eventually resumed training, but was relegated to the sidelines for a second time when a nuclear scan performed this past fall showed some weakening in the cannon bone of the same leg.

With luck—something sorely lacking for him in the past year—Declan’s Moon will establish himself among the leaders of the handicap division this season. 


Three-year-old filly
Maddalena

Ch.f., 2002, by Good and Tough—Two Foxie, by Fair Skies; bred by Alan Hilburg; owned by Michael B. Tabor and Derrick Smith; trained by Todd A. Pletcher. Foaled at Summer Wind Farm, Libertytown.

A hot commodity in the sales ring who evolved into a star on the race track, Maddalena blazed to a pair of added-money wins in 2005, dominating Gulfstream Park’s Grade 3 Old Hat Stakes by seven and a quarter lengths, while also triumphing in Delaware Park’s Legal Light Stakes over a sloppy strip. Additionally, she posted three gutsy runner-up efforts: in Belmont Park’s Grade 1 Prioress Stakes; in Laurel Park’s Grade 3 Safely Kept Breeders’ Cup Stakes; and in Saratoga’s Victory Ride Stakes.

Maddalena earned $223,100 in nine 2005 starts, all at distances of six to seven furlongs while racing on—or close to— the lead. Add in the money she made as a 2-year-old, and Maddalena accumulated $245,420 through the end of 2005. While that’s undeniably a nice sum, she is still working on paying for herself, given that owners Michael B. Tabor and Derrick Smith, via super agent Demi O’Byrne, plunked down $425,000 to purchase her from the Fasig-Tipton Florida Select 2-Year-Olds in Training sale in February 2004. At the time, her value was in rapid ascent. The previous September, Billy Badgett bought her for $60,000 from the consignment of Summer Wind Farm, agent, for breeder Alan Hilburg, at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Eastern Fall Yearling sale at Timonium.

Maddalena wound up in high-powered hands: Tabor and Smith command a far-flung international stable that includes recent top U.S.-based runners Bandini, Lion Heart and Pomeroy, among many others; meanwhile, her trainer, Todd Pletcher, has been honored with an Eclipse Award as the nation’s leading conditioner in each of the past two years.
Two Foxie, Maddalena’s dam, has lived a somewhat peripatetic existence as a broodmare. After enjoying modest success as a race horse, she was purchased as a broodmare by Jerry and Laurie Calhoun of Summer Wind. Two Foxie produced a pair of foals for the couple, who then sold her to northern Virginia businessman Alan Hilburg—his lone broodmare. Two Foxie produced two foals for Hilburg, including Maddalena, before being sold in 2004 to partners Ned Williams and Mike Matese, who board her at Summer Wind.

Although Two Foxie was barren for 2005, she was bred to Cuvee for 2006—no doubt in an effort to reproduce Maddalena’s blistering speed. Both Maddalena’s sire, Good and Tough, and Cuvee are sons of Carson City. 


Older female
Silmaril

Dk.b./br.m., 2001, by Diamond—Kattebuck, by Spend a Buck; bred and owned by Stephen E. Quick and Christopher J. Feifarek; trained by Christopher W. Grove. Foaled at St. Omer’s Farm, Forest Hill.

“I was shocked.” So said longtime Maryland horsewoman Sue Quick not long after Silmaril, who campaigns as a homebred for Quick, her husband Stephen, and Towson (Md.) radiologist Christopher Feifarek, crossed the finish line three-quarters of a length in front of 2004 champion 3-year-old filly Ashado in the Pimlico Breeders’ Cup Distaff Handicap-G3 this past May. “I didn’t think she had a shot to beat Ashado,” said Quick.

Few people did. That day only three rivals, including Silmaril, could be coaxed to face Ashado, who would go on to win the 2005 Eclipse Award as the nation’s best older female. But Silmaril, trained by Chris Grove, relished Pimlico’s sloppy main track for the Pimlico Breeders’ Cup Distaff, closing from just off the pace under jockey Ryan Fogelsonger to pass Ashado through the stretch. That score capped a 4-year-old campaign that also saw Silmaril win Laurel Park’s Nellie Morse Stakes in January and Pimlico’s Northview Stallion Station Stakes in April, not forgetting a strong third in Laurel’s Grade 2 Barbara Fritchie Handicap in February and a close fourth in Aqueduct’s Grade 2 Distaff Breeders’ Cup Handicap in March.

Foaled at the Quicks’ St. Omer’s Farm in Forest Hill, Silmaril has won a total of six stakes and $408,410. From the first crop of Diamond, she is the fifth foal and initial stakes winner for her dam, Kattebuck. “You wouldn’t have picked her [Silmaril] out of a crowd,” Sue Quick noted. “She was always well-behaved, and she’s the kind that never does anything wrong.”

The same could be said for Silmaril’s granddam Kattegat’s Pride, a three-time Maryland-bred champion in the mid-1980s who was the first race horse bred by the Quicks.
As of the end of January, Silmaril’s half-brother Our Rey (by Our Emblem), also owned by Quick and Feifarek, had raced twice unsuccessfully in maiden special wight company. Meanwhile, her full sister is now a yearling, and Kattebuck is due to foal in 2006 to Not For Love.

Following a three-month rest, Silmaril returned to training in early January, with high hopes for a successful 2006 campaign.


Sprinter
Saay Mi Name

Ch.g., 2000, by Not For Love—Miss Flutie Brown, by Salutely; bred by Wayne M. Bailey and Urban L. Deiter Jr.; owned and trained by Wayne M. Bailey. Foaled at Waymar Stables, Glenn Dale.

Saay Mi Name brings back memories of the days when Thoroughbreds routinely went to the post 15—or 20 or 25 times—a year. The flinty Not For Love gelding started 15 times in 2005—at seven different race tracks—appearing at least once in each month except June. Equally impressive, he won five races (three in stakes company), with three seconds and two thirds, while earning $258,222, running from five and a half furlongs to one mile. A sprinter, certainly, but with a marathoner’s sensibility.

Owned and trained by Wayne Bailey, who co-bred the gelding with his father-in-law, Urban Deiter, Saay Mi Name opened the year in January with a third-place finish in a six-furlong allowance at Philadelphia Park, and concluded it in December with a third-place finish (beaten a neck for first) in Aqueduct’s six-furlong Gravesend Handicap-G3. In between he snagged Colonial Downs’s Chesapeake Stakes, Delaware Park’s Hockessin Stakes and, most notably, the Maryland Million Sprint, in which he defeated 2005 Maryland-bred Horse of the Year Cherokee’s Boy.

Saay Mi Name represents a payoff of sorts for Bailey’s extraordinary patience and perseverance in the face of relentless adversity. In the 1980s, Bailey purchased a mare named Wuxi, who, despite a club foot, raced 16 times, winning twice, but ultimately was barred from the track for repeatedly refusing at the starting gate. Retired, Wuxi had only one foal, Miss Flutie Brown, before dying in 1990.

The bad luck continued. Miss Flutie Brown never raced, injuring a sesamoid just before her scheduled debut. The situation worsened. Only one of Miss Flutie Brown’s first three foals made it to the races, winning a lone race in four starts over two seasons.

Finally, along came Saay Mi Name, who, in keeping with Bailey’s conditioning philosophy, made his first start at 4. “If you breed them and want them around,” he explained, “you’d better wait until late in their 3-year-old year or 4-year-old year [to begin racing].”
Saay Mi Name won four of 19 starts as a 4-year-old, earning just shy of $100,000, and, in the process, helping to assuage the setbacks and disappointments Bailey has experienced as a breeder. After Saay Mi Name, Miss Flutie Brown produced only one more foal, Miss Leetie Brown (a foal of 2001 by Larrupin’), before she fractured a leg and was euthanized. Through early January of this year, Miss Leetie Brown has struggled to break her maiden.
Thanks in part to Saay Mi Name, Bailey has remained resilient. “Sometimes I wondered what we were doing, sure,” he admitted. “I believed in the breeding.”


Turf runner
Love Match

B.m., 2000, by Partner’s Hero—For Love Alone, by L’Enjoleur; bred by Hare Forest Farm and Anne Wrenn Poulson; owned by Hare Forest Farm; trained by John Kimmel. Foaled at Venture Forth Farm, Monkton.

Although she did not exactly burst on the racing scene from obscurity, Love Match had carved out only a modestly successful career before her brilliant frontrunning victory in front of a national television audience in the Matchmaker Stakes-G3, on Monmouth Park’s Haskell Invitational undercard. Prior to her Matchmaker triumph, the 6-year-old daughter of Part­ner’s Hero had won four races in 13 starts, two apiece on the grass and the dirt, while competing in stakes, allowance and optional claiming company.

Owned and bred by Hare Forest Farm—the Orange, Va.-based nom de stable of Anne Poulson, the vice-chairperson of the Virginia Racing Commission, and her husband, Richard—Love Match had flirted with high-level achievement in the past, notably when she finished third in the 2004 Maryland Million Ladies Stakes. But she blossomed in 2005—first for Maryland trainer Rodney Jenkins, then for New York-based John Kimmel—culminating in the Matchmaker score, her initial stakes tally.

For the year she won two of five starts, earning $125,286, a substantial portion of her total bankroll of $188,966. With her Matchmaker victory, Love Match also collected a breeding season to Kentucky stallion Northern Afleet, sire of 2005 Preakness and Belmont Stakes winner Afleet Alex.

The first race horse owned by Richard Poulson, For Love Alone (Love Match’s dam) raced only twice, winning once, before retiring to produce 11 named foals. Before the arrival of Love Match, her best runners were Love That Magic, a 1993 gelding who won 19 races in 69 starts, including the James River Stakes; and the 1998 gelding Pinky Piz­waan­ski, who placed in the Cliff Hanger and Find Handicaps.

Pensioned after she produced Love Match, For Love Alone was euthanized this past year. Perhaps Love Match can carry on; retired, she’s booked to Smarty Jones for 2006. Meanwhile, the Poulsons used the Northern Afleet season from the Matchmaker for another of their broodmares, Go for Bail.



Steeplechaser
Guelph

Ch.m., 2001, by Sky Classic—Distant Drumroll, by Eastern Echo; bred by Mary Voss; owned by The Fields Stable; trained by Tom Voss. Foaled at Northview Stallion Station, Chesapeake City.

A career change seemed in order. After five 2004 starts on the flat—four on the turf, one on the dirt—Guelph had failed to hit the board, earning a paltry $1,680 just for showing up. Her pedigree suggested that, perhaps, jumping might prove more lucrative. After all, she was out of Distant Drumroll, whose full brother Brigade of Guards won seven jump races, earning more than $200,000 for Guelph’s co-owner Betty Merck.

Guelph debuted over hurdles in a $15,000 maiden claimer at Atlantic City this past May, rallying to win by two and three-quarters lengths. Bingo. In her next start she finished third behind a pair of hurdle stakes winners in the Valentine Memorial Hurdle Stakes, and then snared a trio of victories in filly/mare events, enabling her to claim both the National Steeplechase Association’s (NSA) filly/mare title and novice title, banking $87,000 for the season.

Named for Merck’s hometown in Ontario, Canada, Guelph rattled off consecutive wins for The Fields Stable (Merck and her son Laddie) in the $50,000 Peapack Hurdle Stakes-NSA3 at Far Hills in October, the $50,000 Crown Royal Hurdle Stakes-NSA3 at Callaway Gardens (by 18Z\x lengths) in early November and the $30,000 Sport of Queens Filly and Mare Hurdle Stakes at Camden in late November.

“She jumps as good as anything we’ve ever had,” her trainer, Tom Voss, told Steeplechase Times. “She ran on soft ground, she ran the wrong way [a right-handed course at Callaway Gardens], she ran on hard ground, and they couldn’t catch her.”

The Mercks have a quartet of Distant Drumroll’s foals in the pipeline, funneled to them by Guelph’s breeder, Mary Voss (the trainer’s wife), who, in search of a close relation to Brigade of Guards, bought Distant Drumroll out of the barn of trainer Billy Turner. The foursome consists of the 4-year-old colt Raider Brigade (by Not For Love), who finished third in a maiden special weight on the turf at Saratoga in 2005; the unraced 3-year-old filly Sally Williams (by Unbridled Jet); the 2-year-old colt Hold Your Fire (by Waquoit); and a yearling filly by Louis Quatorze.

While Voss elected not to breed Distant Drumroll in 2005, she will send the mare to Northview Stallion Station’s Dance With Ravens this season.