Maryland Million at all-time high
All-sources handle soared at the 22nd annual Maryland Million,
which offered a record $1.68 million in purses for the 12-race
program held October 13 at Laurel Park.
Story by Sean Clancy Photographs by Lydia A. Williams and Brandon
Benson
Record handle. Record attendance. The 22nd annual Maryland Million
Day took place on a picture-perfect afternoon on October 13 at
Laurel Park, and restored faith in Maryland racing.
“
It was a magnificent day,” said Maryland Million president
Wayne Harrison. “It goes to show that when all the groups
come together to work for a good event, all goes well. And the
weather helped.”
A total of 26,788 fans poured into Laurel and Pimlico, contributing
to an all-sources wagering figure of $5,985,793 on the 12 races.
Two years ago, the Maryland Million races posted a record handle
of $5,049,426. This year’s handle blew past that mark by
almost $1 million.
Purses, bolstered by a 2004 change in state law that directs a
portion of the in-state handle on Maryland races to the Maryland
Million program, totaled a record $1.68 million.
Said Maryland Million executive director Cricket Goodall: “Maryland
needed Maryland Million Day this year. It was good news and continues
to be the bright spot on the fall racing calendar. It shows that
when you put on an interesting and competitive card the fans will
pay attention. We are proud of what we do here—the stallions
who stand here—and the event that recognizes their importance.”
The races, all restricted to horses conceived in Maryland, were
uniformly competitive—none more so than the featured $300,000
Maryland Million Classic, which produced the day’s biggest
surprise, a runaway victory by the previously unheralded 6-year-old
gelding Evil Storm.
Each of the first three finishers in last year’s Classic
came back for another try. Joined by the West Coast-based Malibu
Moon gelding Frank the Barber, they made a formidable starting
lineup.
But Evil Storm, by former Country Life Farm stallion Storm Broker,
carved out a perfect stalking trip under jockey Jeremy Rose before
rallying to dominate the mile and three-sixteenths Classic by three
lengths.
Five Steps, the 8-5 favorite from the stable of local red-hot trainer
Chris Grove, finished second (improving on his third-place finish
in 2005) and pacesetter Diamond David (runner-up in the 2006 Classic)
was third. Due, who ran the race of his life to win the Classic
in 2006, finished fourth.
The winner paid $25.20 after stopping the timer in 1:58.19.
The winner’s circle—typically crowded with celebratory
connections after a Maryland Million race—was missing a few
key players (who apparently hadn’t counted on Evil Storm
to come through that day).
Trainer Michael Gorham, who owns Evil Storm under the name of Old
Coach Farm, stayed at Delaware Park to saddle three horses, including
Peak Maria’s Way to win the Justakiss Stakes. Breeder Suzanne
Moscarelli watched the race from Country Roads, her farm in Warwick,
Md. Horse, groom, assistant and jockey smiled. No matter, the $165,000
purse went to Gorham and the nominator’s award went to Country
Roads.
Evil Storm was claimed for $16,000 from Country Roads in October
2005. The robust chestnut has now won eight races and $395,240.
With a better trip in last year’s Classic, you’d be
reading about the first repeat winner of the Classic since Docent
performed the feat in 2002 and ’03. Evil Storm finished third
last year, after shuffling to the back of the field on the final
turn.
Gorham and Rose hadn’t forgotten.
“
Last year, he ran well and got in a lot of trouble about the three-eighths
pole,” Gorham said.
Added Rose: “I was actually the one outside him last year.
It was a tough race on him. He ran huge. He got bumped around a
lot, shut off a lot and it cost him that year. This year he didn’t
get that. I had a lot of confidence going in, as long as he was
fit. And with Mike, they usually are. He ran a good race.”
Moscarelli, who bred Evil Storm from the stakes-placed mare Matti’s
Pic, is one of the Mid-Atlantic region’s most well-established
horsewomen. She and her late husband, Vincent Moscarelli, raised
a number of high-profile runners at Country Roads, which was located
near Charles Town, W.Va., until 1996. The Moscarellis moved to
Maryland just three months before Vincent Moscarelli died. Their
all-time stars include millionaires Afternoon Deelites and Soul
of the Matter and Eclipse Award winner Heartlight No. One, all
bred and raced by Burt Bacharach, and A Huevo, the Grade 1 Frank
J. De Francis Memorial Dash winner bred in the name of Danny Lopez.
Evil Storm’s dam sire, Piccolino (a son of Fappiano), had
a strong impact on the West Virginia breeding program while briefly
holding court at Country Roads in the early 1990s. Among his best
runners was Matti’s Pic’s graded stakes-winning sister
Evil’s Pic.
Matti’s Pic is still in production at Country Roads. She
has a weanling colt by Great Notion, a “beautiful” yearling
colt by Domestic Dispute, and is in foal to Domestic Dispute. And
Moscarelli has room on the farm for Evil Storm—if he needs
to come back.
“
My daughter, Lisa, said if he ever broke down, we’d take
him back and he could retire on the farm,” said Moscarelli,
who admits to some sorrow over having Evil Storm claimed away. “It’s
hard. You’d like to keep them, but sometimes you have to
sell them or drop them to try and win a race, just to keep the
farm going.”
Gorham took Evil Storm thinking at the worst he was a Maryland-bred,
he still had his first-level allowance condition, and maybe he
could bang out his claiming price-plus during the winter at Laurel.
He got much, much more.
“
He’s been nice to us,” Gorham said. “It was toward
the end of the Delaware meet, and we had planned on going to Maryland
for the winter. So I thought if he can improve at all, he’s
still an a-other-than, whatever happens after that happens. He
just kept getting better and better.”
This fall, trainer Tim Ritchey diagrammed a simple racing schedule
for his two best fillies, Akronism and Moon Catcher. He planned
to use the Maryland Million as a respite from their summertime
graded stakes jaunts. Ritchey’s fillies did the rest.
Robert Evans’s homebred Akronism, the only 3-year-old in
the field of eight fillies and mares, zipped to the lead under
jockey Tony Black in the $150,000 Toyota Tundra Maryland Million
Distaff Handicap. The lead went from two lengths to a head and
back to two lengths. Ultimately, three-quarters of a length separated
Akronism from 2-5 favorite Silmaril after seven furlongs in 1:24.00.
Akronism’s victory in the second race began a big day for
leading Maryland sire Not For Love, who had three wins, two seconds
and three thirds on the card.
Akronism won her debut in the summer of 2006 and was bet down to
favoritism in last year’s Maryland Million Lassie, in which
she finished a tired sixth. This year, she won two of her first
four starts, including Philadelphia Park’s Jostle Stakes,
in which she scored by seven and three-quarters lengths while recording
an impressive Beyer Speed Figure of 103. After that, Ritchey aimed
for big game, taking a shot in the Grade 1 Test at Saratoga. Akronism
finished sixth in that race, beaten six and a half lengths by multiple
Grade 1 winner Dream Rush. Then she returned to Delaware, where
she finished seventh to Silmaril in the Grade 3 Endine Handicap
on September 8, her last outing before the Maryland Million.
Ritchey chalked up the two defeats to bad trips and hoped the Maryland
Million would give Akronism a proper end note to her sophomore
year.
“
Today, I liked the fact that she was coming from the outside [post
position], so Tony could put her where he wanted to,” said
Ritchey in the winner’s circle following the Distaff. “I
told him, if somebody’s really sending, just sit off of them.
If you can control the race, you’ve got a big edge. She had
the controlling speed, and the fractions weren’t that hot
and we had horse left at the end.
“
I told the owner, hopefully we can go down, win this race, end
on a good note, give her the winter off and have her ready in the
spring. When she gets to run her race, she’s a very good
horse.”
Two races later, Ritchey cued the same sound bite when Moon Catcher
wired six rivals in the $150,000 Maryland Lottery Maryland Million
Oaks. Owned by CJZ Racing Stable and Ritchey, Moon Catcher mirrored
her stablemate, coming in off of tough fourth-place finishes in
the Grade 1 Alabama Stakes and Grade 2 Fitz Dixon Cotillion Handicap.
Ritchey never lost faith, blaming an inexplicable off-the-pace
ride by jockey Kent Desormeaux for the Alabama, and the Cotillion
performance to a flat-footed start, an injured eye and a bouncing-ball
trip.
Black made sure there was no bouncing this time, sending the daughter
of Malibu Moon to the lead and never looking back. Moon Catcher,
the 3-5 favorite, held off runner-up Paying Off by four and a half
lengths and completed the mile in 1:37.47. The win moved Ritchey
into a three-way tie for second with Tony Dutrow and King Leatherbury
for the all-time Maryland Million trainer’s lead, with seven
wins each, one less than leaders Dale Capuano and J. William Boniface.
Bred in Maryland by Albert and Randy Cohen and Ferris Allen, Moon
Catcher—a half-sister to stakes winner Smarten Up—was
sold through the sales ring twice as a youngster, and each time
Ritchey was the buyer. She went for $49,000 at the 2004 Fasig-Tipton
Midlantic December mixed sale, as part of agent Sally Thomas’s
consignment.
“
I bought her for one of my clients to pinhook and sell as a yearling.
I told him, ‘I don’t think this is one you need to
sell.’ He said, ‘No, no, I want to sell them all,’ ” Ritchey
said. “I told him if she goes through the sale for less than
$100,000, I’m going to buy her. He said, ‘I don’t
have a problem with that, do what you’ve got to do.’ ”
Ritchey bought Moon Catcher for $75,000 at the 2005 Keeneland September
Yearling sale, and owns her in partnership with Chuck Zacney (of
Afleet Alex fame). The Maryland Million win boosted her earnings
total to $663,450.
“
Basically, the idea was to buy mares to breed to Afleet Alex,” Ritchey
said. “That’s where she’ll be in a year or two,
hopefully.”
Maryland Million winners come from everywhere—some via the
claim box, others bred by their owners. For trainer Eddie Gaudet,
the path to victory in this year’s $200,000 Capital
Bank Maryland Million Turf began when he and his wife, Linda,
went out looking at horses in the dark at Allaire duPont’s
Woodstock Farm in Chesapeake City, Md., soon after that legendary
horsewoman’s death in January 2006.
“
Kathee Rengert [of Walnut Green bloodstock agency] called us about
horses who were being offered for sale, and we said we’d
go see them that day,” recalled Gaudet. “We couldn’t
get there until it was dark, so we staked the guys there to stay
late.
“
Mrs. duPont didn’t breed anything bad. When you go to people
like that, you don’t have to look at the pedigree, you know
it’s good,” said Gaudet.
The Gaudets ended up buying three horses that night, on behalf
of clients Morris Bailey and Theodore Serure. And of that trio,
two went on to be stakes performers.
The best of the bunch has been a big chestnut son of Not For Love
who already bore some battle scars—spooked by a deer, he
had run through a fence. His name is Forty Crowns.
Forty Crowns (from an illustrious female family that includes the
1999 Maryland-bred horse of the year, Best of Luck) won three of
his first six starts, including the Maryland-bred restricted Northern
Dancer Stakes in November 2006 at Laurel. The 4-year-old gelding
hadn’t won since, so Gaudet made the change he had been wanting
to make.
In his grass debut under Luis Garcia, Forty Crowns shot to the
lead in the mile and an eighth Maryland Million Turf. Fractions
were fast—:22.88, :46.10, 1:10.12—and Forty Crowns
made them look slow, drawing away to win by four lengths over Dr
Rico and favored New York shipper Broadway Producer. He finished
the distance in 1:46.03, setting a new course record.
“
I’d been wanting to do it for eight months or better, but
he ran so good on the dirt that I didn’t want to switch him
over to the turf and mess him up. Then he put in two bad races
back-to-back,” Gaudet said. “He travels like a turf
horse. He drops his head down and his legs extend—a daisy
cutter.”
Gaudet shipped Forty Crowns to Laurel from his Bowie base for a
turf breeze three days before the Maryland Million. He cut the
daisies like a Toro.
“
I called the clocker and asked him how the turf was, and he said
really slow,” Gaudet said. “He left there slow, just
feeling his way, then he ducked every dog out there, so that had
to slow him down a little bit. I called the clocker and he said, ‘Unbelievable,
Eddie. He went in :36; the best work I’ve got is :39 and
change.’ ”
Eddie Gaudet completed a double on the card, winning the finale—the
$50,000 Maryland Million Distaff Starter Handicap—with Swear
to It. Bred in Maryland by Bonita Farm, the daughter of Swear by
Dixie was purchased by the Gaudets for $4,000 at the 2004 Fasig-Tipton
Midlantic Eastern Fall Yearling sale, and campaigns in the name
of Linda Gaudet.
Swear to It picked up her first line of black type when finishing
third (through a disqualification) in the Maryland Million Lassie
in 2005. Since then she had won two allowance races, but carried
a six-race losing streak into the Maryland Million. Luis Garcia
rode the winner, who bested longshot Met a Miner by six lengths.
Gussie’s Secret finished third after a mile in 1:40.02.
Swear to It, 4-for-19 in her career, is a half-sister to stakes-placed
Piano Chimes.
Bowie-based conditioner Linda Albert joined Ritchey and Gaudet
in winning two races on the card. Albert ran the gamut in terms
of age—saddling 2-year-old Regal Solo to take the $150,000
Maryland Million Nursery and 8-year-old Off the Glass to capture
the $50,000 Baltimore Examiner Maryland Million Starter Handicap.
Regal Solo’s score thrilled his owner/breeders, Allen and
Audrey Murray, for more than one reason. The Murrays collected
their first Maryland Million owner’s trophy—and it
was earned by a runner from the first Maryland-sired crop of classic
winner Louis Quatorze, who stands at their Murmur Farm in Darlington.
Regal Solo, stuck along the rail early, rallied in the stretch
with Ryan Fogelsonger aboard and nailed favorite Izzy Speaking
and closer Smooth It Over (a half-brother to Maryland Million Sprint
Handicap winner Grand Champion) in a three-way photo, finishing
the seven furlongs in 1:25.79. The winner’s circle celebration
was delayed while the stewards deliberated a foul claim by Horacio
Karamanos, aboard sixth-place finisher Casanova Jack, but ultimately
the finish was made official.
“
He’s always acted classy, a little lazy but always classy,” said
Albert of Regal Solo, who failed to break his maiden in his first
two tries, while finishing on the board, but has been perfect in
his two starts since.
The Murrays purchased Regal Solo’s dam, the unraced Sonata
(GB), by Polish Precedent, for $50,000 at the 2002 Keeneland
November sale.
Just hours before their first Maryland Million win, the Murrays
welcomed a new stallion onto their farm: Scipion (by A.P. Indy
and a three-quarter brother to champion and leading first-crop
sire Vindication).
“
It was quite a week for us!” exclaimed Audrey Murray.
While the future looks bright for Regal Solo and the Murrays, Albert’s
other winner is in the twilight of his career. Or not.
Making his 65th career start and fifth straight appearance on a
Maryland Million Day program, Off the Glass captured his second
consecutive Maryland Million Starter Handicap. He won the race
for his breeder, The Nonsequitur Stable, which has had an on-again,
off-again relationship with the son of Press Card.
Off the Glass finished fifth in the 2003 Maryland Million Starter
Handicap for owner Phyllis Dixon and trainer Tim Ritchey. Albert
and The Nonsequitur claimed him back and took cracks at the Maryland
Million Classic in 2004 and 2005, finishing seventh and sixth.
They lost him through the claim box in early 2006 and watched him
win last year’s Maryland Million Starter Handicap for owner
Joseph Cuppy and trainer Damon Dilodovico. The Nonsequitur partners
weren’t going to allow that to happen again. They took $15,000
cash to Charles Town on June 13 and claimed him back, 11 starts
since they last had him. Off the Glass nearly doubled their money
on Maryland Million Day, collecting $27,500.
“
We robbed the piggy bank. We had to take cash, because of all the
claiming restrictions,” said Ellen Fredel of The Nonsequitur
Stable. “It was heartbreaking to watch him win this race
last year, but we got a little stubborn; we didn’t want to
pay more than we lost him for. This year we said, ‘To hell
with it.’ ”
Off the Glass is like a poker chip in the high stakes game of Maryland
Million hold ’em. To be eligible for the starter handicap,
a horse has to run for a $15,000 claiming price. Albert risked
Off the Glass back in January 2006, partly to make him eligible
for the Maryland Million. Dove Houghton claimed him that day. Dilodovico
claimed him in his next start and then earned the rewards of his
eligibility. This past June, Dilodovico slid him in for $15,000,
again partly to get him eligible for the Maryland Million. That’s
when Albert and The Nonsequitur showed up with the money.
“
His dam [Glass Tree, by Air Forbes Won] was our first horse as
The Nonsequitur Stable,” Fredel said, partially explaining
their bond with Off the Glass. “We got some [bonus] checks
when he won for other people, but that’s not as much fun
as owning him. We got both this year.”
It was the third Maryland Million win for The Nonsequitur Stable,
a partnership of two (previously four) Washington, D.C.-area lawyers.
They won the Classic with Perfect to a Tee in 1999 and the Distaff
Starter Handicap with Miss Angelina in 1998.
Before the $150,000 Fasig-Tipton Maryland Million Sprint, owner
John Moore pointed at New York shipper Grand Champion and summed
up the horse.
“
It’s amazing he’s even here,” Moore said of the
4-year-old son of Two Punch who made his debut this past February.
Moore might have been amazed by the appearance, but Grand Champion
wasn’t at Laurel to collect appearance money. Sent off as
the favorite in the seven-horse field, Grand Champion worked hard
to get up by a head over the Not For Love-sired Lemons of Love,
thus denying Not For Love his fifth consecutive winner in the Sprint.
Trained by Jimmy Jerkens and ridden by Ramon Dominguez, Grand Champion
finished six furlongs in 1:10.27.
After the race, Moore described some of the travails that he and
his wife, Susan (who co-owns Grand Champion), have gone through
with the horse.
“
Susan is patient by nature,” said Moore, who resides with
his wife in Far Hills, N.J. “Our vet bills and training bills
are outrageous, because she’ll wait forever on a horse. Plenty
of our horses would have been culled somewhere else. Something
like 50 percent of the horses we’ve bought are stakes winners.
Why? Because we take our time with them and we pay vets to take
extra care of them. This horse had chips in all four ankles and
didn’t start until he was 4. It’s nuts. She loves animals.”
One of two Fasig-Tipton graduates in the Sprint Handicap
sponsored by the sales company, Grand Champion was bred in Maryland
by Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Bowman and Dr. Jason Layfield, who sold
him privately as a yearling to New Freedom, Pa.-based horseman
Marshall Silverman.
Silverman took the colt to the 2004 Maryland Horse Breeders Association
Yearling Show, where the judge, Hall of Fame trainer Jonathan Sheppard,
made him his number one pick among the 132 youngsters who went
through the ring. A few weeks later, the handsome bay sold on Silverman’s
account for $115,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July Yearling
sale. The Moores bought him at that sale, and gave him his name.
“
We’ve bought 40 horses so far; our average is $110,000 a
horse,” said John Moore. “Thus far, 30 of them have
made it to the track and only four never made it through training.
It’s rare for us not to give a horse every chance. One of
them never won a race until after four colic surgeries, then he
won at Saratoga. His name was Mumble Jumble. They still send him
cards from Cornell and New Bolton.”
Robert Cole and Howard Wolfendale teamed up to win the $100,000
Maryland Million Turf Sprint with the aptly named Happy Surprise.
The owner/trainer duo claimed the 4-year-old gelding Happy Surprise
(by Crowd Pleaser) for $32,000 at Laurel this past August with
the Maryland Million squarely in mind. They just weren’t
sure which Maryland Million race they were aiming for.
Happy Surprise showed enough versatility for them to consider turf
or dirt, short or long. Cole and Wolfendale decided about half
an hour before entry time to go for the Maryland Million Turf Sprint.
Nice call.
Happy Surprise lagged early in the five and a half-furlong event,
as favorite Tommie’s Star cruised along on the front end,
before rallying three-wide on the turn to get up by a nose over
Whata Monster and Mr Mutter in 1:01.62. Jockey Horacio Karamanos
didn’t have time to celebrate, as Jonathan Joyce aboard Mr
Mutter and Malcolm Franklin aboard seventh-place finisher Sarah’s
Prospect lodged objections.
In the winner’s circle, Wolfendale walked away.
Cole stood and cringed while the video rolled on the infield big
screen.
Finally, track announcer Dave Rodman broke the tension: “Officials
have dismissed both claims of foul.”
Cole clenched both fists, supporting the decision, “Yes!”
Bred in Maryland by Mrs. Raymond Burnette, Happy Surprise (out
of Abovehawaii, by Great Above) is a half-brother to two-time Maryland
Million winner Tropical Punch, who is also graded-placed. Happy
Surprise improved his career mark to 4-for-14.
“
Howard and I just tried to figure which was the weakest spot,” said
Cole. “We were lucky enough to get the win. He looked like
a solid horse; we cross our fingers a lot, and got lucky. It’s
a big high. We like to be a part of Maryland’s tradition,
and other than the Preakness, the Maryland Million is our biggest
day.”
Dennis Federico’s homebred Maddy’s Heart ran down
frontrunner Beau’s Trip to win the $200,000 Maryland Million
Ladies. Trained by Tim Hills and ridden by Ramon Dominguez, 3-year-old
Maddy’s Heart handled her seven older rivals to score for
the third time in her 11-race career. Favorite Lexi Star, making
her turf debut, finished third after a mile and an eighth in 1:47.26.
Maddy’s Heart, a Maryland-bred daughter of Lion Hearted,
began her career with seven straight starts on the dirt, winning
a maiden at Gulfstream Park last March but then struggling to get
past the first-level allowance condition. Hills decided to try
her on the turf at Monmouth in August and before she went a furlong,
he knew he had made the right decision. Maddy’s Heart
stretched her stride and wound up third that day. She dead-heated
for the win in her next start, then finished second in a Belmont
Park allowance race.
“
I knew she liked the grass the first time she galloped past,” Hills
said. “It was one of those things where long races on the
dirt for fillies don’t go very often, so the timing was right
to give it a try. After she dead-heated for the win, I said this
filly’s legit and thought about the Maryland Million. The
race unfolded wrong at Belmont but even then [jockey] Garrett Gomez
came back and said this filly’s nice, she’s going to
go some place.”
Yes, straight to the winner’s circle in the Maryland Million.
Maddy’s Heart (out of Maddy’s Terms, by Private Terms)
is a full sister to stakes performer Maddy’s Lion, a winner
of $232,172.
“
The owner has two broodmares and he nominates [to the Maryland
Million] every other year,” Hills said. “I have Maddy’s
Lion, a real nice sprinter, and he’s not nominated.”
For Hills, it was like coming home.
“
I raced in Maryland in the ’70s and ’80s, with the
big four [trainers King Leatherbury, Richard Dutrow, John Tammaro
and Bud Delp]. That’s how I learned how to train,” Hills
said. “Such good horsemen here; it’s so frustrating
that they’re not getting the purses. Here, you don’t
have to apologize for being a horseperson. Now I’m spread
out all over the place.”
Hills trains about 60 horses in New Jersey, New York and Florida.
Kevin Sleeter ventured from his New Jersey base to the Maryland
Million for the second straight year. Same race, different result.
Last year, Sleeter’s eventual graded stakes winner Talkin
About Love failed to get involved in the Maryland Million Lassie,
winding up eighth of nine.
This year, Sleeter shipped Kathleen Willier’s Love for Not
for the $150,000 MASN Maryland Million Lassie. The daughter of
Not For Love sat just off the pace before rolling to a four and
a quarter-length victory over All Attitude, with Kosmo’s
Buddy another three and a half lengths back in third. Ridden by
Stewart Elliott, Love for Not finished the seven furlongs in 1:26.11.
Sleeter, part of a Clementon, N.J.-based family operation that
ranks among that state’s most accomplished, and Willier,
a resident of Lindenwold, N.J., had spotted the New Jersey-bred
at the 2006 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Eastern Fall Yearling sale,
where she was purchased for $60,000.
Love for Not scored by five and a quarter lengths in her debut
at Monmouth in August, then finished third, beaten a neck, in an
allowance race at Delaware. Sleeter had the Maryland Million on
the schedule from the start.
“
Ever since the first time she worked, she’s done nothing
wrong,” Sleeter said. “She’s a tough little filly.”
Sleeter hopes Love for Not follows in the footsteps of his homebred
3-year-old Not For Love daughter Talkin About Love, who went undefeated
in five starts at Monmouth Park this past summer while becoming
the first New Jersey-bred to win the Monmouth Oaks-G3 since 1946.
“
The owners like the Jersey-breds, and this one came with a bonus
[Maryland Million-eligibility],” said Sleeter.
Love for Not is the first stakes winner Willier has campaigned
during her 30 years in the business.
Bred by Golden Dome Stable, Love for Not (out of stakes-placed
Go Nicholas Go, by Polish Numbers) is a half-sister to stakes-placed
Calabria Bella.
Phillip Oshier’s Be Oh Be kicked off the day with a win
in the $30,000 Baltimore Sun Maryland Million Sprint Starter Handicap.
Claimed five times in his 34-start career, Be Oh Be went to trainer
Andrea Gonzalez for $7,500 two starts before the Maryland Million.
The 5-year-old Maryland-bred son of Diamond finished second that
day, returned to win for a $12,500 claiming tag in his next start,
and picked up $16,500 for Oshier when getting the best of All Star
Prospect and Season Ticket on Maryland Million Day. Hector Ramos
rode the chestnut horse.
Out of the unraced mare Secret Sound (by Eastern Echo), Be Oh Be
is a half-brother to International Gold Cup winner Chinese Whisper.
Bred by R M Zig Stables, Be Oh Be won for the 11th time, pushing
his career earnings to $146,995.