Maryland Million makes good things happen in due time
Due upsets featured Classic, highlighting a day in which Maryland-sired runners competed in 12 races worth a total of $1.48 million.
Story by Sean Clancy.
Photographs by Lydia A. Williams and Brandon Benson.

On the day when Maryland-sired runners lined up to pay their dues, a previously unheralded 5-year-old gelding named Due rallied from last to upset the $250,000 Maryland Million Classic.

The $21.80 shocker highlighted a 12-race program that served up $1.48 million in purse money under clean autumn skies.

“Maryland’s Day at the Races” once again accentuated what is right with Maryland racing. A near-record crowd of 24,836 packed Laurel Park on October 14, contributing to the handle of $6,804,316, the second largest in Maryland Million history.
Stallions with winning offspring ranged from the obscure Same Day Delivery, to standard-bearers Not For Love, with three winners on the day, and Allen’s Prospect, who had two.

Tom and Chris Bowman, honored as Maryland’s Breeder of the Year for 2005 (the second time they’ve received the award), added to their list of accomplishments as the breeder or co-breeder of three winners.

Classic winner Due, owned by Bob Haynes’s Rob Ry Farm and Jayne Marie Slysz, waltzed off with the prize that was expected to accompany the finale of millionaire and 2005 Maryland-bred Horse of the Year Cherokee’s Boy. The 3-10 favorite, Cherokee’s Boy led early in the mile and three-sixteenths stakes before faltering to fifth in the field of seven.

Cherokee’s Boy, the 12th-leading Maryland-bred money-earner in history, will commence his stallion career at Maryland Stallion Station in Glyndon in 2007. As for Due, he’ll keep grinding it out, as he’s been doing for the better part of four seasons.
Due (by Rinka Das) was bred by all-time leading Maryland trainer King T. Leatherbury. His sire no longer stands in Maryland, having left Corbett Farm in Monkton for Mountain Springs Ranch in Mena, Ark., after the 2004 season.

But Due comes from an active Maryland family—as a son of the Thirty Eight Paces mare Endette, who is also the dam of the good local 3-year-old Ah Day, still owned and trained by Leatherbury. The sometimes enigmatic Leatherbury said he did not nominate Ah Day (a son of Malibu Moon) for the Maryland Million, because he was cash-strapped when the deadline came around.

Leatherbury lost Due in a $25,000 maiden claimer (his third start) in November 2003 at Laurel. The gelding proved moderately successful in allowance and mid-priced claiming company for owner Frank Bondurant before trainer Dale Capuano haltered him on behalf of Haynes for $25,000 on October 21, 2004, at Pimlico.

Haynes and Capuano have choreographed a four-win campaign this year for Due, who led up to the Maryland Million with a victory over Private Scandal in allowance company exactly one month earlier at Laurel.

In the Classic, Travis Dun­kel­berger hustled Cherokee’s Boy to the lead soon after the start while Anna (Rosie) Naprav­nik allowed the late-running Due to lag in seventh through a quarter mile in :24.63 and a half in :48.13. Diamond David, the longest shot on the board, went after Cherokee’s Boy leaving the backside, while Due circled past Evil Storm, then Baby League, Wanaka, Meadow Blue and Cherokee’s Boy. Diamond David and Due hooked up briefly at the top of the stretch, but the winner rolled home while racing well out from the rail. He stopped the timer in 1:58.38, scoring by two and a quarter lengths and earning $137,500, to boost his career total to $304,510.

Diamond David (a half-brother to Maryland-bred star Magic Weisner) picked up a $50,000 second-place check for breeder/owner/trainer Nancy Alberts.

Due provided Napravnik with her third triumph on the card and notched the eighth career Maryland Million win for Capuano, placing him in a tie for the lead with Bill Boniface.
“Cherokee’s Boy [trained by Gary Capuano, brother of Dale] is a great champion, but he’s tried a mile and three-sixteenths twice and didn’t get the job done, so we thought we’d take a shot, roll the dice, and we got lucky,” Haynes said just after the race. “I knew if Rosie sat quietly on Due, the speed would come back. This is a once-in-a-lifetime dream.”

Haynes, 52, who lives in Potomac, Md., began his 30-year odyssey as a gambler, someone who liked to bet the horses and soak up the atmosphere. He felt at home at the races. After watching others dabble in the game, he decided to get involved, claiming his first horse with Bill Wolfendale back in the 1970s.

The owner of a fund-raising business and a real estate company, Haynes named his stable after his two sons, Robert and Ryan.

“People ask me all the time about what it’s like to be a race horse owner,” said Haynes. “I tell them it’s like skiing down a mountain, backwards, on rocks. It’s pretty tough, but you dream of days like today.”

The Baltimore Sun Maryland Million Sprint Starter Handicap kicked off the 12-race card, with Busy Prospect (by Allen’s Prospect) setting most of the pace in the six-furlong dash to draw off by two and a quarter lengths under Napravnik.

Trained by Phil Schoenthal and owned by Haywood Hyman Jr., Busy Prospect started off the year in a $7,000 claimer at Colonial Downs before winning an allowance race at Timonium. The Maryland Million win marked the fifth career victory for the 4-year-old gelding, who was bred by Sondra and Howard Bender.

Like most owners and trainers with horses in the $50,000 Maryland Lottery Maryland Million Starter Handicap, Damon Dilodovico and Joseph Cuppy III penciled the spot onto the horizon when filling out the claim slip for Off the Glass. The trainer signed out $18,000 from Cuppy’s Maryland racing account on March 11, hoping to take home a potential Maryland Million starter.

Make that Maryland Million winner and a two-time stakes winner. Since that claim, the 7-year-old son of Press Card has swept to victory in the Murmur Farm Starter Handicap at Pimlico on Preakness Day, finished second in the Taking Risks Stakes at Timonium on Labor Day, and taken the Maryland Million Starter Handicap by two and a quarter lengths.

Under Mario Pino, Off the Glass tracked Topping before vanquishing him and holding on for his 12th career victory. Off the Glass went the mile and an eighth in 1:52.28. Bred by The Nonsequitur Stable, Off the Glass competed as a homebred in three previous editions of the Maryland Million.

Off the Glass was conceived while his sire Press Card stood at Country Life Farm in Bel Air. After standing one year at Shamrock Farms in Woodbine, Press Card was sold to Erin Park Stud in Australia in 2001.

“This is big,” said Cuppy, who owns four horses. “I used to jump over the fence to get in here. The usher didn’t want to give me the trophy; that’s when you know it’s big. I never expected to win two stakes races with this horse.”
With the win, Mario Pino tied Edgar Prado for the most Maryland Million jockey victories (16).

Moments after the Baltimore Examiner Maryland Million Distaff, trainer Chris Grove and the Maryland Jockey Club’s vice-president of communications, Mike Gathagan, shared a moment of understanding.

“Hey, Chris, you said it,” Gathagan said, as Grove escort­ed Silmaril into the winner’s circle.
“I told you, didn’t I?” Grove laughed.

Four days earlier, Grove had told Gathagan about Silmaril’s chances in the $150,000 stakes. The trainer said she’d win and actually uttered the words “mortal lock” when assessing her chances. The 5-year-old mare held up her end, taking the seven-furlong stakes by three and a quarter lengths over New York shipper, Grade 1-placed Yolanda B. Too.

Ryan Fogelsonger gunned Silmaril past Yolanda B. Too on the turn, getting first run on the favorite and never relinquishing the advantage. She completed the distance in 1:23.
Silmaril, a homebred owned by Stephen and Sue Quick and Chris and Ellen Feifarek, rushed past the $500,000 career earnings mark with her 10th victory. By Diamond, who stood at Northview Stallion Station in Chesapeake City before moving for 2006 to Oklahoma, Silmaril took the Maryland Million Oaks in 2004.

“They’re all sweet. Doesn’t matter how old she is, they’re all sweet,” Quick said. “The biggest thrill I ever got out of her was when she beat Ashado. I almost passed out. After that race, I don’t understand how anyone can win the Preakness and live through it. She slowed down a little after the race against Ashado; that took a lot out of her, but she’s coming back. You can see that.”

Silmaril upset Eclipse champion Ashado in the Pim­lico Breeders’ Cup Distaff Handicap-G3 in May 2005. The granddaughter of the Quicks’ Maryland-bred champion Kattegat’s Pride had not won since, languishing through an eight-race losing streak but putting together three decent efforts leading up the Maryland Million, including an agonizing head loss in her most recent start, the Gala Lil Stakes on September 16 at Laurel.


Silmaril represents the third generation of a female line that has earned its rightful place with the Quicks. They have a yearling full sister to Silmaril on their St. Omer’s Farm in Forest Hill, Md. Kattegat’s Pride is pensioned there, and they expect to bring home Silmaril and put her into production as a broodmare when her racing days are over. As to when that will be—Quick said it’s all up to Silmaril and Grove.

Trainer Bruce Jackson runs a small but steady local stable from his home base at Fair Hill Training Center. For Jackson, taking a first-time starter to Saratoga is saying something. When the English-born trainer shipped Clifton Park to Saratoga, it declared one thing—runner.

The son of Allen’s Prospect owned by Trade Winds Farm —the stable name of Tom and Connie D’Ambra of Clifton Park, N.Y.—led early before finishing third (by a half-length) in an obviously heady juvenile race at the Spa. Jackson kept shooting at large game, returning Clifton Park to his home state for the five-furlong Maryland-bred-restricted Oliver’s Twist Stakes at Laurel in September. Clifton Park won the stakes by a diminishing three-quarters of a length.

Jackson then pointed him to the Maryland Million Nursery. Napravnik allowed Clifton Park to use his natural speed as the integral tool. He opened up a length lead while Napravnik cajoled his speed the best she could. By the turn, Clifton Park had his closest pursuers, Man in Grey and Lowes Island, in trouble. Clifton Park chugged to the wire, winning by two and a quarter lengths over early dawdler Crypto Prime in a seven-furlong time of 1:25.07.

“Every time you buy a horse, you have big aspirations. It’s kind of like when the baseball season starts, everybody’s in first place,” said Tom D’Ambra, who purchased Clifton Park as a weanling for $34,000 at the 2004 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic December Mixed sale.

Clifton Park, bred by the Bowmans, Dr. Laura Schrock and Allen’s Prospect Syndicate, is from the final crop of his sire, who died in the fall of 2003 after establishing himself as Maryland’s all-time leading sire. Allen’s Prospect stood throughout his career at Country Life Farm in Bel Air. Clifton Park is Allen’s Prospect’s ninth (and obviously last) Maryland Million juvenile winner.

“This is our first Allen’s Prospect, and I guess we won’t get a chance to get another one,” D’Ambra said. “This is our first trip to the Maryland Million, and it couldn’t have worked out better. We were all a little worried about the added distance, but Bruce has been working on him to relax.”

Jackson, who rebuilt his barn after fire destroyed it last year, had the Maryland Million on his mind even before the trip to Saratoga.

 “He was a star from the get-go,” Jackson said. “He was in a 2-year-olds in training sale in March, and Tom elected to buy him back. We gave him a little time for some shins, otherwise he would have been ready even earlier.”

As outrider Eddie Przybyla ambled along the outside rail for the sixth race, he looked into the winner’s circle congregation from the fifth and pumped his fist.
“Bobby!” Przybyla yelled.

Trainer Robert Leaf looked up from an interview, smiled and pumped his fist in return.
Przybyla only did this once all day—for the little guy. Leaf and owner Paul Hartman pulled off a shocker in the Maryland Million Turf Sprint with Deliver the Roses. The 6-year-old mare upset 10 male rivals to win the five-furlong dash by a length and three-quarters over Tommie’s Star and Satan’s Code. Jockey Eric Rodriguez, aboard for the first time, put the daughter of Same Day Delivery in the race early, shaking off Tommie’s Star to finish in :55.91 and pay $43.

For Leaf, who trains five horses at Pimlico, the victory looked improbable but not impossible.

“I started out with Barclay Tagg, then I went and worked for Frank Whiteley, then I worked for Mr. [Charlie] Hadry Sr. Along those lines, I learned from those [noted trainers] that mares don’t get good on the grass until they’re 5 or 6,” Leaf said. “People tell me, ‘She’s 6, she’s on her way out.’ I say, ‘She’s right in the middle of her prime. What are you talking about?’ We had this in the back of our minds for two years.”

Deliver the Roses began her turf career early last year and has since won four of 11 starts. As she was readying for her first start this year, she lost a shoe in a work-out and needed time off to recover from the infection that set in after the shoe that flew through the air cut her stifle. Leaf gave her preps in two starter races and then came to the Maryland Million.
“She comes across this track and sees this big crowd, and she gets pumped. She knows this is important,” Leaf said.

Hartman owns a small farm in Hydes, Md., where he now keeps the Maryland Mil­lion winner’s sire Same Day Delivery, who also belongs to him (see article on page 155).

Trainer Scott Lake always possesses a pocket full of condi­tion books for his far-flung stable, which will start more than 2,000 horses this year. At nomination time, the conditioner had designated three horses for the Maryland Million.

Then Laurel’s stakes coordinator, Wendy Pensivy, called Lake for one more. She asked him about recent $25,000 claim-back Ironton. Lake said, “Nah, too tough.” Pensivy kept to her task, and Lake relented after he studied the prospective starters for the $150,000 Maryland Million Sprint Handicap.

It was coming up a short field, and Ironton, a winner of five starts in a 40-race career, hadn’t been worse than third in his previous five starts, at distances of five and a half to seven furlongs—for trainers John Zimmerman, Tony Dutrow and Lake (twice). In his latest start, on September 29 at Laurel, he had scored by a daylight margin while recording a 96 Beyer speed figure.

Give Pensivy an assist. The 6-year-old Ironton boosted his career earnings to $379,173 with a romp in the six-furlong stakes. Ridden by Jeremy Rose, Ironton swept to the lead four-wide on the turn, tightening it up on Love’s Strong Hart, Two Heros and favorite Celtic Innis. Four horses in three spots forced Two Heros to take up sharply and Love’s Strong Hart and Celtic Innis to alter paths.

Ryan Fogelsonger on Two Heros and Steve Hamilton on Celtic Innis claimed foul. Stewards studied and studied but ultimately decided to leave it alone.
Ironton, owned by Trade­Winds Stable (a different entity from the Trade Winds Farm that owns Clifton Park), drew off to win by six and a quarter lengths in 1:09.54, proving much the best on the afternoon. Celtic Innis ran hard to finish second but was no match for the winner.

Ironton, bred by the Bow­mans, became the fourth consecutive Maryland Million Sprint winner for his sire, Not For Love, who stands at Northview Stallion Station in Chesapeake City.

Ironton first joined Lake’s stable after his then-trainer, the Mid-Atlantic-based John Zimmerman, died unexpectedly this past April. Zimmerman had claimed the Maryland-bred on behalf of TradeWinds Stable for $25,000 at Gulfstream Park in January after he went winless in 12 starts in 2005.

Zimmerman ran Ironton twice at the Florida track, and he registered a second and third in $25,000 and $32,000 claimers. Lake sent him to the post once, in August, and immediately lost him to Dutrow.

“I was mad. We took a shot running him for $25,000, but he needed a spot to pick his head up,” Lake said. “He breezed really well at Delaware, and I ran him in Maryland for a reason. Because no one had seen him, I thought, ‘Well, maybe I’ll get away with it.’ We lost him, and I was sick. When Dutrow ran him back for a quarter [on September 8 at Laurel], I was shocked. I called David [Sadoo] and he said, ‘We got to go back for him.’ ”

Sadoo, the mastermind of TradeWinds Stable, didn’t hesitate.

“We were upset—very upset—when we lost him, only because of the work we had done on him,” he said. “We waited and thought they might put him back in. When they did, it was a no-brainer; we didn’t even have to look at him at that point.”

Zimmerman, who died at age 46 of an apparent heart attack, was on both the owner and the trainer’s minds immediately after the victory.

“John was closer to me than I am with my family,” Lake said. “It was devastating, an absolute shock. I think about him every day. He’s a big part of my success. I picked up a lot of his clients. It’s sad, very sad.”

“It’s unbelievable,” Sadoo said. “We were with him for 20 years; needless to say, he was a big part of our. . . our life, actually. ”

The Maryland Million Ladies attracted the first three finishers from last year and the winner of the Maryland Million Oaks in 2005. Oaks winner Sticky went off the slight favorite over Ladies third-place finisher Rowdy, but neither could run down Debbie Sue, who closed just ahead of her two rivals to collect her first Maryland Million victory.

Owned by Fred Greene Jr. and trained by Hamilton Smith, Debbie Sue increased her bankroll to $244,890 with her fifth career victory and second stakes win this year.
Debbie Sue, a Virginia-bred daughter of Citidancer, won the restricted Brookmeade at Colonial Downs in her 2006 debut in July and then finished fourth in the Somethingroyal while sprinting. She put in two straight seconds at Delaware before coming to the Maryland Million.

Bred by Gillian Gordon-Moore, Debbie Sue provided Citidancer, who stood at Country Life Farm in Bel Air before being pensioned this year, his ninth win in the Maryland Million.

“I’ve been around a long time and won a lot of races, but I’ve never won a Maryland Million race,” Greene said. “I didn’t think we were going to do it; I was hoping for second or third. I thought Dickie Small’s horse [Sticky] had it all the way, but this mare was outstanding.”

As Greene departed the winner’s circle, he pointed at (Tom) Bowman, and Bowman’s daughter Becky Davis, who had just cheered him on.

“I deal with the old professor; he’s a top man over there,” Greene said. “He and Becky pick all the mares, and I’m tickled to death. I’ve been in it close to 40 years. I was going to go in the breeding business when I was 65, but I decided I was too old so I went in it at 73. I’m 80 now and I have three broodmares, and she’ll join them.”
Retired at 47 from home building and land development, Greene named the chestnut mare after his daughter.

Malibu Moon has provided nothing but magic to Country Life Farm. The stallion was relocated to Kentucky after the 2003 breeding season, but his fruits keep rewarding the Pons family. Country Life’s Spectacular Moon remained undefeated in two starts by rolling to a win in the Maryland Million Lassie. The 2-year-old gray daughter of Malibu Moon stalked the pace before opening a commanding lead in the stretch. She looked around under jockey Julian Pimentel, but kept to her task to win by a comfortable three and three-quarters lengths over Expected Pleasures and Paying Off, going seven furlongs in 1:25.30.

Trained by Michael Trombetta and bred by the late Mary­land trainer Charles H. Hadry and his wife, Constance, Spectacular Malibu made her debut on September 27 and looks poised for a big future.

“She could be a major league filly. I hope this is her launching pad—but who knows. She’s got the right pedigree and the right look. She could be special,” said Mike Pons, business manager of family-owned Country Life, while explaining that the filly was purchased from the Hadry estate.

About then, one of his nephews ran over to Pons.
“I tried to call my dad but can’t find him,” he said. “Malibu Mint just won at Keeneland.”
“Get out,” Pons said. “Moon is rocking today.”

Country Life rode the magic carpet of Allen’s Prospect as the stallion soared to local stardom, his biggest stage the Maryland Million. Now, it’s Malibu Moon who quickly outgrew Maryland and headed to Castleton Lyons in Lexington, Ky.

“As good as Allen was, Moon moved us to another level,” Pons said. “I hated to move him to Kentucky but there’s a ceiling in Maryland; there’s no ceiling in Kentucky. He’s like the kid that was so good, he had to move on to Harvard or Yale. I had to let him go. We call it moondust; we must have 25 of them in the racing stable.”

Ducking and jiving through good times and bad in Maryland, the Pons family opened a training facility at the old Merryland Farm several years ago and has steadily increased its racing stock. Partnering up different clients in different horses, Country Life took the Maryland Million Ladies last year with Surf Light, and now it has a dynamic 2-year-old with seven owners enjoying the ride. The 83-stall facility at Merryland has made a big difference.

Said Pons: “Spectacular Malibu trained at Merryland; 60 days before her first race she went to Laurel, in Mike Trombetta’s hands. He’s a neighbor [with a farm near Merryland]. I can’t afford to go out and buy $200,000 or $300,000 horses, but I can grow one.”

The Maryland Million Oaks went to repeat Maryland Million winner Smart and Fancy. Owned by Win and Place Stable, a partnership that includes her trainer, Tony Dutrow, the 3-year-old daughter of Not For Love scooted up the rail to take the lead going into the turn and then held off For Kisses by a half length, covering the mile in 1:37.34.
Smart and Fancy, bred by the Bowmans, won the Maryland Million Lassie in 2005 during a three-for-five campaign. The Maryland Million race marked her fourth start and third win of 2006.

Rich Frisina of Win and Place Stable knows how rare it is for a filly to win stakes two years in a row.

“She’s a good, sound filly who’s honest. You just can’t run them over their heads,” he said. “You’ve got to be patient and get her ready for next year. It is tough. You have to appreciate the ones that are good, solid, hard-knocking and honest like her because a lot of them aren’t. We try to do our homework, take care of them the right way, hope—and a lot of it is luck.

A $47,000 purchase at the 2004 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Eastern Fall Yearling sale, Smart and Fancy owns six wins from just nine starts.

“We usually buy 10 yearlings a year. That’s the only game I play. I don’t buy 2-year-olds, I don’t claim. I buy yearlings, try to get lucky with them, cull out the ones that don’t work out and savor the ones that are good,” Frisina said. “This was the target from the day she won the Lassie. We gave her a few races to prep for this; this was her Kentucky Derby, like it was last year. God willing, we’ll try to do it again in the Distaff, which is more her distance.”

Owner Ioannis Korologos and trainer Peter Bazeos earned a quick turnaround on their decision to claim Private Scandal in August. The 6-year-old son of Not For Love controlled the Capital Bank Mary­land Million Turf, drawing off to win by two and a quarter lengths under Horacio Kara­manos in 1:47.56.

A $25,000 claim out of a Laurel Park turf race, Private Scandal missed by a head to Due in his next start, then took home a $82,500 check for his Maryland Million victory to increase his lifetime earnings to $367,115. Bred by Charles and Cynthia McGinnes, Private Scandal competed mostly on the New York/Florida circuit before coming to Maryland this spring. He had been on the board two times previously in the Maryland Million Turf—third in 2003 and second in ’04.

“This race was the reason I claimed him,” Bazeos said. “I thought, ‘I’ll take a chance, if I get lucky. . .’ I’m very happy, I prove to the owners, maybe I can buy a few more horses.”

The owner could barely speak after his biggest win.
“It can’t be described,” Koro­logos said. “I almost cried when the horse won; it’s a different excitement. A feeling you’ve never had before. I only have two horses, a few babies. I’ve owned horses for about 18 years, just a couple of horses but nothing like this.”

The finale, the Maryland Million Distaff Starter Handi­cap, attracted 13 fillies and mares. Of the baker’s dozen, one had previously taken home a Maryland Million trophy.
Hunca Munca, winner of the 2004 Maryland Million Starter Handicap, returned to win the $50,000 stakes for the second time. Now owned and trained by John Rigattieri, Hunca Munca blitzed to the lead of the one-mile stakes and rolled to a length and three-quarter victory.

Rigattieri claimed Hunca Munca for $7,500 in March and orchestrated a three-win season, pushing her earnings to $156,640. The daughter of Yarrow Brae was bred by Sher­man Chin and ridden by Dyn Panell. Hunca Munca went the mile in 1:39.01, earning Yarrow Brae, who stands at Mur­mur Farm in Darlington, his fourth Maryland Million win.