Maryland Million builds on legacy of greatness
Maryland’s second- biggest day of racing, next to the Preakness, is a living memorial to Hall of Fame sportscaster Jim McKay.
Story by Sean Clancy.
Photographs by Lydia A. Williams and Chad B. Harmon

The Maryland Million had its 23rd running on October 4 at Laurel Park, but its first without Jim McKay, the legendary ABC sportscaster and Maryland Million founder.
This year’s event was dedicated to McKay, who passed away last June at the age of 86. And a renaming of the pioneering sire stakes program is in the works, to make it the Jim McKay Maryland Million.

To borrow one of McKay’s signature phrases, Maryland Million Day once again provided the thrill of victory?–?and agony of defeat?–?with 12 races worth more than $1.7 million in purses and nominator awards.

A crowd of 21,948 turned out at Laurel and reveled in a beautiful fall afternoon of racing that included a filly upsetting the boys, a spectacular Distaff performer, and a Classic winner born in New Jersey and reborn in Florida.
Now that’s Thoroughbred racing.

Cuba, a 7-year-old New Jersey-bred son of Not For Love, capped the day. He domi­­nated the $300,000 Jim McKay Maryland Million Classic, dispatching pacesetter Diamond David to win by four lengths for Leo-Sag Stable, William Corrigan and Daniel Levesque.

Trained by Bobby DiBona, who is the Sag in Leo-Sag (he’s a Sagittarius), Cuba continued his reclamation, winning his sixth race since DiBona claimed him for $18,000 at Gulfstream Park last February.

Jockey Pedro Cotto Jr. placed Cuba in third, splitting the five-horse field as Diamond David opened up a two-length lead on longshot Blue’s Baby Boy. Favorite Five Steps tracked Cuba while defending champion Evil Storm settled his long stride in last. Cotto cued Cuba to move on the turn and the race was over in strides. Cuba galloped away to a comfortable win, clicking a mile and three- sixteenths in 1:57.78.
Classic veterans accounted for second, third and fourth.Diamond David, a 7-year-old son of Horatius bred, owned and trained by Nancy Alberts, who saddled his half-brother Magic Weisner to finish second in the 2002 Preakness, was making his third Classic attempt. He finished second in 2006 and third in ’07.

Evil Storm (by Storm Broker), third in the 2006 running, dominated last year but failed to get past Diamond David in this renewal, finishing a head back in third.
Last year’s runner-up, Five Steps (third in the 2005 Classic), posted at 1.1-1 odds, based on his three wins (two in stakes) from four starts earlier this year. But the son of Yarrow Brae faltered entering the stretch and crossed the wire 17 lengths behind Evil Storm.

Mystery surrounded Cuba’s breeder Shaunlee LLC as the handsome runner posed in the winner’s circle.

And that’s certainly not the way Josh and Mike Pons, managers of the family-owned Country Life Farm in Bel Air, Md., would have planned it.

According to Josh Pons, a clerical oversight led Cuba to be registered in the name of Shaunlee LLC?–?a breeding partnership named for his dam?–?and not in the names of the individual partners. Shaunlee LLC was primarily made up of Country Life Farm (50 percent) with 25 percent interests belonging to Jon and Tina Davis of Binghamton, N.Y., and photographer Mike Amoruso of New York City.

Mike Pons selected the Deputy Minister mare Shaunlee and purchased her for $30,000 at the 2001 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic February Mixed sale. She was carrying Cuba at the time. Shaunlee, out of multiple stakes winner and graded-placed Nasty Affair, was meant to be a mate for Unbridled Jet, a son of Unbridled entering stud that season at Country Life. But she was sent for foaling at Christine Connelly’s Bright View Farm in Chesterfield, N.J., so that her Not For Love
offspring?–?Cuba?–?could potentially earn breeder’s bonuses in that state.
“ We enjoy having a Monmouth runner now and then,” remarked Josh Pons. “And her former owner had success with her runners there.”

Cuba had never raced in Maryland until the Classic, where?–?as the second winner on the day for Not For Love, who stands at Northview Stallion Station in Chesapeake City?–?his victory was tinged with irony. Not For Love is runner-up among all-time leading Maryland Million sires by number of wins (16), and gaining rapidly on the 21-win record of the leader, Allen’s Prospect, who died in the fall of 2003 after a hugely prolific career that spanned 18 seasons at Country Life.
The breeders sold Cuba as a weanling for $34,000 at the 2001 Keeneland November sale, and he brought $65,000 when he went back through the Keeneland ring at the following year’s September yearling sale.

To the Ponses’ dismay, Cuba seldom raced in New Jersey during his earlier career for owner Cam Allard and trainer Michael DePaulo.

However, the breeders tracked his career with great interest. At 4, Cuba placed in four stakes?–?three in graded company. He was out of action for all of 2006. Then he returned at Woodbine in 2007 and looked like a pinball going down a ladder, drifting from allowance races to $50,000 claimers to $23,500 claimers. DiBona claimed him in his first start of 2008.

Cuba won three races at Monmouth Park this past summer, including the Charles Hesse III Handicap. DiBona swung for the fences after that win. Cuba failed to find room in Monmouth’s Grade 3 Philip H. Iselin Stakes, where he finished fifth; then he chased Grade 1 winner Commentator in Suffolk Downs’s $500,000 Massachusetts Handicap, winding up third. The Maryland Million came just two weeks later but provided the perfect landing pad for Cuba.

The horse boosted his earnings to $658,594, and now DiBona is thinking of a possible stud career for him. Will Cuba someday have a son or daughter who duplicates his own Maryland Million feat?

It’s an idea that never entered DiBona’s mind when he signed the claim slip.
DiBona’s thinking at the time was more along the lines of: “I hope he’s worth the 18 I give for him and not too much less.”

Explained DiBona: “I knew he was a Jersey-bred and I figured with the [bonus money], worst case scenario I could run him for $5,000 and the pot’s $23,000. I thought it was a very safe move with some escape routes if I needed them. But as it turned out, it’s been up, up, up. Nothing but blue skies.”

Levesque and Corrigan, who live in Massachusetts, and Darren Aikens (a Florida resident and the Leo in Leo-Sag) were on hand for the Maryland Million. They appreciate blue skies.

“ It’s been a great trip; I gave $6,000,” Levesque said. “If it was always like this. . . I’ve been in it for seven years; I’ve lost plenty of money. I took Cuba’s money and parlayed it into others. I’m a mortgage broker. I was making hand-over money and then it started slowing down. Now the horses started jumping up so it’s great.”
Aikens and DiBona have been business partners for 30 years.
“ We’ve had some nice horses, but this is the best one,” Aikens said. “We do a lot together. He’s the main person picking them out. We discuss it, but it’s his call.”
Corrigan has been parlaying a bet he made in the 2002 Preakness into his horse business.

“ My dad and I went to the local fairs and I’m a 20-year veteran of the Preakness,” Corri­gan said. “I hit the Preak­ness real hard in 2002 and a friend of mine was going to the Timonium sale and he said we should buy a horse. I threw in my $10,000; it was a lot of money for me at the time, but it was free money.”
As DiBona explains it: “We’ve had a lot of success with the older claiming horses. You’ve got to keep them happy.

“ A lot of people train too hard sometimes. We do a lot of jogging and these old horses don’t need to gallop two miles. I lighten up on them and they respond like gangbusters. Sometimes less is better.”

DiBona grew up around Suffolk Downs. A bona fide track rat, he won his first race as an owner in 1989, but didn’t begin training until nine years ago when he and Aikens sold Bobby D’s, their bar in Quincy, Mass. Now, he splits his time between Monmouth and Gulfstream Park. Cuba provided him with his 28th win of the year. He’s a long way from being a bartender.

“ We had a nice joint but we love the horses. It’s long hours but when things are going like this, how you going to beat it?” DiBona said. “Here you’re dealing with owners and clients and vet problems and so much going on. The bigger you get, the more is happening. It’s a constant battle to understand your horses. They’re talking to you; you just have to listen.”

Country Life Spectacular
Mary Jo Pons read the tote board after the $150,000 Capital Bank Maryland Million Distaff?–?on paper the most competitive race of the day?–?and knew of at least one bet that would have hit. If only her late husband, Joe Pons, were here to walk up to the window. . .

Pons, the patriarch of modern-day Country Life Farm in Bel Air, died three years ago. A Country Life triple in the Distaff? “I know who would have had that,” Mary Jo Pons said. “He’d be proud of this.”
Spectacular Malibu (by Malibu Moon) won by two and a half lengths over All Giving (by Allen’s Prospect) with Jet Away Jane (by Unbridled Jet) third. All three were conceived at Country Life Farm.

The triple paid $316.60.
Owned by a Country Life Farm partnership and trained by Michael Trombetta, Spectacular Malibu won for the fifth time in her career, raising her earnings to $315,681. Under jockey Julian Pimentel, Spectacular Malibu closed from third in the field of eight to win by two and a half lengths. She traveled seven furlongs in 1:23.56.

“ It’s why you work all year long,” said Mary Jo Pons. “Our whole family is involved in this. Everybody. The gal who delivered her as a foal is here. That’s so special.”
Bred by the late renowned Maryland trainer Charles H. Hadry and his wife, Constance Hadry, and purchased privately by Country Life from the Hadry estate, Spectacular Malibu was named champion Maryland-bred 2-year-old filly of 2006 after winning the Maryland Million Lassie and finishing second in the Grade 3 Tempted Stakes and Maryland Juvenile Filly Championship Stakes.
She missed all of 2007 but has made 2008 count with three wins, three seconds (including two stakes) and a third in 10 starts.

Nearing the 100-win mark for the year, Trombetta wasn’t confident going into the Maryland Million, even though Spectacular Malibu was coming off a nose loss in the Windward Stakes at Presque Isle Downs.

“ I was a little intimidated by the field when I looked at the pre-entries,” Trombetta said. “You come here with the idea that if you run good, great, but it didn’t feel like one of those days when you have a shot to win the money.”

Recent Saratoga winner Fancy Diamond garnered the most support, at 1.9-1 odds, although she was the only one of the eight starters who had yet to win a stakes.
“ It’s never easy,” Trombetta said. “I didn’t know we’d go through Presque Isle to get here. [Presque Isle’s Tapeta surface] is not exactly turf, but I love off-the-turf back to the dirt with these kinds of horses.

“ She ran really hard in the Windward. I gave her a little time off, then she worked three or four times, and she came in fresh and got it done. That works best for me; I enjoy doing it that way, getting enough time. She’s tough.”
Spectacular Malibu became the 23rd runner to win at least two Maryland Million races, but the first Lassie or Nursery winner to return for a victory at 4.
Filly beats boys
Take that, boys.
The 3-year-old Outflanker filly Kosmo’s Buddy not only beat her elders, she beat males in the $100,000 Maryland Million Turf Sprint.
Owned by father and son Arnold and Adam Smolen, Kosmo’s Buddy nailed 2-5 favorite Natural Seven on the line by a nose to earn her fifth career win. Bred in Maryland by Arnold Smolen, the filly had never been worse than second when sprinting on the turf.

“ Going that distance and as good as she had been doing, my feeling was she had a pretty good shot at it. She’s been a delight,” Arnold Smolen said. “You don’t get one like her too often. I’ve been in it a long time. My son thinks it happens every day.”

Trained by Tim Salzman, Kosmo’s Buddy can win on the lead or stalk and she adopted a nice stalking spot, lagging off of Natural Seven until jockey Eric Camacho called to her. Then it was a battle to the wire with Natural Seven.
“ She’s a fighter; she dug in and ran them down,” Adam Smolen said. “I thought she won and I was jumping up and down like a maniac. I ran by Tim and he grabbed me and said, ‘Don’t celebrate yet.’ So we stopped and waited and re-watched it. Then we knew and celebrated all over again.”

Kosmo’s Buddy stopped the clock in 1:02.84 for the five and a half furlongs.
Named for Adam Smolen’s dog Kosmo, the filly picked up three stakes placings at 2, finishing second in the Gin Talking Stakes and third in both the Maryland Million Lassie and Maryland Juvenile Filly Championship.

Earlier this year, she added five more stakes placings, plus a breakout victory in the Crank It Up Stakes at Monmouth Park in early August.

Arnold Smolen, a retired pharmacist who built and operated a chain of pharmacies in the Baltimore area, once had a large breeding and racing operation in Maryland, but Kosmo’s Buddy is presently his only runner.

He claimed her dam, Vaulted (by Allen’s Prospect), as a 4-year-old for $14,500 in 1993. Vaulted has prominent Maryland ties as a daughter of Aube d’Or (by Medaille d’Or), who made her mark in local stakes competition while racing as a homebred for Fourbros Stable, a once-thriving partnership of brothers Bob and Tom Manfuso and Jeff and George Huguely.

Vaulted carried Smolen’s colors throughout most of her career, including three stakes placings. Now she is his only broodmare.
“ I got hooked on her. What can I say?” said Smolen, who celebrated his first Maryland Million win after numerous attempts. “I wanted to stay with her until we got a good one, and Kosmo’s Buddy looks pretty good.”
Smolen bought his first horse in 1972 after his father died. Reflecting on his father’s unfulfilled dreams, Smolen said to himself: ‘That’s it, I’m not waiting any longer.’ I’ve had at least one horse every year since.”

It sounds like 39-year-old Adam Smolen, a financial advisor who is president of The Quantum Group LLC in Baltimore, will follow suit. Three years ago, he became a partner in Vaulted, who is back in foal to Outflanker.

“ This is right up there with my buddy Edgar Prado winning the Belmont with Sarava,” Adam Smolen said. “It’s one of the greatest moments of my life?–?the filly running down the boys. This is my first true stint at breeding and racing. I dove in head first with my dad. It’s pretty exciting. I’ve been to 11 straight Derbys, 15 straight Belmonts and 39 straight Preaknesses.”

Broadway Producer finds spotlight
New York-based trainer John Terranova stopped along the outside rail moments after the $200,000 Maryland Lottery Maryland Million Turf, and breathed a big sigh of relief for making the right choice with Broadway Producer.

Owned by Sovereign Stable and Gatsas Stables, the 5-year-old son of Not For Love wrested a hard-fought neck decision from Dr Rico. Terranova had cross-entered the Maryland-bred in the Sprint, and finally decided on the Turf. Good move.
Under Horacio Karamanos, Broadway Producer lagged in fifth before running down Dr Rico, going the mile and an eighth in 1:49.99. Three-year-old Knight in Armour finished third in his first stakes start against older horses.

“ We were tempted to run in the Sprint. He trains awesome on the dirt and we might go back to it after this,” Terranova said. “He’s been solid on the grass and I’m glad he got this win for the owners; we’ve been knocking on the door for a while. He’s a good sound horse; I hope he hangs around with us for a few more years.”
Broadway Producer snapped an 11-race losing streak dating back to February 2007, but he was far from disgraced during that skid.

He finished third in Pimlico’s Henry S. Clark Stakes in April 2007, and rallied to finish third in the Maryland Million Turf last year.

“ He had some tough luck on the grass,” Terranova said. “He’s been running against some tough company. It’s all about the trip and the condition of the turf.
“ I told the owners he stands above this field and should be able to get it done. He had to gut it out a little. This is the peak of his year. Last time I think I had him a little tired coming here; this year he was good and fresh.”

Bred by Alice Wolf and her late husband, Maryland Million board member Larry Wolf, in the name of their Fast Kitty Farms, Broadway Producer (out of stakes winner Lucky Sword, by Sword Dance-Ire) was purchased in the name of Sovereign Stable for $52,000 at the 2004 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Eastern Fall Yearling sale. In 21 career starts, he has earned $258,446.

Miss Lombardi is all lady
Linda Newton walked up the steps from the winner’s circle and simply smiled at the thought of Miss Lombardi winning the $200,000 Maryland Million Ladies.
Racing as a homebred for Newton and her husband, Robert Newton, the 6-year-old mare rallied from 11th in the field of 12 to win by three-quarters of a length over 7-year-old Debbie Sue and 6-year-old Beau’s Trip. Under jockey Jeremy Rose, she completed the mile and an eighth over a firm course in 1:49.52.

Miss Lombardi (by Unbridled Jet) had tried three stakes in her 20-race career, but missed black type each time. Not by much, but she missed.
The Ladies proved the perfect fit. Trained by Graham Motion, Miss Lombardi improved her career record to 7-for-21 and $266,820.
The thought of retiring Miss Lombardi after her 5-year-old season had been dismissed by Motion and the Newtons.

“ It was an easy decision because she was feeling good,” said Newton. “She had been through a period when she was really sore. We brought her home and got her a lot of acupuncture, a lot of green grass, a lot walking up and down the hills.
“ She seemed to be ready, as long as Graham thinks she’s good. We don’t know what were going to do tomorrow until we talk to Graham.”

Miss Lombardi, foaled in Maryland, completes a trio of stakes-winning daughters for her dam, Chemise (by Secret Hello), who is the nucleus of a small broodmare band at the Newtons’ Roundaway Farm near Marshall, Va.

Chemise’s other stakes winners are Coquettish (by Not For Love), the champion Mary­­land-bred 2-year-old filly of 2002, and Dress Grey (by Lion Hearted), who captured the 2006 Smart Halo Stakes before her career was cut short by injury. Chemise’s five other foals are all colts.

Celtic Innis Sprints back
When asked about Celtic Innis leading up to the Maryland Million, trainer Tim Keefe answered in one word: “Great.”
Yeah? “Great,” Keefe said, over and over.
Allen and Audrey Murray’s homebred had won seven races in his career but nothing since taking the Vincent A. Moscarelli Memorial Handicap at Delaware Park in September 2006. After that victory, he rolled into the Maryland Million Sprint, going off as favorite for the first time in his career. But he suffered through a rough trip and finished second to Ironton.

Since then, Ironton has descended into the $5,000 claiming ranks at Philadelphia Park, while Celtic Innis has sparred with the toughest local sprinters.

Making his 21st career stakes start, the big dark bay son of Yarrow Brae knocked out his three rivals in the $150,000 Larry M. Wolf Memorial Mary­land Million Sprint.
Sent off as third choice under jockey Craig Gibbs, Celtic Innis took the race to favorites Lemons of Love and last year’s Sprint hero and odds-on favorite Grand Champion, attacking to the lead from the outside. While Lemons of Love and Grand Champion bounced off each other, Celtic Innis turned for home with the lead and ground it out to win by a neck over Lemons of Love, with Grand Champion a length behind in third.

“ He likes training. He likes his job. He likes having a purpose. He likes competition,” Keefe said. “If I had to pick one horse to win a race like this on Maryland Million Day, it would be him, just because I’ve had him for so long?–?had him his whole career. I know there are plenty of horses who have won a half a million dollars but he’s special to us.”

For the Murrays, proprietors of Murmur Farm in Darlington, where Yarrow Brae stands, it was a monumental day. They’ve been in the business?–?in Maryland?–?for nearly 50 years.

It was the fifth Maryland Million win for Yarrow Brae, a son of Deputy Minister. Celtic Innis, whose earnings stand at $501,804, is his sire’s leading earner.
The Murrays purchased Celtic Innis’s dam, Harp Innis (by Phone Trick), for $47,000 at the 1997 Keeneland November sale. The mare batted 1,000 in her first two matings with Yarrow Brae. Her first foal by him is stakes winner Clever Yankee ($194,093).

After making four starts in 2007, Celtic Innis fractured a bone in his pastern and spent the rest of the year at Murmur, under the care of farm manager Corby Caiazzo.

“ The vet said, ‘He’ll never win again. You’re wasting your time sending him back to the races,’?”Allen Murray said. “I can’t wait to see him. Celtic Innis is the best horse we’ve had. For Maryland breeders, the Maryland Million is a bigger day than the Preakness. The Preakness is for the whole country. This is for Maryland.”

Juke Joint proves bargain
Lonnie Stokes goes to Fasig-Tipton Midlantic’s Eastern Fall Yearling sale at Timonium every year looking for a few bargains to take back to his Carrolltown, Ohio, farm.

Consider his trip to last year’s sale a success. Stokes put up his hand one time for a chestnut colt by Jazz Club. The hammer fell at $3,500.

Juke Joint scored in the aptly named $150,000 Fasig-Tipton Maryland Million Nursery, improving his career record to 3-for-3 and $157,500 in earnings.
Racing in the name of R Legacy Racing and Stokes, Juke Joint stretched out his nine rivals, winning by four and a quarter lengths under Dale Beckner. The winner finished seven furlongs in 1:26.22, besting maiden Cool Punch and Mr. Keeper, who won the Oliver’s Twist Stakes against Maryland-breds in September.

Bred in Pennsylvania by Maryland Million vice-president David DiPietro, Juke Joint is one of two stakes performers from two foals to race for his dam, To the Chapel (by Runaway Groom), who died earlier this year.

“ I saw him that morning before he went in the ring,” said Stokes. “I had marked a lot of colts. When he walked through the ring, I had forgotten about him so I looked at my catalog and said, ‘Uh, I marked him okay. I better look at him again,’?” Stokes said.

Stokes and his son Lance were looking for some Pennsylvania-breds to run at Presque Isle Downs, and Juke Joint lived up to the job description over the western Pennsylvania track’s Tapeta surface, winning his debut by nearly 10 lengths and returning to win the Send More Money Stakes on September 1 by nearly eight lengths. Until the Maryland Million, Juke Joint was untried over dirt.
“ I figured he’d fit the program somewhere,” Stokes said. “He looked clean, but you can’t tell if they’re a runner. It’s not that easy. I had doubts about distance and dirt and he had to haul; the rest are on their home court.”
Stokes and his two sons run a far-flung horse operation, dividing time and horses between Florida and Ohio.

“ We’ve got a mess of horses? –?probably 30 head on the farm in Ohio and the track. Some will go to Florida for a rest and we’ll break some babies and get ready to go again,” Stokes said. “I started in Quarter Horses and had some nice horses but this is our biggest Thor­ough­bred win.”

As for the Fasig-Tipton Mid­lantic auction, Stokes is even more of a believer.
“ I went back over there this year looking for a bargain,” Stokes said. “You never know, do you?”

Miss Charm City: triumphant lassie
Certainly the most bittersweet win of the day came in the $150,000 Maryland Million Lassie, when Miss Charm City continued her undefeated career with a frontrunning score in the seven-furlong stakes.

Her breeder, James Glenn, a retired wholesale food distributor in Baltimore, died earlier this year, missing the debut of his talented filly.
Owned by Glenn’s estate, the daughter of Bowman’s Band won by four lengths in maiden special weight company in August, then returned to take the Gin Talking Stakes in early September. The Maryland Million made three wins, all at Laurel, and nearly tripled her earnings, to $128,460.

Trained by Carlos Garcia and ridden by Horacio Karamanos, Miss Charm City handled Fools in Love by a length and a quarter with Blind Date third. Miss Charm City finished seven furlongs in 1:24.81, more than a second faster than the juvenile colts’ time.

It was an emotional win for everybody involved, especially for the trainer’s wife, Carol Kaye-Garcia, who raised the filly.
“ We had horses for Jim for 20 years. I spread his ashes right here a few days before the filly won her first race,” Kaye-Garcia said, pointing to the finish line. “The Gin Talking was the day of Tropical Storm Hanna, and we were worried they were going to cancel the races. The sun came out right before her race and she won easily. Carlos and I were the only ones in the picture; it was kind of lonely remembering Jim.”

Glenn bought Miss Charm City’s dam, Pam’ssummerwind, and tried to make her a race horse. She’s a better broodmare.

“ Jim tried to race the dam; she had no ability. She came to my farm and has been with me ever since,” said Kaye-Garcia, who maintains Wellington Park Farm in Woodbine, Md. “If only he could have held on a few more months to have the fun of this; he must be up there somewhere watching.”

Sweet Legacy grows in Oaks
Owner/breeder William R. Harris and trainer Chris Grove have been teaming up for years and teaming up with stakes-winning offspring of the Thirty Eight Paces mare Thirty Eight Steps.
First came Deer Run, then Five Steps. . . Look out, they have another.
Sweet Goodbye ticked her win streak to four with a flawless frontrunning performance in the $150,000 Maryland Million Oaks. Under J.D. Acosta, the daughter of Louis Quatorze put a three-length gap on Saxet Heights and last year’s Maryland Million Lassie winner, Love for Not, finishing the mile in 1:38.47.
Including her maiden-breaking 10-length romp at Charles Town in late June, when she was making her second career start, Sweet Goodbye has won her last four starts by a combined margin of 22 lengths. The Maryland Million Oaks, her stakes debut, brought her earnings to $146,400.
After the race, Harris talked like a proud grandfather.

“ I raised her, her mama and her grandmother,” said Harris, who lives in Mineral, Va., but is a longtime client of Murmur Farm, where Sweet Goodbye and her accomplished siblings were conceived and foaled.

“ I like to see them run. I don’t sell them, I just race them. I’ve been doing it 50 years. Is that a long time?” said Harris, who campaigned Sweet Goodbye’s granddam Amanti, by Anticipating, to win or place in 20 stakes, three in graded company.

Deer Run, a Deerhound geld­ing, won the Maryland Mil­lion Sprint as a 5-year-old in 2002. He had a total of 10 stakes wins and placings to his credit, including a runner-up performance in the Grade 1 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash, and earnings of $408,530.

Five Steps, Yarrow Brae’s son who owns two Maryland Million Classic placings, has won four stakes and earned $413,746.

Thirty Eight Steps’s reach as a broodmare extends back to the days before Grove became a trainer. Her first foal, Norstep (by Norquestor), won four stakes and placed in five others, including a third in the Maryland Million Distaff, earning $229,845.

Thirty Eight Steps died in 2005, a few months after giving birth to Sweet Goodbye.
“ That’s where she got her name, Sweet Goodbye,” Harris said. “Chris told me how good she was all along and she’s proved it.”

Dilodovico’s double
Damon Dilodovico doubled on the Maryland Million card, winning the $50,000 Balti­more Sun Mary­land Million Starter Han­dicap with Let Me Be Frank and the $50,000 Balti­more Examiner Maryland Million Distaff Starter Han­di­cap with Swear Allegi­ance. Neither horse called Dilo­do­vico’s barn home before March.

The Bowie-based condi­tioner claimed Let Me Be Frank for $5,000 in March at Laurel and picked up Swear Allegiance for $7,500 in May at Pimlico. The Maryland Million wasn’t the goal at claim time for either horse, but became the goal after both runners began to transform under new tutelage.

“ We’re a smaller outfit; I don’t know if I could handle spending the big money,” Dilodovico said. “I guess this is my element, where I’m most comfortable.
“ Not to sound cocky but I thought we had a shot to win both. They were training great and we were excited about the day.”

Owned by Mark Lapidus, Let Me Be Frank was making his 87th start on Maryland Million Day. Bred in Maryland by Plane Tree Farm (Ron and Elizabeth Cullis and their daughter Heather Cullis-Spence), the 6-year-old gelding logged 24 starts in 2007, making 16 consecutive starts for a $4,500 tag or less while at Suffolk Downs.
Dilodovico claimed him in his sixth start in Maryland and he’s since won two races, including the Deputed Testamony Starter Handicap for Maryland-breds on Preakness day at Pimlico.

Under Travis Dunkelberger, Let Me Be Frank drew off to win by 10 lengths over Belle’s Broker and Morethanclever, finishing a mile and an eighth in 1:53.06.
Let Me Be Frank made Mary­­land Million history by becoming the first winner by a Maryland Million winner. His sire, Awad (by Caveat), captured the Turf in 1993.
Two races later, Black and Tan Stable’s Swear Allegiance upset the Distaff Starter Handi­cap.

Dunkelberger allowed the 4-year-old daughter of Swear by Dixie to settle in fifth before rallying to win by two and three-quarters lengths over Auntie Millie and Kenaharra. Swear Allegiance finished the mile in 1:40.81.
“ Every win you get is great. She’s got a lot of heart and a lot of problems, too,” owner Julian Brown said.

Swear Allegiance was bred by the Boniface family’s Bonita Farm and Karen Dempsey. Swear by Dixie, a grandson of the Bonifaces’ 1983 Preakness winner Deputed Testamony, was standing at Bonita Farm at that time.
Brown said he chose Swear Allegiance (out of stakes-placed Allepia, by Allen’s Prospect) partly because of her pedigree, and the Bonita Farm connection.
It was the biggest career victory for Brown, who is from northern Virginia and owns four horses.

“ This is the only way to win a stakes if you’re a little owner,” Brown said. “I had a horse that was second on Preakness day in similar conditions; that was the biggest thrill of my life before this. For a small-time owner, it’s a chance to get in the winner’s circle on a big day.”

from land of Dixie.
“ Which one’s the trainer?”
Reporters and presenters asked that question as He’s a Dixie Boy headed for the test barn after winning the Maryland Million Sprint Starter Handicap to close the card.

The trainer, Tim Schuh, had the shank in hand after He’s a Dixie Boy took the $30,000 nightcap. Schuh’s Maryland Million crystal would have to be sent to him.
Schuh, 36, had shipped He’s a Dixie Boy from his Lexington, Ky., base where he trains 10 horses. He decided to do the work himself.
“ The rest of the help’s back working on the others,” Schuh said. “I’ll keep the $60 in my pocket when I’m on the road.”

He’s a Dixie Boy paid for the trip.
Owned by Country Ridge Racing LLC, He’s a Dixie Boy won for the second consecutive time, closing ground under Luis Garcia to prevail by a length and a half over Avonian and Noble Nod. He’s a Dixie Boy finished the six furlongs in 1:11.51, improving his career record to 4-for-28 and $115,810 in earnings.
Schuh claimed the 5-year-old son of Swear by Dixie for $15,000 in May at Churchill Downs. Bred in Maryland by Donald McClinton, the bay horse, out of Carson Kitty, by Carson City, is a half-brother to multiple stakes winner Halo Cat ($493,480).
He’s a Dixie Boy made three starts at Presque Isle Downs, languishing in an allowance race, closing ground to finish third in a $7,500 conditioned claimer, and then winning the same condition. That’s when Schuh answered the call from Laurel’s racing office.

“ I was unaware of this race,” said Schuh. “They called me and said we were eligible and I thought it looked like a pretty good spot. We came up and had a pretty good time.

“ We didn’t do very well the first two times we ran him, but maybe we’re turning the corner now. We thought it set up well for us and he’s got back class, so I thought he had the capabilities to compete. I came 10 hours; fortunately we got the money.”