Maryland Horse Industry Board Honors Eight Maryland Championship Racers

ANNAPOLIS, MD (March 20, 2012) – The Maryland Horse Industry Board (MHIB) – a program within the Maryland Department of Agriculture – tonight honored eight national horse racing champions with its Touch of Class Award during a “Night of Maryland Horse Racing Champions” at the Sports Legend Museum in Baltimore. The eight national championship honorees represent four different racing disciplines – harness, Arabians, steeplechase and Thoroughbreds. About 250 horse industry professionals attended the event.

“Maryland’s equine industry is alive and well and extremely diverse,” said Agriculture Secretary Buddy Hance. “The people and the horses that we recognize tonight are great national champions, not just hometown favorites, and they are true ambassadors for the industry and for our state. I congratulate all of them on their successes and for their commitment to this important agricultural sector.”

Maryland’s equine industry includes more than 79,000 equine animals valued at $714 million and total assets worth more than $5.6 billion. The industry holds about 10 percent of Maryland’s land (587,000 acres) and employs more than 28,000 people. Horse farms, which preserve valued green space and serve as a buffer to development, are a critical element in the maintenance of the state’s agricultural heritage.

The MHIB established the monthly Touch of Class Award in September 2011 to honor Maryland horses, individuals, teams, organizations or events that have garnered national or international recognition. Awards for February, March and April were presented during the event.

The February Touch of Class Award was presented to one Thoroughbred and two harness racing champions.

• Karin DeFrancis of the Maryland Jockey Club presented the award to thoroughbred gelding RAPID REDUX and his owner Robert Cole, Jr., a Baltimore County native. Rapid Redux has won 22 consecutive races, including a perfect 19-for-19 season in 2011. His winning streak, which began in December 2010, includes winning races at seven different tracks at distances of five furlongs to 1-1/8 miles, using seven riders. During his streak, he ran in Maryland seven times. His 22nd win occurred earlier this year at Laurel Park. Rapid Redux, who has not run since his last win, is currently enjoying a vacation and will likely not run again before May or June. The National Thoroughbred Racing Association, Daily Racing Form and the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters honored Rapid Redux with the Special Eclipse Award for extraordinary service, individual achievements in, or contributions to the sport of Thoroughbred racing.

• Cheri Stambaugh of the Maryland Standardbred Race Fund presented the award to two harness champions. Standardbred colt ROLL WITH JOE was recently named the United States Harness Writers Association Dan Patch Award winner as the U.S. Three Year-old Pacer of the Year and was runner-up for Horse of the Year honors. He was bred and raised at Winbak Farm in Chesapeake City and is still partly owned by Winbak’s owners Joe and JoAnn Thomson. In 2011, Roll With Joe won the $1Million Meadowlands Pace, the $500,000 Battle of the Brandywine, and the $401,000 Messenger Stakes and earned $1,649,725. He is now retired to stud in New York.
• Standardbred colt GOOGOO GAAGAA set a new world’s record for a mile by a trotter at a half mile track when he clipped four-tenths of a second off the previous mark in the Hubert Jackson Memorial Maryland Sire Stakes Final Stakes at Ocean Downs on Aug. 25, 2011. He sped the distance in 1 minute 56 seconds and won the race by 41 lengths. GooGoo GaaGaa is undefeated in six lifetime starts, winning his races by a combined total of 130 lengths. He finished fourth in votes as USHWA Two Year-Old Trotter of the Year. He was bred and is owned and trained by Richard Hans of Westminster.

The March Touch of Class Award was presented to three Maryland national steeplechase champions by Baltimore author Patrick Smithwick, steeplechase author and son of Hall of Fame Steeplechase jockey A.P. Smithwick. (Smithwick also read from and signed copies of his latest book Flying Change: A Year of Racing and Family and Steeplechasing during the event.)  March awards were presented to:

• IRVIN S. NAYLOR, champion U.S. steeplechase owner. A Marylander native who now lives in York, Pa., Mr. Naylor maintains his impressive racing operation at Still Water Farm and Training Center in Baltimore County. In 2011, Mr. Naylor’s stable led all U.S. owners, winning 16 races. His horses earned $719,725. The stable included national Eclipse-winning champion jumper Black Jack Blues and Tax Ruling, runner-up as Steeplechaser of the Year. Mr. Naylor also campaigned the year’s champion novice steeplechaser, Lake Placid.
• TOM VOSS, champion U.S. steeplechase trainer. Mr. Voss operates Atlanta Hall Farm in Monkton and has been the nation’s leading steeplechase trainer four times. Over the years, his horses have earned nearly $20 million and have included champions on the flat as well as over fences. He added a fifth national steeplechasing title this year, winning 16 races. His horses earned $384,070. The stable included Maryland-bred stakes winner Wanganui, bred and owned by his wife, Mimi. Wanganui was also named champion 3-year-old chaser.
• BON CADDO, champion U.S. timber horse. After being winless in 2010, Bon Caddo came back with a vengeance in 2011, winning the My Lady’s Manor Steeplechase and the Virginia Gold Cup. He also finished second in the Pennsylvania Hunt Cup, earning $73,500 for the year. He is owned by Charles and Barbara Noell’s Merriefield Farm in Monkton and is trained by Dawn Williams. Williams trains the horse out of Bruce Fenwick’s facility, Belmont Farm, in the Worthington Valley of Baltimore County.

The April Touch of Class Award was presented to two Arabian racing champions by Kathy Smoke, president of the Arabian Jockey Club, who flew into Baltimore especially for the events.  Those honorees were:

• GOLDEN ODESSY, a Maryland-bred filly raised in Harford County, was named Champion Three Year Old Filly of the Year during the 2012 Darley Awards, which are considered “the Oscars” of purebred Arabian racing in the United States.  She also won the Delaware Park Arabian Juvenile Championship Stakes and the Dr. Sam Harrison Juvenile Filly Stakes.
• DIXIES VALENTINE, a 7-year-old mare, received the 2012 World Champion Mare Award during the Her Highness Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Awards, which were awarded for the first time this year to recognize women in Arabian racing and presented along with the Darley Awards. Dixies Valentine was also nominated for a Darley Award for Horse of the Year and has twice before been named a Champion Arabian Filly of the Year. She was retired to the breeding shed when she was 5 years old; however, she preferred racetrack life and returned to the races last year at age 6. She won the Buzz Brauninger Distaff Handicap and was second against the boys in the Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Arabian Cup at Churchill Downs.

Both Dixies Valentine and Golden Odessy are boarded and trained at Rigbie Farm in Harford County, which is owned by Sharon Clark who accepted the award for them.

During the event, an 18-minute video of the honorees and their championship moments was shown continuously on the museum’s eight video screens. The video was produced by Hunt Cup Productions.

Also during the night, local restaurants whose owners have a deep interest in horse racing provided refreshments while Maryland wineries and breweries provided beverages during “A Taste of the Race” reception. Participating vendors included: Barrett’s, Hunt Valley; Clipper City Brewing Company, Baltimore; Lemon Leaf Cafe, Chestertown; Maryland Jockey Club Caterers, Baltimore/Laurel; Maryland Wineries Association, Timonium; Saschas 527 Cafe, Baltimore; and Wegman’s, Hunt Valley.

Entertainment was provided by Hot Buttered Nuggets, a 3-piece jazz/swing/Americana band comprised of harness racing aficionados Nancy Lisi, Doug Everton and Zack Bronder

The event sponsors included: Cloverleaf Standardbred Owners Associations, GalaCloths, Dulany Noble, Maryland Jockey Club, Maryland Standardbred Race Fund, Ocean Downs, Penn National Gaming.

MHIB’s Touch of Class Award is named after a Maryland-bred mare who won two Olympic show jumping gold medals and currently holds the Olympic record for number of clean jumping rounds in an Olympic competition. Past Touch of Class winners are listed below.

• Graham Motion, who won the 2011 Kentucky Derby with Animal Kingdom and ranks as one the nation’s leading trainer of Thoroughbred racehorses. Motion trains his horses in Cecil County. (September 2011)
• Colleen Rutledge and her horse Shiraz, who were the third highest-placed U.S. horse and rider combination at the prestigious Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials in England and are under consideration for a berth on the 2012 U.S. Olympic 3-Day Team. Ms. Rutledge lives in Frederick and operates Turnabout Farm in Howard County. (October 2011)
• John Crandell III and his horse Heraldic, who won two silver medals in endurance riding at the 2011 Pan American Games in Chile. Heraldic is the only horse in history to win the triple crown of endurance racing. The Crandells live and train their horses in Anne Arundel County. (November 2011)
• Tiffany McClure, the International Professional Rodeo Association’s 2010 World Champion Barrel Racer, who grew up in Prince George’s County and graduated from Anne Arundel Community College. (December 2011)
• Blue Rain, the U.S. Equestrian Foundation’s National Champion Pony Sire from 2004 to 2011, who is now 23 years old and lives at Springdale Pony Stud in Frederick County. He is owned by Allyson Coluccio and Lisa Gordon Carr. (January 2012)

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NOTE TO EDITORS: Photos of the award presentations are available upon request.