{"id":18580,"date":"2015-12-07T15:02:10","date_gmt":"2015-12-07T20:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/?p=18580"},"modified":"2015-12-08T15:29:06","modified_gmt":"2015-12-08T20:29:06","slug":"maryland-thoroughbred-makeover-winners-receive-december-touch-of-class-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/press-release\/2015\/12\/07\/maryland-thoroughbred-makeover-winners-receive-december-touch-of-class-awards\/","title":{"rendered":"Maryland \u201cThoroughbred Makeover\u201d Winners Receive December Touch of Class Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Award<\/a>

From left: Board Chairman Jim Steele with Award Recipients Rebecca Walters, Michelle Warro and Neil Agate. (Photo by Jerry Dzierwinski of Maryland Jockey Club)<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

ANNAPOLIS, MD <\/strong>\u2013 The Maryland Horse Industry Board, a program within the Maryland Department of Agriculture, presented its December Touch of Class Award to three\u00a0Maryland horse trainers who\u00a0earned top honors at the 2015 Thoroughbred Makeover competition in Lexington, Kentucky. The awards were presented during\u00a0the Thoroughbred Alliance Show Series banquet in Laurel on Dec. 5.<\/p>\n

Award recipients were:\u00a0Michelle Warro from Davidsonville (Anne Arundel County), Rebecca Walters from Fallston (Harford County) and Neil Agate from Germantown (Montgomery County).\u00a0The awards were presented to the trainers, their horses and the horses\u2019 owners and breeders by Horse \u00a0Board Chairman Jim Steele at the banquet.<\/p>\n

The Thoroughbred Makeover competition featured 350 horses and trainers from 44 states, Canada and England who were tasked with re-training a Thoroughbred who had retired from racing within the past year and re-schooling it to excel in one of 10 different equestrian disciplines.<\/p>\n

Warro, aboard the four-year-old gelding Best Things In Life\u2014who had raced at Laurel as recently as last March\u2014scored best in the Three-Day Eventing division as well as third in Dressage. Walters, on the six-year-old gelding, Feet Included, was the top amateur trainer in the Show Jumping division. Agate, riding his six-year-old mare, Demon, finished as the top amateur trainer in the polo division.<\/p>\n

All three trainers also rode their horses. Owners and breeders of the horses who were foaled in Maryland were\u00a0also honored and include Cynthia McGinnes of Thornmar Farm in Chestertown (owner-breeder, Best Things InLife) and Glade Valley Farm of Frederick (breeder, Feet Included). Walters and Agate also own their horses.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is entirely fitting that we honor these Maryland trainers and horses at the Thoroughbred Alliance banquet,\u201d Steele said. \u201cLike the Makeover contestants, the owners, trainers and riders in the Alliance show series re-school Thoroughbreds to excel in the show ring after they are finished with their racing careers.\u00a0 Re-purposing the lives of Thoroughbred racehorses has become a tremendous part of our industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Maryland Horse Industry Board began the Touch of Class Award program five years ago to honor Maryland horses and people who achieve national and international recognition. The Award is given in memory of Touch of Class, a Maryland-bred mare who won two show jumping gold medals at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.\u00a0For more information, contact Executive Director Ross Peddicord at ross.peddicord@maryland.gov<\/a> or 410-841-5798<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ANNAPOLIS, MD \u2013 The Maryland Horse Industry Board, a program within the Maryland Department of Agriculture, presented its December Touch of Class Award to three\u00a0Maryland horse trainers who\u00a0earned top honors at the 2015 Thoroughbred Makeover competition in Lexington, Kentucky. The awards were presented during\u00a0the Thoroughbred Alliance Show Series banquet in Laurel on Dec. 5. Award  Read the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18580"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18583,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18580\/revisions\/18583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}