Horses don’t make history too often, but that’s what Sharing did when she landed the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf-G1 at Santa Anita last month. Sagamore Farm, Maryland and the region came along for the ride.
When I heard the particulars of the new plan to rebuild Maryland’s Pimlico Race Course and Laurel Park, three words came to mind.
Make it happen.
Can you see the future? Squint at Fair Hill with me.
The state of Maryland is building a state-of-the-art turf course on the 5,600-acre Department of Natural Resources property in Cecil County. Home to a steeplechase meet since 1934, the race course sits across Md. 273 from its now more famous neighbor Fair Hill Training Center. The historic course was known for tight turns, long straightaways, firm ground, oddball wagering results (don’t even think about trying to figure out the per-capita), funnel cake, the beer truck, sunburn and a handful of historic racing moments mixed in with some not-at-all historic racing moments.
Delaware Park is such a part of my past that I remember specific days, moments, horses and long-gone locations.
Jill Byrne goes for solo evening runs around the Colonial Downs backstretch and racetrack. She sees progress every day, worries about critters (snakes mostly, but deer and groundhogs were far more common early on) and puts in her miles while thinking about a to-do list that adds one item – at least – for every one she checks off.
“. . . the end is not in question. It’s the means – the dreadful uncertainty of the means.” John Steinbeck was writing about race relations in America in 1962 when he finished a paragraph in Travels with Charley, in Search of America with that. It’s a punch of a sentence, or two sentences I guess. A hard, quick punch. Bap. And then it’s gone. You want to read it again, even though you know you’ll get punched.
Now what? If you had something to do with Senior Senator what would you do? The timber sensation tied a record with his third Maryland Hunt Cup win at the end of April and had trainer Joe Davies and owners Skip and Vicki Crawford wondering what’s left on the table.
It’s May. How you doing? Can you keep up? Racing, like the world, seemed to be in a great big hurry during the first few months of 2019. News came quickly, and from everywhere.
PO Box 427
Timonium, MD 21093
410-252-2100
