Windfields Farm’s first Maryland-bred yearlings were to be offered for sale under the same format as had been conducted in Canada since 1954.

The yearlings would be pre-priced and buyers could purchase any on a first-come, first-served basis. The sale would be limited to three of the six colts offered, and seven of 13 fillies. Those not sold would join breeder/owner E.P. Taylor’s racing stable. The yearlings were available to inspect throughout July, and purchases could be made from July 27 through Aug. 8. Included in the group were three colts and one filly by Northern Dancer.

Noted Maryland Horse editor Snowden Carter: “If ever you feel the urge to destroy the morale of an over-confident, loud-mouthed character, suggest to that person that he take a fling at buying yearlings.” Among Windfields yearlings passed over in prior years and raced by Taylor were champions Northern Dancer, Nearctic, Flaming Page, Viceregal and Victoria Park.

• The 100th anniversaries of the openings of Pimlico and Monmouth Park were being celebrated.
  
  Pimlico opened in the spring of 1870; Monmouth Park that July 30. The New Jersey track “used to be the next stop when racing ended in Maryland.” The original Monmouth Park, located not far from its current site, “was so popular that it outgrew its facility in 20 years. A second Monmouth Park, also in the same area, had its inaugural on July 4, 1890.” The second track lasted three years – modern Monmouth Park opened its doors June 19, 1946.
  
  
• Fire leveled the stud barn at Allaire duPont’s Woodstock Farm in Chesapeake City, home to Northern Dancer’s sire Nearctic, as well as Maribeau and Nade. The stallions were led to the safety of their paddocks without incident. Damage was restricted to the combination breeding shed/stallion barn that was built less than three years earlier.
  
  
• Christiana Stables’ homebred 2-year-old filly Unity Hall remained undefeated in three starts when winning Belmont Park’s National Stallion Stakes as the 1-10 favorite. Bred in Virginia by Jane and Harry Lunger, she was the product of two Christiana Stables homebreds – Cyane and Rum Bottle Bay. Offered as a yearling at the National Horse Sales’ auction at Thomas O’Farrell’s Windy Hills Farm the previous October, she topped the bidding at $10,000, with the stable’s longtime trainer Henry Clark signing the ticket.
  
  Descending from Miss Ferdinand, the Lungers’ first stakes winner, Unity Hall won four of eight starts that year and added Delaware Park’s Blue Hen Stakes. Retired to the Christiana broodmare band, she produced nine foals, four stakes performers, including Blue Grass Stakes-G1 winner and Preakness runner-up Linkage and the talented Croquis, a Grade 1-placed graded stakes producer.