• “Colonial Farms: Three Generations and Counting,” told the story of the Fieramoscas and their family farm in Colts Neck, N.J. Purchased in 1950, the 100-acre farm was transformed from a family riding place into one of the leading Thoroughbred breeding facilities in the state. Colonial Farms had been home to such stalwarts as 11-time leading sire *Slady Castle and his leading sire son, New Jersey-bred Horse of the Year Castle Guard. Current patriarch Sam Fieramosca, the 78-year-old son of the farm’s founder John, noted: “From 1952 on it has been all racing and breeding. And it’s been wonderful.”
• Patricia Generazio’s 6-year-old veteran Presious Passion left everyone breathless as he captured Monmouth Park’s United Nations-G1 for the second year in a row. Leading by as many as 20 lengths, the Florida-bred chestnut finished the 13⁄8 miles in 2:10.97 and shattered English Channel’s course mark by nearly two seconds. The gelding earned a berth in the Breeders’ Cup Turf-G1 with the win, and trainer Mary Hartmann said they intended to make the trip to Santa Anita.
Presious Passion had the best year of his career in 2009, adding the Clement L. Hirsch Memorial Turf Championship Stakes-G1 before electrifying the Breeders’ Cup crowd, soaring through sizzling fractions in the Turf and hanging tough to finish second. His earnings for the year were $1,524,275 in nine starts.
• Black Tie Affair (Ire), the only Eclipse Award-winning Horse of the Year to stand at stud in the Mid-Atlantic region, was retired from his breeding duties. At 23 years old, the stallion had been on the roster at Randy Funkhouser’s O’Sullivan Farms in Charles Town since 2005. He was headed to Old Friends retirement farm in Georgetown, Ky., to live as a pensioner. Having previously stood in Kentucky, Japan and Virginia, he was the sire of 35 stakes winners to date.
• David and JoAnn Hayden’s Dark Hollow Farm of Upperco, Md., took top awards at the 75th annual Maryland Horse Breeders Association Yearling Show as judge Baden P. “Buzz” Chase selected its class-winning colt and filly, the show’s only two yearlings by former Maryland stallion Malibu Moon, as champion and reserve champion, respectively. This was the second time in the show’s history that the same owner received both trophies, with Fendall Clagett accomplishing the feat in 1972.
• King T. Leatherbury’s homebred Ah Day achieved his 10th career stakes victory in Colonial Downs’ Chesapeake Stakes. Owned by The Jim Stable, Ah Day got up in the final strides to defeat fellow Maryland-bred Celtic Innis by three-quarters of a length in a rapid 6-furlong time of 1:09.46. The Maryland-bred champion 3-year-old male of 2006, the son of Malibu Moon out of the Thirty Eight Paces mare Endette started the season off with a win in the Toboggan Stakes-G3 at Aqueduct.
The Chesapeake was Ah Day’s final stakes win, followed by 14 more starts before finishing out his career in December 2012. He earned $921,574 with a record of 44-14-8-5.
• Edward P. Evans’s Cat Moves, one of 63 foals born in 2006 at the breeder’s Spring Hill Farm in Casanova, Va., romped in the Prioress Stakes-G1, getting the 6 furlongs in 1:08.65, a second off the track record. The daughter of Tale of the Cat was a fourth-generation Evans homebred descending from the sensational family of Lunar Dancer. Making her first stakes appearance, she remained undefeated in three starts.
