Like a team assembling its road roster, Maryland is finalizing its entry for the National Thoroughbred Racing Association's Great Race Challenge on Dec. 7 at Sam Houston Race Park in Texas.
Maryland-bred horses will represent the state in the six races with purses of $275,000 apiece. Being run for the first time, the series is modeled after the Breeders' Cup with an eye toward allowing states to showcase their breeding programs.
Each state's breeders' organization identified state-bred horses for the series. Here, the Maryland Horse Breeders Association worked with Georganne Hale, Maryland Jockey Club racing secretary. Their joint effort resulted in eight Maryland-bred horses being invited Friday to the six races whose fields might include top horses from around the country.
The Maryland team follows:
Juvenile fillies (2-year-old fillies, 7 furlongs): Perfect Blue, trained by Roger Werneth, owned by Mason Dixon Racing.
Juvenile (2-year-olds, 7 furlongs): Bridge Out Again, trained and owned by Richard Small, and Cherokee's Boy, trained by Gary Capuano, owned by Z W P Stable.
Sprint (3-and-up, 6 furlongs): Deer Run, trained by Christopher Grove, owned by William R. Harris.
Distaff (fillies and mares 3-and-up, 1 1/16 miles): Hunka Hunka Lori Z, trained by Ben Feliciano Jr., owned by Charles J. Reed and Michael Zanella.
Turf (3-and-up, 1 1/8 miles on turf): Elberton, trained by Luigi Gino, owned by Frank Hopkins, and La Reine's Terms, trained by Larry Murray, owned by Sondra and Howard Bender.
Classic (3-and-up, 1 1/8 miles): Pickupspeed, trained by Larry Murray, owned by Sondra and Howard Bender.
Big-name horses also invited include Kentucky-bred Take Charge Lady (distaff), California-bred Humorous Lady (juvenile fillies), New York-bred Funny Cide (juvenile), California-bred Disturbingthepeace (sprint) and Florida-bred Forbidden Apple (turf).
Some Maryland trainers aren't sure they want to travel halfway across the country to meet such formidable foes. Capuano, trainer of Cherokee's Boy, said he wants to see the final field before deciding whether to go.
"It'd be great to go out there and win it for Maryland," Capuano said.
Feliciano, trainer of Hunka Hunka Lori Z, winner of the $50,000 Stefanita Stakes last weekend at Laurel Park, winced at the prospect of running against Take Charge Lady, a two-time Grade I winner. Murray, trainer of La Reine's Terms and Pickupspeed, said he is planning to go despite the opposition.
"I think it's a great concept," Murray said. "To me it's worth a shot."
Maryland might have the best chance with Deer Run in the sprint. Trained by Grove at Bowie, the late-charger finished second to D'wildcat in the Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash last weekend at Laurel.
Hale, the racing secretary, said she wonders whether the Great Race Challenge in the future shouldn't take place closer to the Breeders' Cup so the Breeders' Cup horses wouldn't run.
"Then you could shine the spotlight on the second-tier horses," Hale said. "This would be their day."
'He just loved horses'
Charles "Chuck" Gore, a 58-year-old exercise rider at Pimlico, died Thursday. He suffered a stroke while working out a horse the week before. He managed to ride the horse back to the barn. Workers helped him down and called the ambulance. He was taken to Sinai Hospital, where he died six days later.
"He went doing what he loved doing," said his sister, Maryland Reier, who lives in Baldwin. "He just loved horses."
Gore sat on horseback for the first time at 16 months, she said. He showed horses as a boy with phenomenal success. In 1953, when he was 9, he and his pony Pretty Penny were grand champion at the National Horse Show at Madison Square Garden, Reier said.
He began galloping horses at Delaware Park in 1961. He started riding at Pimlico in the late 1960s, his sister said, working through the years for a variety of trainers, including Small, Jimmy Kline, Ellis Pruce, Joe Eff, Holly Robinson and Casey Lattimer.
Lattimer said Gore, who lived in Timonium, showed up every morning at 4 o'clock at Eff's barn.
"He was as dependable as the sun coming up," she said. "I called him 'The Grinch,' because he was kind of an old curmudgeon. But all his friends appreciated his dry sense of humor. He had a great poker face, but he had a twinkling eye.
"He never got on anything fancy. He was like the working man's exercise rider."
A memorial service for Gore will be held at 11 a.m tomorrow near the finish line at Pimlico. His sister asks that in lieu of flowers donations be made to the Maryland Horsemen's Assistance Fund (6314 Windsor Mill Rd., Baltimore MD 21207).
Around the tracks
Thunderello, injured as the favorite in the Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash, has been retired. Scott Lake, his trainer, said arrangements are being made to stand the 3-year-old at stud next year.
Toccet, winner of the Laurel Futurity, will run Saturday in the Remsen Stakes at Aqueduct, said John Scanlan, his trainer. "That race took absolutely nothing out of him," Scanlan said. "He's ready to do it again."
Since Delaware Park closed a week ago, the entry box at Laurel has swelled. After averaging 7.6 horses per race for the past six weeks, Laurel averaged 8.3 last week.
Laurel post time is 11:05 a.m. on Thanksgiving. Following tradition, patrons will be given a pie.