Larry Murray says they're the greatest owners in the game. And that, really, is Sondra and Howard Bender in a nutshell.
"They take the defeats as well as they take the wins," Murray says. "They're just classy people."
Murray trains for the Benders, who live in Bethesda, and manages their Glade Valley Farm, situated on more than 900 aces in Frederick. The victory by La Reine's Terms over the Grade I winner Forbidden Apple in the Great State Challenge Turf two weeks ago at Sam Houston Race Park capped the most successful year since 1988, when Murray started training Bender horses.
The Bender-Murray team captured 12 stakes this year with six horses, all bred by the Benders. In all races, the team registered 28 wins from 145 starts for earnings of $1.3 million.
The stable star, La Reine's Terms, won five of the 12 stakes. The Great State Challenge Turf, worth $275,000, was the biggest. The Maryland Million Turf, worth $100,000, was next.
Everyone associated with the 7-year-old horse took special pride in his accomplishments. He broke his neck in a paddock accident as a yearling.
Other owners might have opted for euthanasia, but the Benders, in concert with Murray, gave the determined youngster a chance. He rewarded them with 14 wins in 35 races for earnings of $675,266.
"He's what horse stories are all about," Howard Bender says.
On Friday, Murray sent La Reine's Terms from his Laurel stall to Middleburg, Va., for the winter. Murray hated to see the gallant veteran go, but regional turf racing, his specialty, is finished until next year.
"It was a shame to stop on him, because he left here better than he's ever been," Murray says. "But if he can come back next year and again win five of six races and earn $300,000, then he can have the winter off."
Murray came to Maryland from New York in 1979 to manage Glade Valley for Dr. Robert Leonard, who founded the farm in the 1950s with Jack I. Bender, Howard's father. Murray wasn't sure how he would like it.
"I was born in Brooklyn and grew up at the racetrack," he says. "I thought horses came on trucks."
Sondra and Howard Bender got involved in 1983 when, Howard says, "my wife decided we needed something new in our lives." Howard, 72, worked with his father and brothers at Blake Construction Co., one of the largest construction firms in the East. It built, for example, the Holocaust Museum, FBI Building and Walter Reed Hospital.
Sondra and Howard developed their own broodmare band, which numbers about 20. Murray began training the offspring in 1988. Howard says despite knowing little about the horse business two decades ago, he and Sondra quickly became attached.
"I don't know how to put it," Howard says. "It's very exciting. It's probably the idea you're raising your babies and running them. It's like watching your own kids grow up and seeing them do something successful."
Although the Benders send about 80 percent of their mares to Kentucky sires, they foal their mares in Maryland. The financial incentives for that have decreased in comparison to other states. Like everyone else in Maryland racing, the Benders are eager to see whether the General Assembly approves slot machines and how that might benefit the industry.
"I can tell you one thing," Howard says. "If the horsemen don't get their fair share to make it profitable somewhere down the road, then we're going to have to look at it pretty hard. As much as my family loves it, we run it like a business, and it's got to make sense on the bottom line."
Apprentice voting
Eclipse Award ballots aren't due until Dec. 31, but it's hard to imagine voters (turf writers, racing secretaries and Daily Racing Form employees) selecting anyone but Ryan Fogelsonger as Apprentice Jockey of the Year.
Through Friday, the 21-year-old from Silver Spring had won 259 races (.220 winning percentage), and his mounts had earned $4,278,741. The next most successful apprentice is Francisco Duran, who rides in Northern California. Through Thursday, he had won 195 races (.160), and his mounts had earned $3,380,035.
Fogelsonger is poised to become the ninth Maryland apprentice since 1974 to win the Eclipse Award. Since July 1, his 236 victories lead all jockeys in the country. In a recent 15-day span of riding in Maryland, Fogelsonger won four races in a day four times.
"Words can't describe the way I feel," he says. "The important thing is not to let the success go to my head. Most young riders go through a roller-coaster scenario, but it seems like my coaster keeps going up."
Says Mario Pino, a competing jockey: "I am really hoping he wins the Eclipse Award, because all the success hasn't changed him one bit. He is the same friendly kid that came into the jocks' room this spring."
Et cetera
Local rider Horacio Karamanos will spend Christmas in his native Argentina, where he will receive that country's award for the year's top jockey.
"It is a tremendous honor," says Karamanos, 29, one of Argentina's top riders for a decade before moving last year to the United States. "This is the third time I've been nominated, but my success in Maryland put me over the top."
The Silver Charm weanling that sold for $103,000 at the recent Fasig-Tipton Midlantic auction at Timonium was the highest-priced Silver Charm weanling filly from the sire's first two crops.
The Maryland-bred filly out of the stakes-winning and stakes-producing mare Promiseville came from Frank Bonsal's Mantua Farm in Glyndon. Lea Edmunds, farm manager, picked out Promiseville three years ago at an auction in Kentucky. She also prepared the weanling for sale.
Racing at Laurel Park will cease for the holiday today through Wednesday; simulcasting will take place today and tomorrow. Starting Thursday, Laurel will race 10 of the next 11 days (no racing Dec. 30). Starting Jan. 1, it will race Wednesday through Sunday.