A gelding named T-Sizzle won the fourth race at Laurel Park this afternoon, continuing a wonderful recent trend of winning racehorses named after Baltimore sports heroes.
A 4/5 favorite trained by Michael J. Trombetta, jockey Julian Pimentel rode T-Sizzle to his maiden in the 5 1/2 furlong dirt-track race during the winter program in Laurel.
T-Sizzle, of course, is the nickname of Ravens star linebacker Terrell Suggs, who is the longest-tenured player on the team, having been selected in the first round of the NFL draft in 2003.
The horse, bred in Maryland and owned by Triple Tree Stables, also raced at Pimlico this year, where I'm assuming he was a track favorite among the locals.
In September, back when Nick Markakis was the longest-tenured Oriole, a horse named Markakis won at Laurel Park.
Of course, we know how that ended. No amount of racehorse tributes were able to sway Markakis from signing with the Atlanta Braves this month.
Suggs, however, signed a four-year, $28.5 million contract extension in February, making the odds that this horse's name remains locally relevant pretty good.