Post by patricia on May 7, 2006 12:24:11 GMT -5
As 157,536 fans roaed in appreciation beneath clear blue skies, a horse with strong Maryland connections won the Kentucky Derby yesterday for the first time in 27 years. Barbaro, a dark bay colt who won his first major race at Laurel Park, here in Laurel, Maryland, approx 30 minutes south of Baltimore City. He spent last summer and fall at the Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton, Maryland, pulled away in the stretch at Churchill Downs and won in a runaway.
When the blue-and green silks worn by Barbaro's jockey, Edgar Prado, surged far ahead of the race's other 19 horses in the stretch run yesterday, racing officals and fans from Florida, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Kentucky, as well as Maryland, began to claim him as their own. But while those other states' connections to the horse are legitimate, there is no doubt the 2006 Derby winner began to develop on Maryland soil.
With the first jewel of the Triple crown in hand, Barbaro will come back to Maryland and try to win the Peakness at Pimlico Race Track on May 20. A victory there and in the Belmont Stakes on June 10 would make the colt the first Triple Crown winner in thoroughbred racing since Affirmed in 1978. The owners and jockey believe he has a real chance to do it. Gretchen Jackson, who bred and owns Barbaro with her husband, Roy, said yesterday that the colt will travel from Kentucky to Fair Hill, a 350-acre training center, will take it easy for at least a few days before coming to Pimlico for the Peakness.
Although the Jacksons are Pennsylvanians and bred the colt in Kentucky, the horse's trainer, Michael Matz, lives in Collegeville, Pa. just across the Maryland line. He trains his horses every summer and fall at Fair Hill, sending them to run at Delware Park, Laurel, Pimlico and other Eastern tracks. Almost exactly a year ago, Barbaro arrived at Fair Hill as a untested 2-year-old, having been rasied on the Jacksons' farm in West Grove, Pa.
Matz, a former equestrian rider who turned to trainning thoroughbreds after winning a silver medal in the 1996 Olympics, was given orders to prepare the colt to race. Matz stated that Fair Hill is a very good trainning center. Its a beautiful facility. There's alot you can do with a horse at a place like that and Barbaro likes it there.
Coincidentally, when the horses left the starting gate yesterday, ther were two other Maryland-based horses, Sweetnothersaint, a gelding owned and trained by Baltimore-area residents and based at Laurel Park went off as the betting favorite at race time and finished seventh. Point Determined, a Maryland bred, was 9th.
It was a very exciting race with 20 cream of the crop horses. I'm so proud of all the Maryland based horses and of course Barbaro! ;D See in two weeks at the Peakness!! ;D Go, Baby, Go! ;D
When the blue-and green silks worn by Barbaro's jockey, Edgar Prado, surged far ahead of the race's other 19 horses in the stretch run yesterday, racing officals and fans from Florida, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Kentucky, as well as Maryland, began to claim him as their own. But while those other states' connections to the horse are legitimate, there is no doubt the 2006 Derby winner began to develop on Maryland soil.
With the first jewel of the Triple crown in hand, Barbaro will come back to Maryland and try to win the Peakness at Pimlico Race Track on May 20. A victory there and in the Belmont Stakes on June 10 would make the colt the first Triple Crown winner in thoroughbred racing since Affirmed in 1978. The owners and jockey believe he has a real chance to do it. Gretchen Jackson, who bred and owns Barbaro with her husband, Roy, said yesterday that the colt will travel from Kentucky to Fair Hill, a 350-acre training center, will take it easy for at least a few days before coming to Pimlico for the Peakness.
Although the Jacksons are Pennsylvanians and bred the colt in Kentucky, the horse's trainer, Michael Matz, lives in Collegeville, Pa. just across the Maryland line. He trains his horses every summer and fall at Fair Hill, sending them to run at Delware Park, Laurel, Pimlico and other Eastern tracks. Almost exactly a year ago, Barbaro arrived at Fair Hill as a untested 2-year-old, having been rasied on the Jacksons' farm in West Grove, Pa.
Matz, a former equestrian rider who turned to trainning thoroughbreds after winning a silver medal in the 1996 Olympics, was given orders to prepare the colt to race. Matz stated that Fair Hill is a very good trainning center. Its a beautiful facility. There's alot you can do with a horse at a place like that and Barbaro likes it there.
Coincidentally, when the horses left the starting gate yesterday, ther were two other Maryland-based horses, Sweetnothersaint, a gelding owned and trained by Baltimore-area residents and based at Laurel Park went off as the betting favorite at race time and finished seventh. Point Determined, a Maryland bred, was 9th.
It was a very exciting race with 20 cream of the crop horses. I'm so proud of all the Maryland based horses and of course Barbaro! ;D See in two weeks at the Peakness!! ;D Go, Baby, Go! ;D
