At Shamrock Farm, a thoroughbred breeding operation in Woodbine, the foaling barn is an oasis of warm light during a ferocious Maryland ice storm. Inside, as many as 30 broodmares nibble hay, stir with discomfort, and await the birth of the next generation of thoroughbred racing. Throughout the night, a lone individual on “foal watch” monitors the mares in case of delivery complications. In a stall deeply bedded with straw, a foal, hours old, staggers to its mother’s side to nurse—the newest player in a centuries-old love affair between Maryland and thoroughbred racing that will reach its annual peak at this month’s Preakness Stakes.

This future racehorse, his fuzzy back less than a foot wide, will carry the dreams of his owners and trainers, who hope he will develop into, if not a Triple Crown contender, at least a money-earner. But what are the odds? Approximately 22,000 thoroughbreds were born in North America last year—over 400 in Maryland alone. Only a fraction of these make it to the racetrack, waylaid by either injury or mediocre talent. Of those that do race, many will never make money for their owners, who can spend thousands of dollars per month to keep a horse in training at the track. Even the elite horses, the ones that manage to get to the track and make money, will have short careers. Many retire by the age of five, and, unless they attain superstar status, their futures are anything but certain.

A thoroughbred foal whose life began with a $20,000 investment may, a few years later, be sold by the pound and put on a truck to Mexico or Canada, bound for slaughter. (Horse slaughter was effectively banned in the United States between 2007 and 2011, then banned again in 2014.)

That’s where MidAtlantic Horse Rescue comes in. Founded in 2002 by Beverly Strauss and Ginny Suarez, MidAtlantic Horse Rescue is one of several Maryland operations working to give these equine athletes second chances by retraining them for new careers in other equestrian sports—or simply as family pets.

“To toss them aside for a horrific fate when they are not making money is unconscionable.”

“These thoroughbreds were born and bred for our sport and our pleasure, and to toss them aside for a horrific fate when they are not making money is unconscionable,” says Strauss, a former racehorse trainer and lifelong horsewoman. “We owe them so much more than that.”

Located on 158 acres on the banks of the Sassafras River on the Eastern Shore, MidAtlantic Horse Rescue started when Strauss and Suarez pulled three horses from a slaughter auction and rehabilitated and retrained them for new homes. Two horses became eventers. (Eventing is a multidisciplinary competition, combining elements of steeplechasing, dressage, and show jumping.) The third, a chestnut mare named First By Far, became a show horse. “We were thrilled when those first adoptions happened,” Strauss says. It was wonderful to see someone so happy to have a lovely new horse of their own. We went right back to the auction and saved another one.” The organization is now credited with saving more than 1,000 former racehorses.

But the economics are tough: Each horse costs about $500 to buy. Then there are the costs of feeding, shoeing, massage, and veterinary and chiropractic care. Because of this, Strauss can only save about a dozen horses at a time. She is frank when describing how she chooses: “I look at the eye first, then down to see if he’s got good legs.” She acknowledges that it’s tough to leave so many behind, but explains, “You can save an old broken-down one, but you’ll have him for the next twenty years. [If] you save a sound one and find it a home, you can go back to save one more.”

Sometimes, she receives help from unlikely sources—the so-called “kill buyers” who purchase, usually at auction, horses for slaughter. “Some of these guys have hearts, too,” Strauss says, explaining that her source will contact her when he has a horse he thinks she’d be interested in. “I got a call the other day. The guy said he had four horses, but I only had room for two. So the other two went [to slaughter],” she says, her penetrating gaze wavering before fixing on a small group of horses grazing on a hillside.

The horses arrive at the farm in various conditions. Many come with hoof problems due to neglect, which her husband, Tom Strauss, a farrier, treats. Earlier on, some of the horses came to the farm suffering from drug withdrawal, often from erythropoietin—a blood-doping agent known as EPO. The drug can cause extreme health problems and sometimes even death. But Strauss notes it is rare these days, thanks to improved testing techniques for detecting banned substances. Whatever the horses’ conditions, “They all need time to rest from being exhausted mentally and physically,” Strauss says.

Once the horses are medically sound, training begins and can range from introducing them to the mounting block (in racing, jockeys are boosted onto their backs) to teaching them that horse shows—though superficially similar to races (crowds, a public address system, lots of activity)—require different behavior. (No bolting!)

Preventing ex-racers from needing organizations like Strauss’s is the ultimate goal for animal advocates. Maryland’s racing industry has taken the problem more seriously than most. In 2008, the Maryland Jockey Club initiated a no-slaughter policy, which stipulates that any person caught sending a horse to slaughter or transporting a horse to an auction where slaughter buyers operate will be banned from Maryland tracks. The rule seems to have deterred the most flagrant practitioners. Still, some circumvent the rules by taking horses directly to the “kill buyers” on feedlots, where the horses are held before being shipped out of the country.

“I’m a big fan of the thoroughbred. . . . When you look back, they’ve been some of our greatest horses.”

When asked about the underground market, Maryland Jockey Club director of racing and racing secretary Georganne Hale is adamant that such individuals can’t hide in the shadows for long. “We’ll find out,” she says, “No one keeps a secret on the racetrack. People who love horses will squeal.”

Not only was Maryland’s racing industry one of the first to implement the anti-slaughter policy, but it also has taken the lead in the collection and disbursement of financial assistance to accredited rescue operations, such as Strauss’s MidAtlantic Horse Rescue. Funding comes from money collected for every start in a race. Furthermore, many trainers, breeders, and owners choose to donate directly. That’s as it should be, says Katharine Voss, a co-owner of Chanceland Farm, a breeding and training facility in Howard County. “From farm to grave, we all share responsibility,” she says.

But not every state has been as proactive as Maryland, and meat buyers are still busy moving ex-racers. Strauss and her brethren are determined to prove that these horses are worth more alive than dead.

Kimberly Godwin Clark, a retired racehorse owner and former exercise rider, now directs Thoroughbred Placement Resources (TPR) at her farm in Upper Marlboro. Through TPR, she has assisted in re-homing hundreds of former racehorses, many of which have gone on to brilliant second careers in eventing, show jumping, fox hunting, and pleasure riding. Clark emphasizes the importance of training thoroughbreds for second careers as champion sport horses. “We have to get these horses into the upper levels [of competition] so people will want and keep them.”

The key is marketing the thoroughbred’s versatility and athleticism. The Davidsonville-based Retired Racehorse Project has created the Thoroughbred Makeover competition, a national showcase in which contestants retrain ex-racehorses for up to nine months before competing in 10 disciplines. Last year, it was held at Pimlico Race Course. This year, it will be held at the Kentucky Horse Park in October. One of Clark’s entries this year is a big, gray, Maryland-bred thoroughbred she rescued in December. The horse, named Not Apologizing, but affectionately called Pauley, sustained an injury before he even ran a race and needed time to recuperate. After nearly five months of stall rest, he recently was cleared to begin limited training. Clark plans to take it slow with Pauley and “just see what he wants to be when he grows up.”

At Broad Run Farm, a show-horse training facility in Poolesville, another such retired racer is further along in the process and making quite a name for himself. On a brisk late-winter day, Outrageous, a chestnut gelding the color of the setting sun, moves with the reliable rhythm of a metronome over a course of fences. Kevin Bruce, a veteran competitor and trainer at the farm, watches this off-the-track thoroughbred—or OTTB as they’re called in the show world—execute a perfect course of fences with his young rider. According to Bruce, Outrageous has taken the show-hunter world by storm, meeting and beating bigger, fancier, imported European-bred horses in top competitions. It’s the beginning of more and more happy stories for OTTBs, says Bruce. In fact, in his experience, retired racers are easier to transition to the show ring because the horses have seen it all already, and really love a crowd. “I’m a big fan of the thoroughbred—always have been and always will be. When you look back, they’ve been and continue to be some of our greatest horses,” he says.

Of course, not every horse will become a champion—but that doesn’t mean they don’t have value.

In September 2014, TPR launched the Hero Horses Program, in which active-duty military, wounded warriors, veterans, and their families are invited to the farm to meet and help the horses—and perhaps themselves.

The retired racehorses and veterans have much in common: They’re both highly trained in specialty skills, dedicated, and often need help adjusting to the next phase of their lives. Retired Air Force staff sergeant Alicia Watkins inspired the program with her frequent visits to the stable. Watkins survived the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon and then, while serving in Afghanistan, sustained a spinal-chord injury from a suicide-bomber. She says she came to TPR feeling “cast away after 16 years in the military.” Now she finds solace just being around the horses. She says being at the farm lessens her stress and notes that, “This program would motivate so many other warriors who need to recalibrate their minds into a new career.” Plus, unlike psychiatric therapy, there is no stigma or agenda associated with participation in the program.

As Watkins says, “[At the farm], they are just vets trying to help a racehorse find a new home. Some of these guys just need a purpose, to be useful.” The same could be said for the horses.

Oxbow in the Lead at the Preakness –Photo by Diana Robinson/Flickr Creative Commons

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There are certain spring fashion staples that never go out of style—open-toed shoes, light cotton sweaters, sundresses—but one accessory that trumps them all is the formal sun hat.

And while it gets a slight update each season—maybe a different kind of trim or a new color—this iconic wide-brim hat is eternally synonymous with such traditional warm-weather events as the Triple Crown and May Day.

Giovannio Sin Specta navy and white hat ($169) at Hats in the Belfry.

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Say Black-Eyed Susan to a Marylander and one of two things generally comes to mind: the famous Preakness cocktail or the flower. But to horse-racing aficionados, it can mean only one thing—the race held the day before Preakness and quite possibly, Pimlico’s best-kept secret.

Although it is one of the oldest races run at Old Hilltop and is the second biggest day on the Maryland racing calendar in terms of purses and attendance, the Black-Eyed Susan has been largely lost in the frenzy and revelry of its Triple Crown counterpart. But if the Maryland Jockey Club has its way, that’s about to change.

Now celebrating its 95th year, the Black-Eyed Susan is a graded stakes race for 3-year-old fillies run over a mile and one-eighth. It is the headlining race of the day before the Preakness Stakes that also includes the running of the historic Pimlico Special. Originally called the Pimlico Oaks, the race changed its name in 1952. Each leg of the Triple Crown has its own filly race day, starting with the Kentucky Oaks the day before the Derby and wrapping up with the Acorn Stakes at Belmont. Unofficially, this series is called the “Filly Triple Crown.”

“To understand the coupling of 3-year-old filly and colt races, you probably have to go back to their origins in England,” explains Allan Carter, historian at the National Museum of Racing in Saratoga Springs, NY. During the 1788 race meeting at Epson Downs, the 12th Earl of Derby, a prominent racing official, decided that rather than hold the usual two- to four-mile heats for older horses, he would have a race only for 3-year-old fillies. He called the race the Oak, the name of one of his estates.

“The race was such a success that Lord Derby . . . decided to hold a similar race for 3-year-old colts in 1790,” says Carter. “When Churchill Downs decided to run the first Kentucky Derby in 1875, they continued the English tradition of having a similar race for fillies and named it the Kentucky Oaks.”

While the horse sexes have sometimes been kept separate in the racing world in the U.S., it’s not because colts and geldings are necessarily faster. In 139 runnings of the Kentucky Derby, for instance, only 39 fillies ran in the race, but they do win occasionally against the guy horses. And many fillies are in the national racing hall of fame, including Genuine Risk (who won the Kentucky Derby in 1980), 1988 Derby winner Winning Colors, Sky Beauty, and, of course, Ruffian. And a filly won the Preakness in 2009—Rachel Alexandra. In each case, however, the filly’s owner must decide if the horse’s personality is dominant enough in a colts-dominated race, or if she’d do better in a fillies race.

For many years, the Black-Eyed Susan’s success was weather-dependent, a sibling lost in the shadow of Big Brother Preakness. If 22,000 spectators showed up on a sunny day, it was considered a success. But in 2010, that began to change.

Mike Gathagan, VP of communications for the Maryland Jockey Club, explains that the mandate came down from president Tom Chuckas to build Black-Eyed Susan Day into something more substantial. The reasoning is mostly practical: There’s a limit to the number of people who can fit in Pimlico on Preakness Day. Black-Eyed Susan provides the same quality of racing and the fun, party atmosphere one gets on Saturday, but without the crushing crowds. Building a market for Black-Eyed Susan was an opportunity to spread Preakness fever to a broader audience.

Since it’s a day for fillies, it made sense to connect the race with women’s causes, a tactic that was already successful with the Kentucky Oaks, where “Pink Out!” is the theme of the day. Five years ago, the Jockey Club connected with the Maryland affiliate of the Susan G. Komen Foundation, offering special events like a turfside luncheon for breast-cancer survivors and a fashion show.

“Everyone is familiar with the Race for the Cure,” says Robin Prothro, CEO of Komen Maryland, “But they aren’t as familiar with our third-party events like Black-Eyed Susan. It’s a large event that reaches an audience we don’t necessarily reach through our typical venues.” She says it’s also been a great way to have a visible presence in the Pimlico neighborhood, an area that has high-incidence rates of breast cancer. More than $200,000 has been donated to Komen Maryland since the partnership began in 2010.

Black-Eyed Susan is evolving and so, too, is the relationship with Komen. This year, Chuckas announced that Black-Eyed Susan Day will be branded as “the ultimate girls’ day out.” As part of the rebranding effort, the Jockey Club is adding a second charity partner, Suited to Succeed, which provides business attire for disadvantaged women. It and Komen will share a percentage of the race-day proceeds.
“This is an opportunity to recruit and engage a younger audience by making a positive impact in the community,” says Chuckas in a press statement. “We are going to pick a different charity each year in hopes of broadening the brand.”

Spectators at this year’s race can expect a lot more than just action on the track. There’s a festival featuring women-owned and women-focused vendors in the infield. There’s going to be an attempt to break the current Guinness World Record for the largest group doing the musical exercise program Zumba, and actress Mariel Hemingway will be the keynote speaker at a Women in Business Networking Gala and Luncheon co-hosted with the Baltimore Washington Corridor Chamber of Commerce. Each Black-Eyed Susan Day, there’s a challenge race where jockeys accrue points based on how they place over four races and the jock with the most points at the end of the day walks away with $20,000, with another $30,000 split between second- to seventh-place winners.

Last year, the challenge theme was a battle of the sexes. This year, it will be for active hall-of-fame riders, including Calvin Borel, Edgar Prado, and Gary Stevens. In the evening, Counting Crows and The Fray will headline a concert in the infield. Last year’s performance by the Goo Goo Dolls pushed full-day attendance to a record high.

Perhaps the biggest crowd pleaser is the Lady Legends for the Cure Race. In keeping with the girl-power theme of the day, it’s a six-furlong sprint with retired female jockeys in the saddle. This is no mere jog around the track for a bunch of old women: The race draws ladies who were pioneers in the sport and puts them back in the saddle at break-neck speed. The roster for this May includes Patti Cooksey, the first woman to ride in the Preakness; Cheryl White, the first female African-American jockey; and Barbara Jo Rubin, who, in 1969, became the first woman to ever win a race in the United States. The Lady Legends riders join other jockeys in an autograph session before the day’s races start, an event that is big with fans.

Maryland’s own Andrea Seefeldt Knight will be in this year’s Legends race. The first woman to win the Pennsylvania Derby, Seefeldt Knight was the second female jockey to ride in the Preakness and the third to ride in the Derby. She retired in 1994 and says getting back in the saddle is no small feat. “What makes it worth two months of agony getting fit enough is the thrill of riding a race on a big day of racing with the crowd cheering us on,” she says. “It’s a chance to step back in time.”

Seefeldt Knight echoes the feelings of many horseracing insiders when she says, “Black-Eyed Susan Day is my favorite day of the two. It’s an exciting day with good racing and a great, family atmosphere. The top jockeys, owners, and trainers are there with some of the best horses in the country, and it’s not crazy crowded like Preakness.”

In Kentucky, the Oaks is hugely popular and an unofficial holiday in Louisville. More than 100,000 people attend and many schools and businesses close for the day. Gathagan says the plan is to continue to grow the Black-Eyed Susan, and he hopes some day a little of that local pride might catch on here in Baltimore.

“In Louisville, they always say the Oaks is for Kentucky and the Derby is for the rest of the country,” says Gathagan. “I think that’s something we might strive for here, too.”

Preakness coverage sponsored by
Mother’s Federal Hill Grille

Preakness coverage sponsored by
Mother’s Federal Hill Grille

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Sure, 64-year-old Stuart Janney III of Butler is the chairman of a successful Manhattan-based wealth-management firm. And he’s from one of Maryland horse racing’s most important families. But he’s not the boastful type. Nor is he prone to overstatement. Yet, talking to him, you get the sense that he really thinks his partnership’s 3-year-old colt, Orb, could win the Kentucky Derby on the first Saturday in May. And that he believes his horse has the breeding to win the Belmont Stakes five weeks later. And, of course, he would love to see Orb win in mid-May, at the 138th running of the Preakness Stakes. Like his parents and grandparents, however—and like local peers in the business who include Mike and Josh Pons at Country Life Farm in Fallston and Merryland Farm in Hydes, William Boniface’s Bonita Farm in Darlington, and, more recently, Kevin Plank at Sagamore Farm in Reisterstown—Janney knows that horse racing, for all its glamour and hype, is a tough, fickle, and often heart-breaking business. Which is why this measured man agrees with his hall-of-fame trainer, Claude “Shug” McGaughey. They don’t take a horse to the Preakness or any other race; the horse, if it is to be, will take them.

Unimpeachable is how you might describe the Janney family’s pedigree in the racing world. Stuart Janney’s grandmother, Gladys Mills Phipps, owned Wheatley Stable in New York with her brother, Ogden Mills. “Gladys Mills Phipps was the grande dame of American flat racing for over 40 years,” says Michael Finney, a Maryland racing historian, refering to a race over a level track, as opposed to steeplechase racing, which is run over hurdles. “She bred over 90 stakes winners, 11 champions, and, of course, bred Bold Ruler, one of the single great achievements in 20th-century American breeding.”

Bold Ruler won the Preakness in 1957. His progeny include such noted horses as Secretariat and Seattle Slew. Wheatley Stable also produced Seabiscuit. But despite Janney’s family ties to flat racing, his parents were more enamored of steeplechase racing and fox hunting.

“Stuart Janney [Jr.] was one of these robust Marylanders whose idea of a good time was to go out and ride in the Hunt Cup,” says Finney, paraphrasing a quote about the elder Janney published in a book by thoroughbred racing historian Edward Bowen.

The Hunt Cup is a grueling four-mile race over 22 timber fences that takes place each spring in the Worthington Valley. The elder Janney won the race four times, three on his horse Winton. In the Baltimore County home that Janney shares with his wife Lynn, there are countless trophies on display, including Waterford crystal Maryland Million bowls and Eclipse award bronzes. The silver Hunt Cup tankard won by his father in 1947 stands alone on a desk.

In the 1950s, Gladys Mills Phipps made a gift of several broodmares to her daughter and son-in-law that put in motion the flat-racing legacy that continues today with Orb.

“They had some success,” says Janney, “particularly when Frank Whiteley trained for them in the late 1960s through the ’80s.”

One of those success stories was Ruffian, another out of Bold Ruler’s line. One of the greatest fillies to ever grace the track, Ruffian spent the 1970s breaking track records, most of which still stand today. She broke down during a 1975 match race against Foolish Pleasure, that year’s Kentucky Derby winner.

“[Ruffian] is always going to be a big part of what the Janneys represented in horseracing, because she was arguably one of the greatest of all time,” says Janney. “After the match race, we had a room where all the mail was piled knee-high and covered the entire floor from people writing fan letters. . . . It continues today; I still get letters.”

Despite the Janney lineage with horses, the present Janney was more businessman than horseman. Although he always had an appreciation for the animals, he was more interested in the tennis court than the track. After getting his law degree from the University of Maryland, Janney worked for a time for the federal government before joining Niles, Barton & Wilmer in 1977 where he was a partner. He went on to become a managing director of Alex. Brown & Sons in charge of asset management. In 1995, he took the post of chairman of Bessemer Trust Co. (where he works today), the wealth management company begun by his great grandfather, Henry Phipps, in 1907.

He did like to go to the races, and rode when he was younger, but Janney didn’t share his father’s passion for it. It was, in fact, the death of his parents within a year of each other in the late ’80s that forced Janney to decide whether he wanted to keep up the horseracing tradition or allow it to fade away.

“It was something I clearly would have wanted to do 20 years down the road, but not necessarily right then,” he recalls. “But I recognized that if I let it disperse, I would probably not pick it up again. I decided that even though it wasn’t the perfect time in my life to do it, I would.”

When his parents died, Janney’s uncle, Ogden Phipps, offered to be his partner in any horses he purchased. Phipps also connected Janney with trainer McGaughey. The partnership with Kentucky-based Phipps Stable made sense as Janney’s interaction with the horse world had been mostly through his parents. While Janney owns some horses outright, he continues the Phipps Stable partnership today with his cousin “Dinny” Phipps. Orb is one of the horses owned by the partnership.

To his surprise, Janney ended up enjoying the horse world more than he’d expected, particularly the business of horseracing.

“Not only the business side, in terms of running a stable, but the larger issues that confront horseracing,” he says. “I enjoy getting involved with those issues and seeing if we can make some progress.”

Janney has embraced modern horse-racing and all of its challenges. As vice chairman of The Jockey Club, based in New York, he’s taken on issues of horse welfare and racing integrity as chairman of that organization’s Thoroughbred Safety Committee. He’s been a vocal advocate for ending race-day medication. He’s also a past chairman of the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association (TOBA) and chairman of Blood-Horse Publications.

“Stuart’s great passion and commitment has been in the areas of integrity in thoroughbred racing,” says Dan Metzger, president of TOBA in Lexington, KY, “specifically the areas of race-day medication, to bring the highest levels of drug testing and drug reform to the sport of thoroughbred racing.”

Janney’s approach to breeding and racing horses is little changed from his parents’.

“I have a group of mares of high quality and breed to race, as opposed to sell,” he explains. “If there’s been any change, it’s that I’ve made a very conscious decision to try and race only at the highest level.”

“I like watching every aspect of this game—I enjoy the breeding side just as much as I enjoy the racing,” says Janney. “I probably get more satisfaction out of breeding a horse, watching it grow up, watching it accomplish something, and then seeing it go back as either a broodmare or stallion, than I do watching it race—that whole cycle intrigues me.

“I like the fact that between Shug and me, we’ve seen the parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents of all these horses,” he continues. “Shug’s trained four generations of the horse that has now become Orb.”

“The bottom line is this horse is all Stuart’s family’s pedigree, going back years and years to his mother and father,” says McGaughey. “I think that makes it special to him, too, to have this horse he can enjoy that has come to him through the efforts of his mother and father years back.”

Orb didn’t get off to a particularly auspicious start. His mother, Lady Liberty, was a decent racehorse but hadn’t produced much in the way of winners. But Janney believed in her pedigree. In his first race, Orb started badly, but made a recovery. “He came in third,” says Janney, “but he had everyone talking.” Hopes were high that Orb’s next outing would see him on top, but he hit his head in the gate and ran an even race. McGaughey decided to give the horse some time off.

“At that point, he’d figured out the starting gate, and he’s been on the ascendency ever since,” says Janney. Orb has now finished first in the last four races he’s run, including the Florida Derby on March 30.

Janney is the kind of owner who’s in no hurry to put a horse in a Triple Crown race just so he can say he was there.

“We’ve never based what we’re doing around the Triple Crown,” says Janney, noting that there are too many good races out there, like the Travers Stakes, to get caught up in Triple Crown fever. “It’s more important to us to have horses that can race for a long time.”

McGaughey, too, says his approach to training is marked by patience, bringing a horse along in its own time without forcing anything.

“A lot of people announce a schedule for their horses—usually in the winner’s circle,” says Janney. “To me, that’s very appropriate if you’re in Formula One racing and you have a car, and a backup to the car in case that car doesn’t work. But it doesn’t make sense in [horse]racing. . . . With the horse business, you have to be prepared for disappointments.”

But if Orb does make it to the Preakness, it will be a big day not only for Janney, but for another longtime Maryland racing family: Orb’s sire is Malibu Moon, who began his stud career at the Pons family’s Country Life Farm in Bel Air. The farm was founded in 1933 when Adolphe Pons sold a horse named Discovery to Alfred Vanderbilt of Sagamore Farm (now owned by Under Armour’s Kevin Plank).

These circuitous links between generations of families and horses that are still alive today are an indicator that there’s reason to be optimistic the horse industry in Maryland hasn’t been put out to pasture. The Maryland Horse Breeders Association points out that horse breeding and racing still have an economic impact on the state that’s more than triple all other sports combined, an estimated $1.1 billion annually. The Preakness alone brings about $40 million to the city and state.

For Janney, it’s important to keep the Triple Crown tradition thriving because it’s “the window through which the casual fan looks.”

Janney has a son and daughter. Neither lives in Maryland, but they attend the races with that same, vicarious enthusiasm their father shows.

Whether they will want to pick up the reins of the family breeding heritage remains unclear. “I look upon it the way my parents did,” says Janney. “It will be there for them and, hopefully, they will find it valuable and important.”

Six horses come barreling around the rail at Churchill Downs, a cacophony of thundering hooves and screaming fans providing the soundtrack to one of the most astonishing finishes in recent horse racing history.

At the 16th pole, Shared Account surges from the inside into the lead. She’s carrying famed jockey Edgar Prado and odds longer than the lunchtime line at Faidley’s. But there’s even more riding on this four-year-old’s back: a shot at validation for the Baltimore businessman determined to resurrect a legendary Maryland farm.

As she gallops toward the finish line, it seems the lofty weight of possibility only spurs on the 1,200-pound filly. Not even the renowned horse Midday can catch this brown blur, who dashes one and three-eighths miles in two minutes and 17.74 seconds—an average speed of about 35 miles per hour—to victory.

Shared Account’s win at the Breeders’ Cup in November was more than just the biggest upset in the history of the Filly and Mare Turf race, one of racing’s preeminent events. It also served notice, with all the subtlety of a Louisville Slugger to the side of the head, that the once-great Sagamore Farm was back.

“Long shots define everything about my life,” says Sagamore’s savior, Kevin Plank, after the race. “Everything we [do] came out today in a 46-to-1 long shot. I think we had odds a little longer than that at Under Armour.”

He’s referring, of course, to the sports apparel company he founded in 1996 in his grandmother’s Washington, D.C. row house. It’s grown into a global brand, and Plank says he’s using the same blueprint to turn Sagamore, the 530-acre Glyndon farm once home to the now-mythical stallion Native Dancer, into nothing short of America’s next great sports franchise.

“I fundamentally believe that we’ll deliver the next Triple Crown winner,” he says, though Sagamore won’t have a contender this year. “I want that identity where people turn on the Kentucky Derby and say, ‘Is there a Sagamore horse? I like Sagamore horses, they are tough and gritty every time they run.’”

Shared Account’s win is the most visible chapter in the story Plank is trying to create, but it isn’t the first. He bought Sagamore Farm in 2007, and since then has overseen its physical renovation and the creation of a racing organization from the horseshoes up.

“We were always very clear—this is a 20-year plan,” he says. “I use the statement at Under Armour that we’re always smart enough to be naïve enough to not know what we can’t accomplish. Winning the Breeders’ Cup in year four is like striking lightening, but we always believed it could happen.”

Just about everyone else in the horse racing world considered Shared Account an afterthought. Plank was both puzzled and amused by the indifference.

“He felt like he had a great horse,” says Eric Mitchell, editorial director of The Blood-Horse, an industry magazine. “Obviously, the betting public didn’t see it that way. But Shared Account won. That’s horse racing.”

While stunning to most, the swiftness with which Plank has steered Sagamore back to the winner’s circle is the natural speed at which he’s always operated. The 38-year-old conceived of Under Armour while he was a football player at the University of Maryland; last year, the company posted revenues of more than $1 billion.

Before he set out creating the “biggest, baddest brand on the planet,” Plank was the Terrapins’ scrappy special teams captain. Originally a walk-on, in five years he never missed a practice.

Not to say that college was all work and no play. As an undergrad, he attended his first Preakness, and it was the fading fortunes of the second jewel of the Triple Crown that ultimately sparked his entrance into the horse business. For years, the crumbling infrastructure of Pimlico Race Course and the overall decline of Maryland racing have raised fears that the state could lose the iconic race.

“The Preakness needs to be looking at the Kentucky Derby and saying we’re going to kick your butt,” Plank says. “There’s such a negative impression of Maryland racing. They need to stop talking about what they can’t do and start talking about what they can do. Slots are not going to save racing in the state. Great stories and a belief in people, that’s what needs to be driven home.”

Plank views himself as an advocate for Maryland racing, not its shepherd or spokesman. “Name another day when the entire country looks at Maryland,” he says. “It’s a great platform for us to say, ‘Look at the resources we have here.’ We need to sell this area. Maryland’s a phenomenal place. I would like to use Sagamore’s success as a vehicle to help tell that story.”

In 2006, an old high school teammate of Plank’s, Tom Mullikin, stopped by for dinner. After 9/11, Mullikin had suffered what he called a “quarter-life crisis,” ditched the corporate world, and moved to Kentucky to work on a horse farm. Once the two men had polished off a couple of steaks, Plank pulled his buddy aside: He was getting into horse racing, and he wanted Mullikin to head up his operation.

“I said, ‘Well, good luck. It’s a tough game, there’s a lot of sharks out there,’” Mullikin recalls.

But Plank was determined to get his man. Too many Maryland horsemen, Plank thinks, are resigned to being chum. “They’re so beaten down and negative,” he says. “That’s why we hired no one from the area. We imported people from Kentucky. Tommy had a swagger and he was just a winner.”

In his old friend, Mullikin saw the same qualities. So he took a leap of faith, quitting his job in the heart of horse country to work for a man in Baltimore with absolutely no experience in the game.

They set out looking for a farm. No matter where they went, time and time again they’d find their way back to Sagamore.

“I thought we’d start with 100 acres and parlay that into something bigger,” Mullikin says. “He showed me [Sagamore] and I said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding.’ There was a lot of history here, but it was like urban renewal. I was a little overwhelmed at first.”

Though it looked all of its 80-plus years, Sagamore’s pedigree was sterling. Founded in 1925 by Isaac Emerson of Bromo-Seltzer fame, it was bequeathed to his grandson Alfred Vanderbilt when he turned 21.

A member of New York’s wealthy Vanderbilt clan, Alfred turned Sagamore into a world-renowned farm. The Queen of England kept a broodmare on the property during its heyday, but its most famous resident always will be Native Dancer. From 1952 to 1954, he won 21 of his 22 career races, including the Preakness, and captured the public’s imagination like few horses before him—or since. His popularity was such that, in 1953, TV Guide named him one of America’s three most popular figures. (Ed Sullivan and Arthur Godfrey were the humans who made the cut.) Vanderbilt sold Sagamore to developer James Ward in 1986. For the next two decades, it floundered, its deterioration in many ways a metaphor for a once-proud industry now struggling to survive.

But Plank saw only promise.

“Sagamore Farm may be the prettiest place in America,” he says. “Go to Grand Canyon, go to Sonoma Valley, but [this] is about as picturesque as it gets.”

Stroll through the farm today and it’s tough to argue. A winding drive leads from Belmont Avenue to the “Big House” atop a hill. In the foyer, photos of famous Sagamore residents Discovery and Bed o’ Roses hang alongside images of Native Dancer, including a framed copy of his 1954 Time magazine cover. A large Maryland flag hangs over a fireplace in the living room, leading to a back patio with sweeping vistas.

All this beauty carries a weighty price, but Plank’s pockets are plenty deep. His last public disclosure reported that he owns 12,093,750 shares of Under Armour stock, which was trading at about $68 a share on March 14. While he won’t disclose how much he paid for Sagamore, running an operation its size is estimated to be a seven-figure endeavor.

“I’m in [horse racing] because we’re building the next great athletic brand,” says Plank. “This isn’t meant to be some charitable thing that you just throw money at. Frankly, nobody’s pockets are that deep, and more importantly, it’s just depressing.”

To develop a world-class horse, you need a world-class facility. “When we first took the farm over, there were 17 miles of fence ranging from four to 40 years old,” Plank says. “While we respect the history of the farm, we’re going to build our own history. So the first thing we did was we tore down all that fence.”

Eleven miles of new four-board oak fencing have been installed, and 150 acres of corn and vegetation have been returned to pasture. The broodmare and foaling barns have been renovated, and now include an observation room, video monitoring system, large stall windows, and skylights.

The three-quarter mile outdoor track was redone using a synthetic base that includes recycled Under Armour shirts. Down the line, the 90-stall training barn with a quarter-mile indoor track may undergo a facelift.

Sagamore now houses 36 horses, and is expecting eight foals this spring.

“He’s training horses there and he’s breeding horses there,” says Cricket Goodall, executive director of the Maryland Horse Breeders Association. “All of that is evidence of his commitment to the industry. It’s a beautiful farm that was in need of somebody to believe in it. There were several wonderful farms that bred great horses in Maryland that over the years have become housing developments. Those are gone, but Sagamore is not, and I think the thoroughbred industry is indebted to him in some ways.”

Inside the very first horse trailer that rolled onto Kevin Plank’s Sagamore was Shared Account, purchased as a yearling for $170,000.

“Winston Churchill had the famous line, ‘There’s something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man,’” Mullikin says. “She had good size, and she has a really cool personality. At the Breeders’ Cup, there’s all this commotion, and she’s just hanging out. I could have put my six-year-old daughter on her. Then she goes out and has a heart like a bulldog.”

Shared Account had won just five of her previous 14 starts when she entered the Breeders’ Cup. The sharps clearly weren’t sold: a $2 Shared Account win ticket wound up paying a wallet-fattening $94. Plank coyly deflects questions about how many of those he held. “Enough that I was sticking money in my socks and my underwear,” he says.

When you combine that with the official winner’s share of $1.08 million, it was a dream day for Plank, and perhaps more importantly, for Maryland racing.

“You’ve got to be the ultimate optimist, and you’ve got to have a great capacity for suffering to be in this business,” says Bill Witman, manager of famous Calumet Farm in Lexington, KY. “The win at the Breeders’ Cup kind of capped what he’s doing in the industry. He’s innovative, he’s got great support and direction.”

At one point before the race, Plank was dismissively ushered aside by the security detail of an Arab sheik. But after it, his place at the podium in the sport of kings was undeniable.

“We’re going to use the farm and the little bit of success we’ve had so far as a vehicle to tell people about racing,” he says. “We’re producing world champions with the mentality we have here. I want people to know that we did it the Maryland way—we earned it.”