A horse of Broad Brush's caliber does not come along every year - or even once a decade - in Maryland.
When Challedon became the first horse in history to be acclaimed Horse of the Year twice (1939-1940), his feats were on the lips of every person of the Free State.
No Maryland-bred has ever accomplished more than Cigar. The Allen Paulson homebred, foaled at Country Life Farm in Bel Air, Md., in 1990, is one of only two Maryland-breds ever to be named the nation’s Horse of the Year. The other was Challedon, who reigned in 1939 and ’40.
The greatest stakes-winning Maryland-bred of all time, Elkridge, inducted in 1966 into the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame, was one of the finest steeplechase horses this country has ever known.
Find came along in one of the most remarkable foal crops for a breeder in racing history, and more than held his own. The Alfred Vanderbilt-bred, foaled at Sagamore Farm in Glyndon, Md., in 1950, joined future Vanderbilt-bred stakes winners Native Dancer (who was foaled in Kentucky), Social Outcast, Home-Made, Crash Dive and Femme Fatale in the training barn in the spring of 1952.
Considered one of the greatest racemares in history, Gallorette was a major force in the handicap ranks during the 1940s. When the chestnut mare retired after the 1948 season, she was the world’s leading money-winning mare, had been a divisional champion, and faced the best male runners to do it.
The first Maryland-bred to go over the $1-million mark in earnings, Jameela – “beautiful” in Arabic – more than lived up to her name.
From humble beginnings to world acclaim, Jay Trump took owner Mrs. Mary C. Stephenson and his manager and rider Crompton “Tommy” Smith on a ride of a lifetime.
The first horse to be named Maryland-bred Horse of the Year twice (in 1967 and 1968), Politely was a dominant force in the handicap mare division which resulted in 13 stakes wins and earnings of $552,972, which at the time of her retirement in 1968 was the fifth-highest for any filly or mare in history.
The big-bodied filly Safely Kept, the Eclipse Award-winning sprinter of 1989, blazed through four seasons on the track, won 24 of 31 starts and earned $2,194,206 – with all but one of her races at seven furlongs or less.
When Twixt retired in 1975, she was Maryland’s all-time money-winning mare ($619,143) and won more stakes, 18, than any other Maryland-bred in history.
Vertex showed extreme brilliance in a career hampered by bad feet and injuries. When trainer Joe Piarulli, son of the talented runner’s breeder and co-owner, Frank Piarulli, patched up the colt and got him to the races, Vertex usually delivered – he won 17 of his 25 trips to the post and placed in four others.