As she advanced into her 90s, Allaire duPont – the grande dame of Maryland’s Thoroughbred industry – celebrated one of the best runners she ever bred and raced, the marvelous millionaire Shine Again.

A Maryland-bred champion over three consecutive years, including Horse of the Year in 2003, Shine Again was a fourth-generation homebred and one of the most consistent racemares to ever come out of Maryland. When she retired late in 2003, not only had she finished in the top three in 31 of her 34 starts, she ranked as the ninth-leading Maryland-bred money-earner of all time, and the second-leading female behind only Safely Kept.

Trained by New York-based Hall of Famer Allen Jerkens throughout her career, Shine Again was a winner at 2 at Belmont Park, breaking her maiden going five and a half furlongs by more than four lengths.

The daughter of Wild Again would win her next start too, albeit seven months later, in allowance company at Aqueduct. Lightly raced at 3, she went into her 4-year-old season in 2001 having finished in the top three in six of her seven career starts. But she had yet to attempt stakes company.

Joining the Jerkens string in Florida, made her stakes debut that March in Gulfstream Park’s Chip Stakes at six furlongs. Sent off at 26-1, she drew away to win easily. She won an Aqueduct allowance at the same distance next out, then shipped to Pimlico for the state-bred Geisha Stakes. In what would be her only start in Maryland, she stretched out to a mile and a sixteenth, took over before the field went a half mile, and had clear sailing home.

Two graded stakes attempts, Belmont’s Grade 2 Genuine Risk Handicap and Monmouth Park’s Grade 2 Molly Pitcher – one going short, one long – resulted in third-place finishes. When she entered the gate for the Grade 1 Ballerina Handicap at Saratoga next out, she was totally dismissed at 21-1. The race, which featured the Bill Mott-trained multiple stakes winner Dream Supreme (the 1-2 favorite) and 2000 Breeders’ Cup Distaff-G1 winner Spain, demonstrated how Jerkens decades earlier earned his nickname “Giant Killer” as Shine Again won.

From that point on in her career, Shine Again mainly faced graded company. She defended her Ballerina title the next year, and missed a three-peat by a nose (giving the winner Harmony Lodge five pounds) in 2003. At the end of 2001, she once again defeated Dream Supreme when taking Belmont Park’s Grade 2 First Flight Handicap. She won the same race when run at Aqueduct the next year, and then again just missed a three-peat when second by a neck in 2003.

Her sole stakes win at 6 came in Belmont’s Genuine Risk Handicap, which she won by four lengths in 1:09.19 for six furlongs. But during the season she not only finished first or second in all seven starts, at distances between six and seven furlongs, but she pushed her earnings over the million-dollar mark.

Named Maryland-bred champion sprinter twice and champion older mare three times, Shine Again won or placed in 20 stakes in her career, 18 graded. She retired with earnings of $1,271,840.

Foaled at duPont’s Woodstock Farm in Chesapeake City, Shine Again was the first foal out of the Two Punch mare Shiner. Her second dam was one of duPont’s foundation mares, Mari Her (by Maribeau), a winning half-sister to major stakes winners American History and Delaware Chief and dam of the Northern Dancer stallion Mari’s Book, a good sire and excellent broodmare sire.

Unfortunately Shine Again never produced a foal close to her ability. Following duPont’s death at age 92 in January 2006, the mares were eventually sold. Shine Again produced her final of 11 foals, a colt by Uncle Mo, in Kentucky in 2018. Named My Shining Star, he never raced.