Maryland horse racing has peaks and valleys through the decades

While many horse racing enthusiasts often associate racing in Maryland with the upcoming Preakness Stakes, the famed middle jewel in thoroughbred racing’s Triple Crown for three-year-olds, the Free State actually offers racing virtually year round for both thoroughbred and standardbred horses, both of which have plenty of common synergies.

Both thoroughbred and standardbred racing in Maryland can trace their roots through a handful of families that have a continued impact on the “Sport of Kings” at thoroughbred tracks Laurel Park, Pimlico Race Course and Timonium Race Track, as well as harness racing venues Rosecroft Raceway and Ocean Downs. Timonium hosts seven days of live racing each summer in conjunction with the Maryland State Fair.

Throughout the decades several Maryland tracks have come and gone, including two thoroughbred tracks located in Prince George’s County — Bowie and Marlboro — as well as in Havre de Grace, a former track in Harford County that got a mention in the 1973 film “The Sting,” which centered around gambling and horse racing. Bowie operated from 1914-1985 as a race track, then remained open as a training center until 2014 when all the horses were relocated to Laurel, Pimlico or Fair Hill, a training center in Cecil County.

Thoroughbred trainers Dale Capuano and Gary Capuano have been recognizable figures in Maryland racing for over four decades. Dale Capuano retired from training at the end of 2022 with 3,662 winners who earned over $68 million from 18,686 starts topped by Grade II winner and millionaire Heros Reward. Gary Capuano, who has already conditioned a pair of millionaires, Cherokee’s Boy and Captain Bodgit, both of which were Preakness Stakes participants, still trains horses on the circuit and could have another Preakness starter on May 18 in Copper Tax.

A sophomore son of Copper Bullet that Capuano trains for Rose Petal Stable LLC, Copper Tax recently overcame a stumbled start to rally from well off the pace to capture the $125,000 Federico Tesio Stakes at Laurel Park. Considered Maryland’s last local prep for its most famous race, Copper Tax punched his ticket to the 149th Preakness Stakes with his determined score in the Federico Tesio by getting the one mile and one-eighth distance in 1:52.01.

“I was hoping, you know, that we had a chance after that troubled beginning,” Capuano said. “Of course, I was watching Ness’s horse [Speedyness] on the lead and I’m like, nobody’s going with him and that’s not good [for my horse]. But he just kept sustaining that run. We’ll see [about the Preakness]. We’ll see how he comes out. And, you know, like I said before, he’s not a big horse.”

Thoroughbred trainer Linda Gaudet and her daughter Lacey Gaudet were both fixtures on the Bowie backstretch before it closed for training purposes in 2014, as was longtime horseman Eddie Gaudet, Linda’s husband and Lacey’s father, who passed away in 2018 at the age of 87, six years after he had retired from training to turn the operation over to his wife and daughter.

During his career, Eddie Gaudet enjoyed ample success with stakes horses as well as claimers, with Marry Me Do, Winning Point, Star Touch and Concealed Identity among his top trainees. Like Copper Tax, Concealed Identity punched his ticket to the Preakness Stakes at age 3 by taking the Tesio Stakes — run at Pimlico that year — his only entrant in the middle jewel of racing’s triple crown.

An annual revival

Thoroughbred racing has fallen well below the public radar over the last two decades, although its interest gets revived each spring with the famed Triple Crown series — the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 4, the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico on May 18 and the Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park on June 8.

But even interest in the Belmont Stakes is often contingent on whether or not one horse is still in contention to sweep all three legs after both the Derby and Preakness have been contested.

Speaking of the Triple Crown, while there have been 13 horses that completed the coveted sweep, perhaps no horse is more synonymous with the three events than Secretariat. Voted horse of the year at age 2 and again at age 3, Secretariat actually owns the track record for all three Triple Crown races, winning the one mile and one-quarter Derby in 1:59.2, the one mile and three-sixteenths Preakness in 1:53 and the one mile and one-half Belmont in 2:24.

Maryland lawmakers recently promoted House Bill 1524, which would shift ownership of the two thoroughbred tracks from the Stronach Family to the state, and Pimlico is expected to get a $400 million facelift. During its renovation, the Preakness Stakes will be contested at Laurel Park, then after the renovations at Pimlico are completed in 2026 Laurel Park would permanently close for live racing and be sold to developers.

Pimlico would remain as the lone track with meets centered around the Preakness Stakes in the spring and Maryland Million Day in the fall.

Horsing around history

Marlboro Race Track, currently the site of the Prince George’s Equestrian Center and Show Place Arena, had a brief, bizarre history. Marlboro offered live racing three weeks each summer from 1914-1973. After it closed, the grandstand burned down in 1980 and live racing returned there two days each fall from 1988-1993, but it has not offered live racing in over 30 years since.

Standardbred driver Jonathan Roberts, a 1999 St. Mary’s Ryken High School graduate and perennial leading driver at Rosecroft Raceway with nearly 4,700 driving victories in a career that began shortly after he graduated from high school, is part of a family that also has deep ties to the sport. His father, trainer William “Bib” Roberts, began racing horses at Rosecroft over 50 years ago when the oval was one-half mile in circumference.

“When I was a kid, I really didn’t have much interest in the horses,” the younger Roberts recalled. “I always liked racing motorcycles and dirt bikes. I really wasn’t into the horses. It really wasn’t until I got into high school that I started going to the track more and helping my dad train horses. I think I knew from the first time that I climbed into the bike to jog a horse that I knew that driving horses was for me.”

Jonathan Roberts attained his racing license soon after graduating from St. Mary’s Ryken and he has never looked back. Among the perennial dash-winning drivers at Rosecroft the past 15 years, he has primarily enjoyed success with horses trained by his father, including Great George Two, Rocktavius, Capital Builder and Starship, along with others trained by his sister, Megan Roberts, another St. Mary’s Ryken alum, including HP Lis Shadow.

But Jonathan Roberts also boosts numerous wins for perennial leading trainer Mike Hall, including Can’t Beach That, a two-time horse of the meet at Rosecroft.

“Early on I pretty much only drove for my dad, but when other opportunities came along I had to take them,” Roberts said. “Sometimes I have to choose between one of my dad’s or one of Megan’s and one of Mike Hall’s and I typically drive the one that I think has the best chance of winning on that night. It’s never an easy decision, but I think everyone understands what goes into it.”

Like Roberts, trainer-driver Russell Foster also hails from a harness racing family that has deep roots in the sport. Unlike Roberts, whose initial interest in the sport was secondary, Foster has known since elementary school that he was destined to earn his living training and driving standardbreds. Like Roberts, Foster is also among the perennial driving leaders at Rosecroft and Ocean Downs.

“I basically knew from the time I was like 7, 8 years old that I was going to train horses,” said Foster, who eclipsed the 2,000-win plateau in his driving career one year ago. “Then once I started working in the paddock, I knew that was going to be my life. I started out training horses, but then about 10 years ago I started driving some of my own and when I started winning with Hi Sir, that kind of put me on the map.”

Running at Rosecroft

Rosecroft Raceway, which offers live harness two nights each week during the spring and again in the fall for a total of 60 days, typically conducts live racing on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. But the harness track will look to piggyback on the popularity of the Triple Crown races by offering live cards on Saturday, May 4, and again on Saturday, May 18, to correspond with the Derby and Preakness.

Rosecroft, which opened in 1949, was initially a half-mile racing oval owned by William E. Miller and remained in his family for nearly 40 years before being sold to real estate mogul Mark Vogel, who reconfigured the racing surface from one-half-mile to its current five-eighths mile status in 1989. Pacer Forrest Skipper (1:54) and trotter Mack Lobell (1:56) were the all-age track records on the former half-mile surface.

Since being reconfigured to a five-eighths mile oval, Rosecroft has witnessed its fair share of world record holders among pacers and trotters, including Hi Lan Tye, Nuclear Breeze and Allywag Hanover on the pacing side and Vivid Photo on the trotting side.

Allywag Hanover lowered the track and world record to 1:46.4 with his victory in the 2022 edition of the $125,000 Potomac Stakes, although the world record has since been eclipsed at a different five-eighths mile oval.

When Rosecroft is dark for live racing, Ocean Downs, a half-mile oval in Berlin, five miles west of Ocean City, fills the void for owners, trainers, drivers and fans. Ocean Downs offers live racing 44 nights each summer with this year’s meet slated to commence on May 31 and run through September 5.

Like Rosecroft, Ocean Downs hosts Maryland Sire Stakes events for two- and three-year-old pacers and trotters each summer.

Wherever horse racing may be headed in Maryland, it’s history is cemented in a number of historic tracks.