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August 2016
COUNTRY LIFE PRESS
MERRYLAND MAGAZINE
From Beginning To Winning
Country Life Farm
319 Old Joppa Road
P.O. Box 107
Bel Air, Maryland 21014
Merryland Farm
12901 Bottom Road
Hydes, Maryland 21082
Phone: (410) 879-1952
[email protected]
www.countrylifefarm.com
Inside:
Racing Recap
2
Spendthrift Farm impact
2
MD Pride Day
3
Keep up to date on all
that’s going on at
Country Life & Merryland
via our Facebook Feed
(even if you don’t have a
Facebook account).
$1-Million Mark!
Friesan Fire hit a milestone in July,
with his progeny earnings going over
the $1-million mark so far in 2016!
The Sophomore Sire is currently
ranked #11 on the 2nd Crop Sire List
for North America, based mostly off
his first crop runners (he has 4 twoyear-old starters so far this year). The
son of A.P. Indy continues to be a popular choice among breeders for good
reason, and we look forward to seeing
his future crops hit the track with as
much success as his first!
Friesan Fire has 40 current 2-year-olds hoping to hit the track this year, and with 102 lifetime
runners so far he has a remarkable 52% starters from horses of racing age. Look for his runners
to heat up later this summer and fall as his 3-year-olds get better with age and distance!
Breeding Season Recap
It was a busy first half of the year at Country Life, with the first foals arriving at the end of January and
breeding season starting in February. Led by Friesan Fire and Super Ninety Nine, the stallions bred almost
190 mares and were breeding until the 2nd week in July!
Our foaling barn was also busy, with 64 foals delivered this year (34 colts and 30 fillies) - all healthy
and doing well! The foaling webcam proved as popular as ever, with nightly viewers totaling in the hundreds (especially when they saw a mare with a tail wrap, the sign for a likely birth that night). Our hardworking staff deserves major congratulations for a great season—especially our dedicated night-watch/
foaling crew of Donna Sullivan, Michelle Racine and Nathaniel Rhodes!
Since 2012, when we completely renovated our stallion barn and brought in Friesan Fire as the first
new, exciting stallion for the region, we have seen the numbers of mares bred and foals delivered increase.
The number of foaling mares grew from less than 20 in 2012 to over 60 in 2015 and 2016. The number of
mares going through our breeding shed has also substantially increased, given the addition of new stallions
Cal Nation, Freedom Child and Super Ninety Nine. Since 2012, our stallions have bred over 750 mares.
We are excited for the future of breeding and racing in Maryland with these popular young sires!
M E R R Y L A N D
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R acing News
Several young fillies appeared on the worktab at Laurel in July and we’re excited to track their
For more information
about any of our
progress towards their racing debuts in late-summer or early fall. 2-year-olds Brice’s Fire (by Friesan
exciting partnerships,
Fire), Friesani (by Friesan Fire), Dominus Effect (by Dominus) and the unnamed Include filly out of
call the office at
Small Axe have all breezed for trainer Mike Trombetta and are doing well.
(410) 879-1952
or e-mail
Horses in our racing stable had several starts in July as well, highlighted by Maryland Bird’s [email protected].
ond career start and first on the turf. The Maryland-bred daughter of Summer Bird ran very well and
finished a good 2nd on the Laurel turf course. If Not For Her returned to the races after a 9-month
layoff on 7/10 at Monmouth Park but didn’t quite fire. It was discovered she had some pharyngitis
after the race but she is back working bullets at Laurel and looking for her next start. Chanel Number
One ran in July as well and is beating the heat at Merryland while she awaits her next race. Midnight
Ball tried the Tapeta surface for the first time in July. It was a big step up in class for the filly, who finished 5th.
Chanel Number One’s biggest fan may be
Katy Brunner, daughter of partner Matt
Brunner, who brought her own handmade
Maryland Bird returned to the races and made her
If Not For Her returned to the races on
sign to Chanel’s race on July 15th and was 7/10 but some pharyngitis led to an off
turf debut with a good 2nd place finish at Laurel
photographed by Jerry Dee of JHA Photo
on 7/9.
the board finish.
Services!
S p e n d t h r i f t Fa r m M a k i n g a n I m p a c t
in Maryland
Ever since Freedom Child commenced stud duties at Country Life Farm in the spring of 2014, B. Wayne Hughes’ Spendthrift Farm began sending mares to support their stallions here, and thus, making an impact on the Maryland breeding program. The famous Kentucky farm has bred more than 20 different mares to both Freedom Child and Super Ninety Nine. They
are also the breeder of more than a dozen Maryland-breds by their Kentucky stallions, consigning many of those weanlings
and yearlings, as well as in-foal mares, to the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Sales. In June, they also sent two yearlings to the 82nd
MHBA Yearling Show. Thanks to General Manager Ned Toffey, stallion season sales manager Mark Toothaker, and head of
regional sales Des Dempsey, Spendthrift Farm is becoming one of the biggest supporters of Maryland breeding and racing.
On July 31st at Laurel Park, Hailey’s Flip, the first of the Spendthrift-bred horses foaled at Country Life in 2014 to reach the
races, broke her maiden by 6-1/4 lengths. Hailey’s Flip, by Spendthrift’s Kentucky sire Archarcharch out of the Freud mare
Tamberino, was purchased for $17,000 from Spendthrift Farm at the 2015 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. She is
owned by Daniel C. Crowley and trained by Gary Capuano. Her breeder bonus of $7,336 will likely be the first of many earned
by Spendthrift Farm’s MD-breds.
This spring, Mr. Hughes’ farm bred 13 mares to our jointly-owned Super Ninety Nine. This is perhaps the largest number of
mares bred to a Maryland stallion by any major Kentucky farm. Look for Spendthrift Farm’s yearlings in the upcoming Midlantic Fall Yearling Sale in Timonium on October 4, 2016. They will also be selling mares, in foal to Super Ninety Nine, as well
as short-yearlings by Freedom Child and Super Ninety Nine, in the January Midlantic Mixed Sale.
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Maryland Pride Day!
Mark your calendars for Saturday, August 20th and plan to be at Laurel Park for the 2nd annual
“Maryland Pride Day”. The day will feature a full card of turf races for Maryland-breds and/or MarylandSired horses. A couple of Country Life partnership runners could see action that day, including Maryland
Bird and Chanel Number One. Come out and cheer all the Maryland-breds on!
RIP: Ouita
We said goodbye to a good dog in July at Country Life when Ouita
(pronounced Wee-da) became suddenly ill and it was discovered that
she had an undetected cancer. The Golden Retriever mix was found at
the end of the farm driveway in 2006 as an abandoned
8-week old puppy.
She was Alice Pons’ constant
companion ever since and she
was the Alpha dog to the canine
crew on the farm. Ouita had a
personality that matched her size,
and she will be sorely missed by
everyone.
More
Friesan
Fire
Winners!
Five of the 6 maiden winners for Friesan Fire in July
are pictured. Counter clockwise from left: All Fired
Up, bred/owned by Becky Davis; Colmont Fire, bred/
owned by Sonny Farwell, Jr.; Flaming Humor, bred by
the late Brice Ridgely and owned by Rich Dalone
Stable; Justcallme KL, bred/owned by Ken Lowe, Jr.;
and Tipsy Moose, bred/owned by Betsy Houghton’s
Sylmar Farm.