Details

Published: 19 March 2010

Bred by Dark Hollow Farm. Raced by Dark Hollow as a 2-year-old until sold privately for $300,000 to Barry Weisbord and Jayeff B Stables.

The Eclipse Award winning sprinter of 1989, SAFELY KEPT became the first sprinter in history to pass the $2 million mark when she earned $2,194,206 from 31 starts. Her 24 victories included 22 stakes, and she placed five additional times. She received racing's highest honor when inducted into the National Racing Hall of Fame in 2011.

Twice the muscular bay made appearances in the $1,000,000 Breeders' Cup Sprint-G1. After a narrow defeat of 1989, when she was caught at the wire and finished second, SAFELY KEPT battled through the stretch in 1990 to take the measure of European champion sprinter DAYJUR. Other milestones in the flying filly's career included victories in three Maryland Million Distaff Handicaps and earning Maryland-bred horse of the year honors in 1989 and '90.

Two and Three-year-old seasons:
As a 2-year-old she won four of five races, including the Playpen Stakes and Smart Angle Stakes. At age 3, she separated herself from every other sprinter in North America by reeling off eight wins in nine starts. That year (1989) she entered the Breeders' Cup Sprint as the second choice in the morning line and proceeded to finish second to Ogden Phipps' Dancing Spree. Among her eight stakes wins in 1989 was the Gr.1 Test Stakes at Saratoga Race Course and two wins in Gr.2 races, the Genuine Risk Handicap and the Prioress Stakes. Those performances as well as her 9-8-1-0 record that year earned her the Eclipse Award for the American Champion Sprint Horse.

Four-year-old season:
At age 4 she only improved, winning all seven races in which she competed, all of them stakes races. The final race of her 4-year-old season was a victory over a star-studded international field of 14 sprinters in the Gr.1 Breeders' Cup Sprint. That victory over European superstar Dayjur and future Horse of the Year Black Tie Affair (Ire) also avenged her only loss from the prior year as she defeated Dancing Spree by nine and a half lengths.

Five-year-old season:
At age 5, SAFELY KEPT  won five of seven races she competed in with show finishes in the other two. SAFELY KEPT took a safe and familiar road in 1991, running in many of the same stakes at the same tracks she had in the two previous years. She counted three-peats in the Gr.2 Genuine Risk Handicap, Maryland Million Distaff Handicap and Gr.3 Garden Stakes Handicap (no longer run), and repeated in the Gr.3 Meadowlands Handicap. SAFELY KEPT also ventured off to the midwest and won the Chicago Handicap at Arlington Park, and contested the first two runnings of the Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash Stakes, finishing third the second year to champion sprinter Housebuster.

Career Earnings:
SAFELY KEPT's career bankroll of $2,194,206 rank her as the greatest earner among any filly or mare bred in the state of Maryland. She is one of only five multi-millionaire Thoroughbred to be foaled in the state after only Cigar, Awad, Concern and Broad Brush. At the time of her retirement, SAFELY KEPT had earned more than any other female horse in the world bred outside the state of Kentucky except for Lady Secret and still ranks fourth on that list.

Race Record:
1st- $1,000,000 Breeders’ Cup Sprint [G1] at BEL Video 
1st- $150,000 Test S. [G1] at SAR
1st- $100,000 Genuine Risk S. [G2] at BEL
1st- $75,000 Prioress S. [G2] at BEL
1st- $75,000 Genuine Risk S. [G2] at BEL in 1989
1st- $75,000 Genuine Risk S. [G2] at BEL in 1990
1st- $50,000 Meadowlands Budweiser Breeders’ Cup H. [G3] at MED in 1991
1st- $50,000 Meadowlands Budweiser Breeders’ Cup H. [G3] at MED in 1990
1st- $50,000 Garden State Park Budweiser Breeders’ Cup H. [G3] at GS in 1991
1st- $50,000 Garden State Park Budweiser Breeders’ Cup H. [G3] at GS in 1990
1st- $50,000 Garden State Park Budweiser Breeders’ Cup H. [G3] at GS in 1989
1st- $75,000 Thoroughbred Club Of America S. [G3] at KEE
1st- $100,000 Finger Lakes Budweiser Breeders’ Cup H. at FL
1st- $100,000 Chicago Budweiser Breeders’ Cup H. at AP
1st- $150,000 Columbia S. at PIM
1st- $50,000 Playpen S. at PIM
1st- $100,000 State Of Maryland Distaff H. at LRL in 1991
1st- $100,000 State Of Maryland Distaff H. at LRL in 1990
1st- $100,000 State Of Maryland Distaff H. at LRL in 1989
1st- $60,000 Politely S. at LRL
1st- $50,000 Smart Angle S. at PIM
1st- $35,000 Regret S. at MTH
2nd- $1,000,000 Breeders’ Cup Sprint [G1] Video
3rd- $50,000 Monmouth Park Budweiser Breeders’ Cup H. [G3] at MTH
3rd- $300,000 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash S. at LRL
3rd- $100,000 Usf&G Maryland Lassie S. at LRL

- Equaled Track Record At Garden State Park For 6 Furlongs In 1:08.40
- 1989 Eclipse Award Champion 

National Racing Hall of Fame inductee 2011

SAFELY KEPT
B.m., 1986, Horatius—Safely Home, by Winning Hit
Bred by Dark Hollow Farm. Raced by Dark Hollow as a 2-year-old until sold privately for $300,000 to Barry Weisbord and Jayeff B Stables.