Dark Hollow Farm

Champion Plum back on track for 2012

Details: Published: 28 April 2012

Plum-4-26-12 Getting her fourth win from six lifetime starts, PLUM dug in through the stretch to take an allowance race against older rivals on April 26 at Pimlico. Dark Hollow Farm's homebred trained by Rodney Jenkins defeated a field that included 2010 Black-Eyed Susan S.-G2 winner Acting Happy in the mile and a sixteenth test, winning by a half-length.

The Maryland-bred 2-year-old filly champion of 2011, PLUM rocketed to the top of her division by winning three of four starts last year, including the Maryland Juvenile Filly Championship Stakes .

The distance-loving daughter of PURE PRIZE and Dark Hollow Farm-bred BAMBA, a daughter of NOT FOR LOVE, is primed for her 3-year-old campaign. The chestnut filly, who has earned $109,800 to date, seems back on track.

Poseidon’s Warrior Named Maryland-Bred Champion 3YO Male

Details: Published: 21 March 2012

When you are named for the Greek god of the sea, who was also known as “Earth Shaker,” you better be ready for a fight.

Maryland-bred 3-year-old champion Poseidon’s Warrior lived up to his name – running nine times in 2011 (once every month from April through December), winning four and gaining a reputation as a tough customer in any Mid-Atlantic sprint. Racing for trainer Butch Reid, the son of Speightstown earned $244,937 to prevail in a strong division that included four-time winner Concealed Identity.

The year started with back-to-back fourths in stakes company at Parx Racing and Presque Isle Downs. Shifted to a second-level allowance at Parx in June, Poseidon’s Warrior won gate-to-wire by 10 lengths over older rivals, “with speed to spare,” noted the chart. His time for 6 furlongs was 1:08.18.

Sold by Cash Is King Stable to Tom McGrath’s Swilcan Stable after that race, Poseidon’s Warrior delivered another powerful win, this time in the East Hanover Stakes at Penn National in late July. He battled up close early under Frankie Pennington and drew off late to score by 6¼ lengths in 1:09.36.

Reid tried Saratoga and the Grade 1 King’s Bishop next, and Poseidon’s Warrior drew a few looks as a live longshot before fading to sixth behind Caleb’s Posse and Uncle Mo. No matter, the dark bay colt went back to work and finished second to Royal Currier – in a 1:07.51 track record-setting performance – in the $250,000 Gallant Bob Stakes at Parx, then put together another two-race skein.

He dominated restricted foes in Delaware Park’s New Castle Stakes in October, getting 6 furlongs in 1:09.08 and winning by almost 2 lengths. In November, Poseidon’s Warrior faced off with Royal Currier once more and whipped his rival by 3½ lengths in the Le Bagoter Stakes at Penn National, with the clock stopping at 1:09.67.

A third behind Royal Currier and J J’s Lucky Train in the Valley Forge Stakes at Parx on Dec. 20 did little to diminish the campaign.

The champion spent the winter at Eisaman Equine in Florida, and will return for a 2012 campaign.

“He was just a notch away from the best sprinters,” said Reid of 2011. “Maturity will help him. Another year older, he might put some of that 3-year-old stuff behind him and improve. He’s going to have to earn it, but the [Grade 1] Breeders’ Cup Sprint is the goal.”

Bred by Dark Hollow Farm and William Beatson, Poseidon’s Warrior hails from a long line of Maryland heroes tracing back to Counterflight, a $1,500 Timonium auction purchase by owner/breeder

John Merryman in 1964.

Counterflight never raced, but produced 10 winners from 11 foals, including stakes winner Lady Lyndy (dam of $711,804-earner Smart ’n Quick). Another Lady Lyndy daughter, Poised to Pounce, earned $62,420 on the track and continued the tradition producing Maryland Million Classic-winning $455,240- earner Play Bingo, stakes winner Quick ‘n Smart, and now Poseidon’s Warrior, her last of nine foals.

Beatson (a real estate developer in Annapolis) and Dark Hollow’s David Hayden bought the Smarten mare (carrying Play Bingo) in 2000 and sold most of her offspring. Poseidon’s Warrior was sold for $90,000 as a 2-year-old.

“She got runners, just a great mare,” Hayden said of Poised to Pounce, who died in 2009 while carrying a Hard Spun foal. “Poseidon’s Warrior is a really, really nice horse and we’re happy he’s done as well as he has. We probably should have kept him, but he’s fun to watch.”

His half-sister Popeye’s Lady (by Forest Wildcat) is part of the Dark Hollow broodmare band now.

PoseidonsWarrior When you are named for the Greek god of the sea, who was also known as “Earth Shaker,” you better be ready for a fight.

His time for 6 furlongs was 1:08.18.

OVER THE MOON Does It Again

Details: Published: 17 March 2012

Over-The-Moon She’s a beauty! And everyone is OVER THE MOON! The Dark Hollow Farm homebred filly turned in her best performance to date on March 16 at Laurel Park, drawing away to win by more than two lengths in a mile and a sixteenth allowance, her first start beyond one mile.

OVER THE MOON was special from the start. The daughter of Malibu Moon is out of Clever Phrase (by Clever Trick), thus a half-sister to graded stakes-winning juvenile and Maryland-bred champion READY’S IMAGE In her first public appearance, OVER THE MOON was pinned Reserve Champion by Buzz Chace at the Maryland Horse Breeders Association’s annual yearling show in 2009.

OVER THE MOON showed so much talent early on that her juvenile debut came in Delaware Park’s Small Wonder S., in which she finished fourth. Her first win was going 4 1/2 furlongs, which she won by more than three lengths, and since that effort, she’s been third or better five of six times. Her recent score boosted her career earnings to $64,390.

Plum Named Champion Maryland-Bred 2YO Filly

Details: Published: 21 March 2012

Four starts, three wins, a second, $86,070 in the bank. Plum did little wrong in 2011, rocketing to the Maryland-bred 2-year-old filly championship for owner/breeder Dark Hollow Farm and trainer Rodney Jenkins.

Despite the success, Dark Hollow’s David Hayden insisted his filly “flies under the radar” with an attitude of calm and cool until she gets into a battle. “If she goes out by herself, 1:04 (for 5 furlongs) is blistering,” said Hayden. “But if she goes out with other horses, she’s really competitive and goes in a minute. She’s as tough as she has to be.”

Plum (whose work tab includes bullets and the opposite) had to be plenty tough in her final start of 2011, a head victory over More Than a Cruise in the $75,000 Maryland Juvenile Filly Championship Stakes at Laurel Park going 71⁄2 furlongs on Dec. 17.

The daughter of Pure Prize angled out from behind horses, summoned a challenge in mid-stretch and just got there for Travis Dunkelberger.

Hayden and his wife JoAnn bred Plum’s dam, Bamba, a daughter of Not For Love, and sold her as a yearling. When her racing career ended, they bought her back and added her to their broodmare band. Plum, the third foal out of Bamba, called attention to herself at the farm.

“When you live on the farm like we do, you can look out the window and see these alpha personalities,” Hayden said. “You remember them and she was one. She just made you pay attention to her.”

Plum was sent to Fasig- Tipton’s 2010 Eastern Fall Yearling Sale at Timonium. Hayden wanted $40,000. . . the bids stopped at $35,000. So Plum came home, grew up and in 2011 went to the racing stable – joining Jenkins at Laurel in time to make her debut in mid-September.

Racing exclusively at her home track, she finished second going 1 mile, then rattled off three successive wins – a mile and a sixteenth maiden special on Nov. 2, a first-level allowance at a mile on Nov. 25, and then the stakes – to claim the divisional title. Hayden laughed when asked about the decision to send Bamba to Vinery Kentucky stallion Pure Prize.

“The genius behind it was Not For Love [Bamba’s sire] was bred by the Phipps family and Pure Prize was too,” he said. “They’ve already done a whole lot of work breeding the best to the best for years and years, so we figured ‘why not?’ ”

There’s a yearling fullsister at the farm now.

Plum_FillyChampionship Four starts, three wins, a second, $86,070 in the bank. Plum did little wrong in 2011, rocketing to the Maryland-bred 2-year-old filly championship for owner/breeder Dark Hollow Farm and trainer Rodney Jenkins.

The daughter of Pure Prize angled out from behind horses, summoned a challenge in mid-stretch and just got there for Travis Dunkelberger.

Town Flirt Scores MSW Win at Gulfstream

Details: Published: 11 March 2012

TOWN FLIRT, a chestnut filly by SPEIGHTSTOWN, out of the past Dark Hollow mare OPEN FLIRT, posted a game victory on March 10 by surging to capture a maiden special weight race at Gulfstream Park. TOWN FLIRT is conditioned by George Weaver for Richlyn Farm and Tefft Thoroughbreds.

Bred by Dark Hollow Farm in partnership with Arnold Davidov, Mr. and Mrs. David Schwaber and Alice Wolf, TOWN FLIRT is a $200,000 Fasig-Tipton Florida Select 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale graduate and her 2-year-old half brother by Medaglia d'Oro will be offered Tuesday, March 13 at OBS Selected Sale of 2-Year-Old in Training Sale.

TOWN FLIRT, a chestnut filly by SPEIGHTSTOWN, out of the former Dark Hollow Farm Partnership mare OPEN FLIRT, was transferred to conditioner George Weaver for Richlyn Farm and Tefft Thoroughbreds at the end of last year. The move proved to be a prudent one as the chestnut filly turned in an impressive win going 1 1/16 miles on the turf in a respectable 1:41.84 for her first score at Gulfstream Park on March 10.

Bred by Dark Hollow Farm in partnership with Arnold Davidov, Mr. and Mrs. David Schwaber and Alice Wolf, TOWN FLIRT is a $200,000 Fasig-Tipton Florida Select 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale graduate and her 2-year-old half brother by MEDAGLIA D'ORO will be offered Tuesday, March 13 at OBS Selected Sale of 2-Year-Old in Training Sale.

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