Dark Hollow Farm

PLUM Breaks Maiden In Second Start

Details: Published: 03 November 2011

Plum_MSW Dark Hollow's homebred filly PLUM turned in a gutsy performanace Wednesday November 2nd at Laurel Park by digging in to notch her first win in just her second career start by capturing a Maiden Special Weight race by 1/2 of a length.

The impsoing chestnut filly by PURE PRIZE is out of BAMBA and covered the 1 1/16 mile in 1:48.2 under the stewardship of Travis Dunkelberger.

PLUM is a half-sister to the STORMY ATLANTIC colt U BOAT ALLEY who has earned over $115,000 in a three year career.

OVER THE MOON Becomes Dark Hollow's Second MSW Winner In Two Days

Details: Published: 03 November 2011

Sylvia E. Heft’s EIGHTTOFASTTOCATCH won just as an odds-on favorite should, running down the speed and bounding away to victory in the $150,000 Classic, the feature race contested under rainy conditions on Jim McKay Maryland Million day at Laurel Park.

EIGHTTOFASTTOCATCH was bred in partnership with H. Graham Motion's Herringswell Stables and is out of the currently retired mare TOO FAST TO CATCH.

The Maryland Million is the most important racing day at Laurel Park with 11 races for runners sired by Maryland-based stallions for combined purses totaling $1.05 million. The 26th annual event drew a crowd of 20,907 Saturday afternoon. Attendance figures have exceeded 20,000 on twenty-two occasions.

Jockey Sheldon Russell was at the controls as yet another Not For Love offspring captured yet another race on Maryland’s Day at the Races. It was also the second year in a row that Russell had won the Classic. Last year he guided Regal Solo to victory in the Million’s signature race.

“The key is to get him to relax,” said Russell. “Mud doesn’t bother him because he’s run well on it before. I was a little concerned because the speed horse didn’t break, but it worked out. I got him to switch off and then he came back running. I was lucky that way. Since they’ve taken the blinkers off of him he’s been very hard to beat.”

Tim Keefe trains EIGHTTOFASTTOCATCH, who has won seven times at Laurel including the Japan Racing Association Stakes in his previous start.

“This was our ‘A’ race,” said Keefe. “He’s been training like a good horse. We’ve worked hard on getting him to track the speed and today that turned out perfect. The five post didn’t hurt us either. He really finished down the lane. This horse loves Laurel Park. The older gets the better he’s become.”

Jorge Chavez sent Regal Warrior out to an uncontested lead in the 1-1/8th mile test, leading by as much as six lengths before Eighttofasttocatch began to close in on his target. Regal Warrior surrendered the lead, Eighttofasttocatch moved to the fore and drifted out before being straightened away to win by 1-3/4 lengths. Cactus Charlie finished second and Not Abroad was third.

OvewrTheMoon Three-year-old filly OVER THE MOON became Dark Hollow Farm's second Maiden Special Weight winner in as many days by wiring the field by 3 1/2 legnths at Charles Town on November 3rd.

OVER THE MOON covered the 4 1/2 furlongs in :53.72 and was ridden by Travis Dunkelberger who also guided stable mate PLUM to her maiden win at Laurel one day earlier.

By leading sire MALIBU MOON out of CLEVER PHRASE, OVER THE MOON is a half sister of graded stakes winner READY'S IMAGE who captured Saratoga's G2 Sanford Stakes in 2007.

If Only...Safely Kept 2011 Hall of Fame Inductee

Details: Published: 15 August 2011

hof If David and JoAnn Hayden didn’t go to a horse show at Fair Hill, Md. in 1973 . . . If Ron Alfano didn’t claim Safely Home in 1980 . . . If Charlie McGinnis wasn’t so protective of his stallion Horatius . . . Safely Kept would not be going into the Hall of Fame today.

But they did, he did and he was . . . so the sprinting dynamo from Maryland takes her place alongside the other greats in Thoroughbred racing’s Hall of Fame. Safely Kept ran 31 times, won 24 races (22 of them stakes), earned $2.1 million, won an Eclipse Award as Champion Sprinter in 1989. She lost just two stakes starts vs. her gender, ran at 11 racetracks, won for eight jockeys.

And took her breeders along for a ride.

“It’s the culmination of something we thought would never happen,” David said Thursday morning at Saratoga. “You can’t expect that. We’re first-generation horse people and she was early on in our career. I really didn’t appreciate it until 20 years down the line. We just weren’t aware back then of the privilege of breeding such a horse.”

David Hayden ran an advertising agency with shopping centers for clients. JoAnn Hayden taught elementary school. They liked horses, moved to the country, rode, showed and turned to racehorses after watching the 1973 Belmont Stakes.

“We were at a horse show at Fair Hill and somebody had a black and white television set with the Belmont on,” David said. “I saw Secretariat win that race and said ‘I’m going to get one of them.’ It looked like a lot more fun than showing. I think that’s the last horse show I ever went to.”

He’s probably exaggerating, a little, but Thoroughbreds gradually became part of their lives. Alfano claimed Safely Home, she tore a suspensory a few races later, retired, became a broodmare at the Haydens’ Dark Hollow Farm. And took part in another twist of fate.

EIGHTTOFASTTOCATCH Captures The Japan Racing Association Stakes In Dominating Fashion

Details: Published: 11 September 2011

Sylvia E. Heft’s Eighttofasttocatch exploded by the pacesetters and won as his rider pleased in the $75,000 Japan Racing Association Stakes for 3-year-olds and up at Laurel Park Saturday, September 10th.

The race was contested at one mile on the main track after being switched from the turf. With regular rider Sheldon Russell attending a wedding in the United Kingdom, Malcolm Franklin piloted the 5-year-old gelded son of Not For Love out of the pensioned mare Toofasttocatch. They raced comfortably in third for most of the trip before easing out at the top of the lane, accelerating to the lead and galloping away.

“I’d describe it as explosive,” said Franklin. “He was rating nice behind a horse. Once I found some room he kicked on and gave a nice turn of foot.”

The Tim Keefe trainee completed the distance in 1:35.43 and won by 4-1/2 lengths over Nacho Friend. Indian Dance finished another three-quarters length back in third. Bred by Dark Holoow Farm along with Graham and Anita Motion's Herringswell Stables, Eighttofasttocatch, who will likely make his next start in the $150,000 Maryland Million Classic on October 1.

Eighttofasttocatch-01 Sylvia E. Heft’s EIGHTTOFASTTOCATCH exploded by the pacesetters and won as his rider pleased in the $75,000 Japan Racing Association Stakes for 3-year-olds and up at Laurel Park Saturday, September 10th.

The race was contested at one mile on the main track after being switched from the turf. With regular rider Sheldon Russell attending a wedding in the United Kingdom, Malcolm Franklin piloted the 5-year-old gelded son of Not For Love out of the pensioned mare TOOFASTTOCATCH. They raced comfortably in third for most of the trip before easing out at the top of the lane, accelerating to the lead and galloping away.

“I’d describe it as explosive,” said Franklin. “He was rating nice behind a horse. Once I found some room he kicked on and gave a nice turn of foot.”

The Tim Keefe trainee completed the distance in 1:35.43 and won by 4-1/2 lengths over Nacho Friend. Indian Dance finished another three-quarters length back in third. Bred by Dark Hollow Farm along with Graham and Anita Motion's Herringswell Stables, EIGHTTOFASTTOCATCH, who will likely make his next start in the $150,000 Maryland Million Classic on October 1.

SAFELY KEPT, OPEN MIND ELECTED TO HALL OF FAME

Details: Published: 31 July 2011

Safely Kept and Open Mind, diverse and dynamic Mid-Atlantic-bred fillies who won divisional championships and combined for more than $4 million in earnings, were among four principals elected to the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame.

Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer and Eclipse Award-winning filly Sky Beauty also will be enshrined on Friday, August 12, in a ceremony at the Fasig-Tipton sales pavilion in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Safely Kept, bred in Maryland by David and JoAnn Hayden of Dark Hollow Farm, had dazzling acceleration and tenacity to match, winning 24 of 31 starts over four seasons and becoming the first sprinter to surpass $2 million earnings.

As a 3-year-old in 1989, she dashed to eight victories in nine tries and was voted national sprint champion. Her only blemish that year was a near-miss when second to Dancing Spree in the male-dominated Breeders’ Cup Sprint-G1. She gained redemption a year later in one of the Sprint’s most enduring moments, as the front-running Dayjur jumped a shadow near the wire, and Safely Kept swept past him for a narrow victory.

A muscled bay by Horatius out of the Winning Hit mare Safely Home, Safely Kept won two straight Maryland-bred Horse of the Year titles and four consecutive state-bred divisional titles. Trained by Carlos Garcia at 2 and Alan Goldberg for the remainder of her career, she was retired in 1991 after earning $2,194,206, most of it for Barry Weisbord and Richard Santulli’s Jayeff B. Stable.

Safely Kept tallied 22 stakes victories (12 graded), including the 1989 Test Stakes-G1 at Saratoga. She won the Genuine Risk Stakes-G2, Garden State Handicap-G3 and Maryland Million Distaff every year from 1989 through 1991. Along the way, she equaled Garden State’s six-furlong track record of 1:08.40.

Like Safely Kept, Open Mind was a foal of 1986, but the two had distinctive racing personalities. Open Mind, bred in New Jersey by Robert Brennan’s Due Process Stables, pursued classic distances, often vividly. She won 12 of 19 starts and was voted champion filly at 2 and 3.

Owned by Eugene Klein and trained by D. Wayne Lukas, Open Mind won the 1988 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Stakes-G1 at 2 and blossomed fully at 3, when she took the Kentucky Oaks, swept the New York Filly Triple Crown (the Acorn, Mother Goose and Coaching Club American Oaks) and added the Alabama Stakes, all Grade 1s. The Alabama marked her 10th straight victory.

By Deputy Minister out of Stage Luck (by Stage Door Johnny), Open Mind finished with 11 stakes wins, nine graded, and earnings of $1,844,372.

Remarkably, the two met once, but neither won. The race was the 1988 Mary-land Million Lassie, restricted to the offspring of Maryland sires (Horatius stood at Thornmar farm in Chestertown;

Deputy Minister had launched his career at Windfields Farm in Chesapeake City). Ms. Gold Pole was the winner, defeating Open Mind by four and a half lengths; heavy favorite Safely Kept was another half length back in third.

Bought as a broodmare by foreign interests, Open Mind went to Japan, had two Easy Goer foals, and died in 1998 at age 12. Her second foal, the filly Easy Mind, was a stakes winner in Japan.

Safely Kept, 25, was pensioned in Ken-tucky last year after producing her 10th foal, an Empire Maker filly, in May for Jay-eff B. She has eight winners from as many starters and two stakes winners: Con-trast (by Unbridled) and Peace Chant (by War Chant).

Excerpted from July 2011 Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred

Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer and Eclipse Award-winning filly Sky Beauty also will be enshrined on Friday, August 12, in a ceremony at the Fasig-Tipton sales pavilion in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.