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.