**This post was originally sent through our Substack subscription list: https://housatonicbloodstock.substack.com/p/a-vintage-villain-takes-a-leading.
Laurel Park will host the 39th edition of the Maryland Million this weekend, a card that features the country’s original state-specific showcase day. The Maryland Million was initially conceived of by Jim McKay as a regional version of the national Breeders’ Cup series, to highlight the offspring of Maryland-based stallions.
This Saturday, Murmur Farm’s recent Mid-Atlantic Magazine cover boy Blofeld — named by Glencrest Farm, who raced him, for the main villain in the James Bond novels and movies which originated in the ‘50s and ‘60s — will be represented in five black-type races on the Maryland Million card by six different runners. These six runners will give Blofeld a chance to more than double his current total of four Maryland Million victors (Bonded, Chickieness, Johnyz From Albany and Miss Harriet) from his first three crops, and potentially close the gap on Great Notion and Golden Lad, who are the two active local stallions with higher victory totals than Blofeld to this point.
Obviously, expecting the Blofeld offspring to run the table in their races is a bit far-fetched (back in 2018, Great Notion had three winners on the card and inspired one of our earliest blog posts, “A Very Good Day For Great Notion”). But while none of Blofeld’s half-dozen runners is favored, all but one were given morning-line odds in the single-digits.
First up, in the Maryland Million Lassie for 2-year-old fillies going 6 furlongs on dirt, the homebred filly Persian (cleverly named by Mrs. Murray of Murmur Farm for the breed of the Blofeld character’s ever-present white cat) makes her second start off an 8/1 morning-line for trainer Linda Albert. Persian raced four-wide and finished 2nd in her only other effort, a maiden claiming race in which seven of the eight entrants were eligible to waive the tag as Maryland-breds. She is a daughter of another Murmur homebred in Kim’s Pet, a daughter of their former stallion Petionville. Persian is Kim’s Pet’s first foal, but Kim’s Pet is a half-sister to a Maryland Million race winner in Miss Nosy, as well as to Missy Kim. Missy Kim is the dam of Bonded, who won a Maryland Million starter race for Blofeld, and is one of three full-siblings from that pairing which have all earned six-figures. (Side note one — Sadly, our own full-sister in-blood to Bonded and his brothers, by Blofeld and out of Wowwhatabrat, a full-sister to Missy Kim, passed away this past weekend following an unsuccessful colic surgery. Tough business, this breeding thing.) (Side note two — Among Persian’s competition in the Lassie is Malibu Hooch, a half-sister to our broodmare Faze the Nation.)
Next up on the card is the Maryland Million Turf, for 3-year-olds and up going 1-1/8 miles on the Laurel grass course. This is the race in which Blofeld is represented by two different entrants: Crabs N Beer (5/2 second choice on the morning-line for Chas Blanford and trainer Keri Brion) and Goodbye Note (20/1 longshot for owner/trainer Ham Smith). Crabs N Beer was actually the first winner for Blofeld back during his 2-year-old campaign, and the now 5-year-old gelding has gone on to be the second-leading earner sired by Blofeld. While he has yet to win a stakes race, Crabs N Beer finished 2nd in the Grade 3 Dinner Party Stakes at Pimlico on the Preakness undercard earlier this year, and has placed in three additional black-type events, including this very race two years ago (he was 3rd that day, and 5th in this race last year). Out of the Kitalpha mare Get’m Up Pronto, Crabs N Beer has the distinction of being the first black-type runner under his first FOUR dams — which speaks to Blofeld’s ability to improve his mares. The sophomore Goodbye Note, out of a Not For Love dam, has so far won three races on dirt and turf and will be making his stakes debut in this race. The Blofeld/Not For Love cross has already produced the black-type placed Blome, and though Goodbye Note’s most recent victory came sprinting on the dirt at Timonium two-back, he was a wire-to-wire allowance winner going 1-1/16 miles over the Laurel turf in July.
The Maryland Million Sprint, for 3-year-olds and up going 6 furlongs on dirt, features Blofeld’s son Johnyz From Albany for trainer Phil Capuano, who rates an 8/1 shot on the morning-line. Already one of Blofeld’s Maryland Million race winners thanks to his victory in the Maryland Million Nursery as a 2-year-old, Johnyz From Albany was 4th in last year’s edition of the Sprint and will try to improve off of that effort on Saturday. He does come in off of back-to-back 2nd-place finishes in which he’s earned his highest Equibase Speed Figures to date.
In the Maryland Million Distaff, for fillies and mares 3 and up going 7 furlongs on dirt, another of Blofeld’s previous Maryland Million winners will look to add another to his tally when Miss Harriett goes postward. The 5/1 second-choice on the morning-line here for owner/breeder Narrow Leaf Farm and trainer Brandon McFarlane, Miss Harriett scored in last year’s Maryland Million Lassie on her racetrack debut at 62/1. The winner of a pair of stakes since then, and coming in looking for her third straight victory, Miss Harriett is a daughter of the Sea of Secrets mare Tejano Sea, who is also the dam of Maryland Million race winner Keep Momma Happy. The cross with Storm Cat-line mares like Tejano Sea has been one of the strongest for Blofeld (his Maryland Million winner Chickieness is also bred this way), and results in inbreeding to that former Overbrook Farm superstar, as Blofeld’s own dam is herself a daughter of Storm Cat.
(Side note three — Taking on Miss Harriett will be Malibu Moonshine, who won the Maryland Million Lassie the year before Miss Harriett, and is a full-sister to this year’s contender Malibu Hooch — making her another half-sister to our broodmare Faze the Nation.)
Blofeld’s final entrant on this year’s Maryland Million card is his sophomore son Mugatu in the day’s richest race, the Maryland Million Classic. A runner in the classic Preakness Stakes earlier this year, Mugatu (cleverly named for another film villain, in his case the Will Ferrell character from the Ben Stiller comedy “Zoolander”) has since finished 2nd in the local Bald Eagle Derby for trainer Jeff Engler among his eight straight black-type starts, which also include a 5th-place finish in the Grade 1 Blue Grass Stakes. Up at 6/1 on the morning-line, Mugatu is a full-brother to a pair of winners, including the six-figure earner Gamestonks. Their dam, Union Way, is a daughter of Union Rags — a cross which hasn’t had many chances for Blofeld yet, but worked very well for his own sire Quality Road (who got Grade 1 winners Caledonia Road, Salty and Klimt out of mares by Union Rags’s sire Dixie Union). A big, bruiser of a colt, Mugatu will love the distance of the Classic, and could end a big day with a bang for Blofeld.
Before the Blofeld runners get rolling, Maryland Million Day will actually kick off with a race carrying even more interest for us. In light of the continually-shrinking foal crop (nationally, and in Maryland), the Maryland Million races have been opened to include Maryland-bred as well as Maryland-conceived runners in recent years, and it is this change that allows our homebred filly Doesn’thurttoflirt to participate in the first race on the card, a starter handicap for a $50,000 purse going 1-1/16 miles on the turf. Foaled in Maryland from one of our original broodmare acquisitions, the Broken Vow mare I’m Engaged, Doesn’thurttoflirt is a daughter of the stallion Include, who — though he was himself a Grade 1-winning Maryland-bred homebred for the powerful Meyerhoff program and trained by Dickie Small — stood his successful stud career in Kentucky at Airdrie Farm. Trained by Kelly Rubley for us and our partners Oh Happy Days Stable and Steve Crabtree, Doesn’thurttoflirt will be trying for her fourth career victory in this spot and her first since February — which was also the last time Doesn’thurttoflirt wasn’t in stakes or allowance company and is reflected by her 8/1 morning-line odds.
When we planned the mating of I’m Engaged to Include, we had hoped it would result in a filly that we could keep to race and eventually breed from, and though plans rarely work out in racing, we are excited that it did with Doesn’thurttoflirt — proving that in this business, sometimes it doesn’t hurt to dream, either!
