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The most heartening element of the Hall of Fame ballot soon to be mailed to the 183 journalists, historians, and dignitaries on the voting roll is the absence of the boys. They’ve had their turn.
Among those males eligible for the ballot who did not make the cut were Ghostzapper, Smarty Jones, Afleet Alex, Saint Liam and Mineshaft, stars of the first decade of the 21st century. Their careers, brilliant but more limited in scope than their forebears, will need to be judged in light of a new racing ethic that requires less and less in accomplishments on the track before going off to stud.
Compared to that batch of lads, the three mares up for Hall of Fame election are very old school. They were consistent, durable and fast. They carried weight and stood stiff campaigns. They could have held their own in any era.
Sky Beauty ruled New York for three solid seasons in the early 1990s, winning all the right races. By the end she was up to 130 pounds in the 1994 Ruffian Handicap, and not even that stopped the train.
Open Mind, the pride of New Jersey, ran 17 times at 2 and 3 in 1988 and 1989, winning a dozen races. During one stretch of 11 stakes starts she lost only twice, by noses.
Open Mind and Sky Beauty both won the Acorn, the Mother Goose, the Coaching Club American Oaks, and the Alabama. That right there should have been good enough for a place in the Hall of Fame along time ago. The old format of voting that allowed only one female to be inducted each year worked against them, pushing them aside in favor of an ever-increasing pool of worthy candidates that included Winning Colors, Bayakoa, Paseana, Miesque, Serena’s Song, Mom’s Command, and Flawlessly.
With the current configuration of the Hall of Fame ballot it is possible to vote for more than one mare if the spirit moves. Certainly, both Open Mind and Sky Beauty will draw considerable support, for they were both pearls of great price. They are also, at least in terms of the traditional Hall of Fame profile, a dime a dozen, hitting the notes repeated constantly in the Hall of Fame mantra, doing their winning among an ordained list of races that have stood the test of time.
Then there is a mare like Safely Kept, champion sprinter of 1989 when her only loss in nine starts was by a neck to the colt Dancing Spree in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.
“I still think she won that race,” said Alan Goldberg, who trained Safely Kept at 3, 4 and 5. “I guess I had a bad angle.”
Safely Kept made 26 starts for Goldberg, all but one of them stakes and six of those stakes against colts. With Goldberg, she won 21 races, giving her an overall record of 24-3-2 in 31 starts upon her retirement in the fall of 1991. She is alive and well at Burleson Farms in Kentucky, pensioned now at the age of 25.
Sprinters have a tough time penetrating the deepest corners of racing’s consciousness. In some circles they are even looked upon as second-class citizens, failed experiments of a breed that treasures excellence over a route of ground. You can count the pure sprinters in the Hall of Fame and not run out of fingers. As for mares in the last half-century, there are only really two: Affectionately and Ta Wee.
Affectionately raced 52 times and won 28 between 1962 and 1965. Ta Wee, Dr. Fager’s little sister, won 15 of her 21 starts from 1968 through 1970. Both were hailed as sprint champions when mares had to beat the boys to do it.
If Safely Kept does not belong in the company of Affectionately and Ta Wee, then I’ve been reading the records upside down. A Maryland foal, Safely Kept competed at 11 different tracks. She carried weight. And she beat the boys, most notably in the 1990 Breeders’ Cup Sprint, when the British colt Dayjur went airborne near the wire and the filly dug in to win by a neck.
Craig Perret had by far the most success with Safely Kept, accompanying her for 11 of her 24 wins. But her dance partner never really seemed to matter. She won with Kent Desormeaux, Rick Wilson, Matt Vigliotti, Angel Cordero, Julie Krone, Corey Black, and Gary Stevens, who was aboard for her two final starts, victories under 130 and 128 pounds in the Distaff Handicap at Pimlico and the Budweiser Breeders’ Cup Handicap at the Meadowlands.
“Sprinters didn’t run for a whole lot of money even then, and there weren‘t a lot of Grade 1 races,” Goldberg noted. “Buck, buck fifty most of the time was as good as it got, other than the Breeders’ Cup and the De Francis. Because of that it was sometimes hard to hold onto a jock.”
Not that he’s complaining. Safely Kept accumulated earnings of $2.1 million, a huge sum for a straight sprinter 20 years ago.
“It’s hard for a sprinter to be good all the time,” Goldberg added. “They don’t have much of a margin for error. A good two-turn horse can miss the break or have some bad luck and still make up the difference. Sprinters don’t have that luxury.
“But hey, I’m prejudiced,” Goldberg said. “Of course I think she belongs in the Hall of Fame.”
So go ahead, Hall of Fame voters, and satisfy the traditions of the game with votes for the deserving Sky Beauty and Open Mind. But the ballot is wide open, and excellence in the game is represented by more than just 1 1/8 miles at age 3. They offer sprint races for a reason, as great entertainment in a quick-twitch culture, so why not honor the best at her job for the past 40 years?

The most heartening element of the Hall of Fame ballot soon to be mailed to the 183 journalists, historians, and dignitaries on the voting roll is the absence of the boys. They’ve had their turn.

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Among those males eligible for the ballot who did not make the cut were Ghostzapper, Smarty Jones, Afleet Alex, Saint Liam and Mineshaft, stars of the first decade of the 21st century. Their careers, brilliant but more limited in scope than their forebears, will need to be judged in light of a new racing ethic that requires less and less in accomplishments on the track before going off to stud.

Compared to that batch of lads, the three mares up for Hall of Fame election are very old school. They were consistent, durable and fast. They carried weight and stood stiff campaigns. They could have held their own in any era.

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Eighttofasttocatch lived up to his name with a dominating 9 3/4-length
score in the one-mile feature at Laurel Park on Feb. 16. The chestnut son
of Not For Love out of Too Fast to Catch, by Nice Catch, muscled his way
to the front after three-quarters of a mile and ³quickly widened in
midstretch² to gain his fifth career victory and increase his earnings to
$144,940.

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Two in a row for EIGHTTOFASTTOCATCH and now a stakes winner! The son of Not For Love capped off Laurel Park’s winter meet with a score in the $75,000 Harrison E. Johnson Memorial S. on March 26. The chestnut, owned by Sylvia Heft and trained by Tim Keefe, was always prominent in the mile and an eighth feature, struck the front near the three-eighths pole and proved tough to the wire to win by a half length. Among those in the beaten field were recent stakes winners No Advantage, Alma d’Oro and Royal Clash. He earned a 103 Beyer for the effort, the weekend's best for any North American stakes winner.

Bred by Dark Hollow Farm and Herringswell Stable out of the Nice Catch mare Too Fast to Catch, Eighttofasttocatch had swept to a dominating 9 3/4-length victory in Laurel Park’s one-mile feature on Feb. 16 in his previous start. 

A half-brother stakes winner and Gr.1-placed Storm Punch, Eighttofasttocatch was sold as part of the Dark Hollow consignment at the 2007 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Eastern Fall Yearling sale for $47,000 to Arnold Heft. He now has six wins, three seconds and four thirds from 23 starts, for earnings of $189,940. 

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Poseidon's Warrior cruised past the leaders three wide on the far turn en route to a striking seven-length win in the colt division of the NATC Futurity. Earlier, Soundwave powered to an impressive 5 ¼-length victory in the filly division on Sept. 26 at Monmouth Park (VIDEO).
The NATC Futurity, sponsored by the National Association of Two-Year-Old Consignors, is restricted to juveniles that were cataloged during 2010 and have paid all nomination and sustaining fees.
In the $167,300 Monmouth Park NATC Futurity colt division, the Robert Reid Jr.-trained Poseidon’s Warrior broke sharply from the gate at 9-1 odds before settling in third down the backside behind dueling pacesetters Federal Exchange and Tell Tale Friend.
Around the far turn, Cash is King’s Maryland-bred Speightstown   colt, out of the Smarten mare Poised to Pounce, rallied strongly outside the tiring frontrunners and continued on powerfully en route to victory, stopping the timer at 1:10.55 for six furlongs.
“Usually he’s a little slow breaking out of the gate, but today he broke running,” said winning rider Frankie Pennington. “Around the three-eighths pole, he was pulling and wanted to start running early, so I had to keep him relaxed. Once I asked him, he ran on really well.”
Poseidon’s Warrior paid $20, $9 and $5 across the board as the co-fourth choice in the wagering. Value Added Tax ($7.80, $5.60) finished second, completing a $128 exacta, and it was another half-length back to Printing Press ($5) in third.  Bail Out the Cat, the 3-5 favorite in the field of eight, finished seventh.
With the win, Poseidon’s Warrior improved his career record to 2-0-0 from three starts with earnings of $126,150. Dark Hollow Farm and William P. Beatson bred the winner.
In the $164,867 Monmouth Park NATC Futurity filly division, Soundwave swept past stablemate Lady Malkin shortly after entering the stretch and opened up at will under jockey Terry Thompson.
Soundwave returned $8, $4.80 and $3.80 as the third choice and stepped the six furlongs in 1:12.07. Lady Malkin completed the $82 exacta and returned $11.60 and $4.40.  It was 2 ¾ lengths further back to Overseas Market, who paid $2.80 to show.
“Terry rode her great,” said winning trainer Ronny Werner. “The race shaped up like we thought. She’s always shown speed in her races but will wait to use it until she’s called upon. She’s a very smart filly and makes my job easier.”
Werner shipped Soundwave and Lady Malkin from their Delaware base for the race. Both fillies are owned by Vision Racing.
The Futurity win was the third in four starts for Soundwave, a 2-year-old Kentucky-bred filly by Friends Lake   from the Eastern Echo mare Echo Echo Echo. Brereton C. Jones bred the winner.

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In a simply dominating performance, Cash is King’s POSEIDON’S WARRIOR cruised past the leaders three-wide on the far turn of the six-furlong test and left his seven rivals scrambling en route to a stellar seven-length score in the colt division of the $200,000 NATC Futurity at Monmouth Park on Sept. 26. It was the stakes debut for the dark bay son of Speightstown.

The Robert Reid Jr.-trained juvenile, making only his third start, earned a cool $100,380, to boost his earnings to $126,150. A maiden winner first-time out on Aug. 2 at Parx Racing (Philadelphia Park), POSEIDON’S WARRIOR has more than covered his purchase price of $90,000 paid by Charles Zacney at the 2010 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic May 2-year-olds in Training Sale.

Bred by Dark Hollow Farm and William Beatson, POSEIDON’S WARRIOR is the final foal out of the Smarten mare POISED TO POUNCE. The dam of four stakes horses, the wonderful POISED TO POUNCE produced $455,240-earner PLAY BINGO, winner of the 2005 Maryland Million Classic, as well as multiple stakes-placed RHYTHMN MASTER in the name of Dark Hollow Farm and Beatson. POISED TO POUNCE is also the dam of stakes winner QUICK ’N SMART, the dam of $873,317-earner SMART ENOUGH.

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I GOT'M, a four-year-old gelding owned and trained by James Casey, posted his seventh career win in Allowance company Wednesday, October 13th at Charles Town.

Bred by Dark Hollow Farm out of the PRIVATE TERM's mare DUFFEL, I GOT'M increased his bankroll for $128,159 with this 1/2-length score. 

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PoseidonsWarriorPOSEIDON'S WARRIOR, a two-year-old colt out of POISED TO POUNCE dominated eight other maiden special weight rivals Monday, August 2nd at Philadelphia Park to win going away is his first start.

Bred by Dark Hollow in partnership with longtime client William Paca Beatson, POSEIDON'S WARRIOR is owned by Cash Is King Stable, owner of Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes winner AFLEET ALEX.

The sharp looking Speighstown colt was sold earlier this year for $90,000 at Fasig-Tipon Midlantic Two-Year-Old In Training Sale.

The powerful dark bay is a half-brother to Maryland Million Classic winner PLAY BINGO as well as multiple stakes placed RHYTHMN MASTER.

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  4. Dark Hollow Bred Champion Safely Kept Pensioned





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DARK HOLLOW FARM
David & JoAnn Hayden • 16123 Dark Hollow Rd • Upperco, Maryland 21155
Phone: 410.239.7075 • Fax: 410.239-8220 • info@darkhollowfarm.com • Directions To Farm