It’s all in the Pedigree
It should be no surprise. It is all right there in the history books and the bloodline charts. Maryland has 300 years of T oroughbred
breeding and racing history. T e Steuart family has 300 years of T or-
oughbred breeding and racing history at their Dodon Farm. In 1725 Dr. George
H. Steuart acquired a tract of land near Annapolis that he called Dodon Farm. In 1743, Steuart’s horse Dungannon won the fi rst recorded formal race in colonial Maryland, the Annapolis Subscription Plate. Today the plate, which is really a bowl, resides in the Baltimore Museum of Art. A replica of the bowl was commissioned by the Mary- land Jockey Club and is presented annually to the winner of the Dixie Stakes. T e Steuarts, meanwhile, sponsored a revival of the An- napolis Subscription Plate at the Marlborough Hunt Races (which, we hope, are still on only a temporary hiatus). Except for a brief period in which the Catho- lic Church enjoyed ownership of Dodon, the Steuarts have bred, raced and foxhunted T or- oughbreds at Dodon ever since winning that historic race. T e George Steuart family even- tually became the Steuart Pittman family, and today Steuart Pittman, Jr. oversees the family horse business.
Like his ancestors before him, he found a
breeding horse whose performance and pedi- gree he believed in: Salute T e Truth (or Willy, as he is called around the farm). Registered with T e Jockey Club as Boy Done Good, Willy is by steeplechase sire Salutely and out of Good Queen Liz by Sir Raleigh. Willy is a half-brother to one of the greatest timber hors- es ever, Saluter. Willy’s dam, meanwhile, traces back to two of the T oroughbred stallions that have had the greatest impact on American sport horses: Turn-to and My Babu. In 2003, Willy became the fi rst T oroughbred stallion to compete at the Advanced level in the U.S. since Denny Emerson’s Epic Win in the early ‘90s. But breeding, training and competing horses is not—and has never been—enough for Steuart. A former Chicago community organizer for the infamous Acorn (yes, he was one of those), Steuart believes passionately in the role of the grassroots in government. Like others in his area, he thought that Anne Arundel County was the perfect geographic location for the proposed Maryland Horse Park, and he pas- sionately lobbied to make it a reality, helping to found the Anne Arundel County Horse Coun- cil. From there, his enthusiasm, dedication, or-
34 | THE EQUIERY | AUGUST 2012
From the Annapolis Subscription Plate to the Retired Racehorse Training Project
ganizational skills and vision quickly catapulted him into a leadership role within the Maryland Horse Council. Never one to shy from a debate, Steuart led
THOROUGHBRED 1: thoroughly trained or skilled 2: bred from the best blood through a long line : purebred 3: a capitalized: of, relating to, or being a Thoroughbred horse; b: having character- istics resembling those of a Thoroughbred
eff orts to have public conversations on all the critical issues in the horse industry, includ- ing conversations about what many in the T oroughbred world believed to be a “private” mat- ter, even though ev- erything associated with parimutuel racing is publicly regulated, so there
really are no “private” matters. It was a role somewhat fraught with PR danger, and while he earned the respect of some, others viewed this eighth-generation T oroughbred breeder as an unwelcome outsider. Regardless, Steuart’s commitment to the T oroughbred breed and to Maryland’s T oroughbred industry never wavered. Between his growing training business and
his travels around the state for MHC, Steuart became dismayed to see how much respect and reverence for the T oroughbred had eroded
with their T oroughbred partners, as competi- tion horses, trail horses or just as companions. It’s a simple idea: create a program that pro- vided these owners with the necessary tools… and maybe, just maybe, in so doing, demand for retired racehorses could be revived, and off - the-track T oroughbreds would no longer be a part of the “unwanted horse” crisis. T us was born T e Retired Racehorse Train-
ing Project. Launched in 2009, RRTP off ers a variety of educational vehicles, including train- ing publications, videos, clinics and creative, immensely popular public events such as the Retired Racehorse Trainer Challenge and the “T oroughbreds for All” symposium. RRTP is not a rescue, a foster home or a
Dodon Farm has been competing Thoroughbreds since Dr. George H. Steuart won the inaugural running of the Annapolis Subscription Plate in 1743 with Dungannon. 300 years later, in 2003, multi-great grandson Steuart Pittman’s Salute The Truth became the fi rst Thoroughbred stallion in over a decade to compete at Advanced in U.S. eventing. Steuart has launched the Retired Racehorse Training Project to help amateur riders with their off- track Thoroughbreds, and to reinvigo- rate the breed’s reputation as a desir- able sport horse, thereby increasing demand for off-track Thoroughbreds.
within the sport and pleasure horse circles. He was stunned to meet young riders who had no awareness that they were mere miles from the world’s largest timber race with some of the world’s greatest equine athletes. He also no- ticed that cheap OTTBs were falling into the hands of the uneducated and unaware as their fi rst horse, or their fi rst “project horse.” But Steuart also noticed that these new horse owners, while perhaps unprepared to handle their new projects, were passionate about their horses and proud of their horses’ track records and pedigrees. He realized that all these folks needed was a little help, a few tools and some basic understanding of the temperaments and proclivities of their former race horses, and these owners could have years of safe enjoyment
retirement home for T oroughbreds. RRTP is not about supporting pensioners or raiding auctions to save horses from slaughter. RRTP is about giving people the tools they need to own and ride a retired racehorse, so demand for the breed will be increased, so the horses don’t end up on the slaughter wagons. RRTP is about providing a productive future for retired racehorses as riding horses. When the demand increases, so will the value of retired racehorses. When the value increases, trainers will be more inclined to race them sound and retire them sound, eventually restoring the overall image of modern T or- oughbred breeding and racing. It is a simple,
free-mar-
ket concept based on the law of sup- ply and demand. So
enthusiastic
is the leadership within the breed- ers association that MHBA quickly became the largest
supporter to date of RRTP. In some ways, the success of RRTP and pro- grams of this sort could result in the current charities and the rescues becoming unneces- sary. (Granted, it might leave some folks fl oun- dering, but we feel confi dent that they will fi nd something else that needs to be saved.) T e Retired Racehorse Training Project is a grand and noble experiment that is work- ing, as we can witness in the recent surge of T oroughbred-only shows. T e RRTP will change the national T oroughbred landscape, so it should come as no surprise that this T or- oughbred program was bred in Maryland. We have a 300-year history of raising the bar and setting the standards for all T oroughbreds in America!
800-244-9580 |
www.equiery.com
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