by Ross Peddicord (first published in the July 2025 issue of The Equiery)

It all started with Carolyn Mackintosh. “I have some folks here from Sweden. Can you show them around Maryland?”

Carolyn’s call—placed over a decade ago!—led to two federally-funded MD Horse Industry Board visits to Sweden and a close friendship with Mats and Catarina Genberg, who publish the international Thoroughbred racing magazine GALLOP. 

In Sweden, harness racing, not flat racing, is king. During our trips we extolled the virtues of Maryland Standardbred horses from Winbak Farm and tracked down SJ’s Caviar, a leading Standardbred sire in Sweden once owned by then-MHIB board member Eli Solomon. On one trip, Thora Pollak and her husband Steve, showcased the Swedish Warmbloods they breed back home on their Beall Spring Farm in Montgomery County.

We also met Swedish Jockey Club member Benny Andersson who also just happens to be a member of famed Swedish pop-rock group, ABBA.

We had a visit to the flat races in neighboring Copenhagen with Rufus Gifford, our then-Ambassador to Denmark; later almost securing an international sponsor for the Preakness through the efforts of Karin DeFrancis and Mats. 

Subsequently, we staged a reciprocal visit by the Swedes to the Maryland Million, and went on a tour through Baltimore inspired by HBO’s series “The Wire”. Just this year, 16 members of the Swedish Jockey Club visited Maryland during Preakness Week for the 150th running, the last one at the old Old Hilltop.

My role in all of this? Assemble a scintillating itinerary, gather an entertaining collection of industry experts, and showcase the best of Maryland racing.

What can I say?  It’s a tough job, even in retirement, but someone’s gotta do it. Here are the highlights this year’s Preakness Week visit by the Swedes.

Day 1—Fika at Fair Hill; Construction in Chesapeake City

The group arrived in the middle of a driving rainstorm and spent two hours navigating Immigration at Dulles Airport. It was midnight by the time the slightly bedraggled group of Swedish owners and breeders disembarked in Baltimore, Harbor East.

Everyone was still on European time, but I rallied them just a few hours later to head up to see the sights at the Fair Hill Training Center. Fortunately, Dr. Kathy Anderson, who chairs the Fair Hill Training Center Condominium Association, and Robert Croteau, their new General Manager, quickly made everything right with the world. They produced a spread in the Clockers Tower of delicious pastries, cakes, and coffee at what the Swedes call “Fika,” a mid-morning coffee break and a treasured Swedish tradition. Caffeine and sugar fix everything!

Fair Hill is Maryland’s answer to Chantilly and Lambourn, Thoroughbred training centers in France and England. Bruce Jackson gave a guided tour of the Fair Hill Equine Therapy Center, and Dr. Anderson showed them her newly-rebuilt Equine Veterinary Care clinic. DNR’s Trish Brown met them across the street and showed them the new turf course and the site of the Maryland 5 Star at Fair Hill. Just like that Maryland looked like the second coming of the Kentucky Horse Park. Spirits improved.

Even carpenters hammering away at a new roof at The Bayard House on the canal in Chesapeake City, where wine and good food awaited, couldn’t dampen the mood. In fact, lunch at a construction site once owned by horsewoman extraordinaire Allaire du Pont proved uniquely enjoyable. Locals like Paul O’Loughlin, Greg Shelton, Tom Coulter, and Jim and Christie Steele kept the conversation flowing. Steve Connelly, Deputy Secretary at the MD Department of Agriculture, and Sandy Turner, Cecil County tourism manager, waved various governmental flags.

After lunch we visited Maryland’s leading Thoroughbred sire, Great Notion, at Northview Stallion Station, still going strong at 25 years old. We visited the gravesites of Natalma, Flaming Page and Fleur – all mares that produced European Thoroughbred racing dynasties through their sons Northern Dancer, Nijinsky II and The Minstrel—at nearby Winbak Farm.

Winbak was once known as world-renowned breeding station Windfields Farm and now produces Hall of Fame harness horses, including the Standardbred stallion Muscle Hill, who appears in many Swedish trotting pedigrees. Winbak is one of North America’s premier Standardbred breeding operations. It comprises over 2,000 acres and stables nearly 1,500 horses. Manager Jack Burke, wife Gemma, and marketing director Elizabeth Lewis-House, rolled out the red carpet.

Day 2–Preakness Sunrise Tours; Alibi Breakfast; Hunt Cup legends; Emergency Bus Repairs; and a Happy Birthday

Refreshed after a good night’s sleep, it was on to Day 2 of the Whirlwind Maryland Thoroughbred Dream Tour.

The Stronach Group invited them to front row seats adjacent to Wayne Lukas and Bob Baffert at the Alibi Breakfast, a festive get together of Preakness owners and trainers prior to race day. Fran Burns, Erika Taylor and Karin DeFrancis showed them Pimlico’s inner workings. They met Robin Hutton during the Preakness Sunrise Tour and she told the story of Sergeant Reckless, the little Korean racemare who became an American equine war hero and is honored with a race on Black Eyed Susan Day. The Swedes love animals. Tears flowed. Books were bought.

Then it was off to the Maryland Horse Library and Education Center where Cricket Goodall and Maryanna Skowronski hosted a lunch presentation about the history of Maryland horse racing.

Next up, Maryland hunt country. The Swedes host their own Swedish Grand National so it was only natural to introduce them to Jay Griswold — who has ridden in more Maryland Hunt Cups than any other rider – and to Joe Davies — our state’s globe-galloping steeplechase trainer and ten-time winning Maryland Hunt Cup rider/trainer. Joe regaled us with war stories and a video of Senior Senator who won the Hunt Cup three times. Miraculously, he won two of those races after falling once and breaking his neck. Not surprisingly, the Swedes encouraged Joe, whose nephew lives in Stockholm, to enter the 2026 Swedish Grand National. The group then had a closeup and personal look at the Hunt Cup’s famous Third Fence – the fence that separates the “men from the boys” – with a surprise visit from Charlie Fenwick, one of only two Marylanders to sweep both the Hunt Cup and English Grand National.

Folks usually don’t regard Sagamore Farm — the Alfred Vanderbilt-Native Dancer-Kevin Plank/Under Armor Thoroughbred breeding showplace — as a body repair shop. But that’s exactly what happened at the next stop, after Debbie Moorefield gave a lively, encyclopedic tour acknowledging the horses and people who have populated the storied farm. The group paid homage at Northern Dancer’s gravesite, whose bloodlines run in just about every horse in the Triple Crown.  

There was just one hiccup.  The group’s tour bus had limped into the farm and needed emergency care. That’s when the field crew came to the rescue, switched from farm workers into mechanics and fixed the problem. Without their help, the tour could have ended there and tragedy might have ensued–skipping cocktails at the Pons Family annual Preakness Party!

For two of the SJC members, Leif Wretman and William Kahler, the Pons Family Preakness Party was also a birthday celebration. The group sang “Happy Birthday” in Swedish on the steps of the Country Life Farm main house. The Maryland guests reciprocated singing Happy Birthday in English. For a present, Josh sent the entire group copies of his latest book—a Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award finalist--”Letters From Country Life: Adolphe Pons, Man o’War, and theFounding of Maryland’s Oldest Thoroughbred Farm.”

“Best birthday I have ever had,” said Swedish horse owner Leif Wretman, newly-turned 80!

Days 3 & 4—Up & Coming Stars; Off To The Races; and Fond Farewells

Horse people never tire of looking at horses. The Swedish Jockey Club members are no exception. It was another morning up at the crack of dawn, this time to head to the Timonium Fairgrounds to see how horse auctions are conducted in Maryland, in particular, the Midlantic Two Year-Olds in Training sale.

Over the years this sale has moved from regional to national and now to international importance. Recent graduates include Eclipse champion male sprinter Straight No Chaser, winner of the 2024 Breeders Cup Sprint and Riyadh Dirt Sprint in Saudi Arabia; Grade I winner Full Count Felicia in Canada; and American Grade I winner Scared Wish.

Paget Bennett, sales director for the Fasig-Tipton Co., greeted the group, showed them the sales arena and explained operations. Left to their own devices, the group could have spent the whole morning in the Video Room watching tapes of the speed trials for 500 or more 2 year-olds.

Anne Litz, executive director of the Maryland Horse Industry Board, who once helped her dad Don Litz sell horses at the sale, gave them an insider’s view of being a sales agent and introduced them to Cary Frommer, a leading consignor. Cary brought out some of her horses for them to inspect, including a striking Honor A.P. filly.

It was prescient. The sale, held the next week, was a resounding success with over $42 million in horseflesh changing hands. Frommer’s filly brought $150,000 and later that day an Honor A.P. filly, Margie’s Intention, won the Black-Eyed Susan.

Now it was time to turn the SJC members over to the capable hands of Mike Rogers, President of The Stronach Group, his assistant Michelle Durkin, and Jodie Vella-Gregory, VP of Industry Relations. The Stronach Group, which will organize the Preakness for the next two years, graciously hosted the group for Black-Eyed Susan Day and the Preakness. Black-Eyed Susan Day turned especially dramatic when a tornado came through late in the day prompting everyone to evacuate the stands. Not to worry, The Swedish group’s savvy bus driver, Jeremiah Brumfield, met them at the front door and got them safely back to the hotel.

On Preakness Day, the group experienced Maryland’s big day at the races; saw Great Notion’s son, Witty, win the $125,0000 Jim McKay Turf Stakes; and took home souvenir betting tickets on Preakness winner Journalism.

When Brumfield took them to Dulles on Sunday, he said the group told him “We’ll be back next year!” Group leader Catarina Genberg emailed saying, “It was the best racing tour ever.”

One thought: If the Swedes do come next year, for all of us ABBA fans, can you bring along Benny Andersson?

####

About Ross

On December 312, 2024, Ross Peddicord retired after 14 years as the Executive Director of the Maryland Horse Industry Board (MHIB) and a life at the heart of the Maryland horse industry — from a cadet in the mounted cavalry to the show ring to a fox chaser to a steeplechase jockey to the breeding shed to the Baltimore Sun to the Pulitzer Prize nomination list to the Maryland 5 Star to the Washington International 5 Star, and on and on. Read more about him in the President’s Letter from the December 2024 issue, in a piece about prominent Maryland horse people in the August 2020 issue, and in the welcome letter we wrote in the December 2010 issue.