In 1926, a horse owner stared across acres of crops north of Baltimore and envisioned another man's horse farm.
The result was Sagamore Farm, a Worthington Valley showcase with brass finishings in the barns, miles of white-board fencing and top-caliber horses in the stalls for more than half a century.
Today, the historic property has fallen on hard times symbolized by broken windows, abandoned buildings and corn stalks in the fields where champion horses once roamed.
That investors plan to start a stallion station next door and help put Sagamore back in the thoroughbred mainstream is a reprise of what happened 77 years ago.
Then, horse owner Guy Bernard Fenwick directed the land into the hands of an industrialist and his grandson, who built the farm and made it shine.
Today, Maryland horseman Don Litz has put together the investor group that plans to start a stallion station and use Sagamore's barns to board mares.
"It's a dream of mine for Sagamore to be important again, as it should be," said Litz, a former Sagamore manager.
The inclusion of Lane's End Farm, a premier commercial breeder based in Kentucky, gives the investor group credibility.
Litz recalled the reaction of Lane's End general manager Bill Farish after he viewed Sagamore last December: "His comment was, `You can tell something really special happened here.'"
Indeed, during a heyday lasting decades, it was the home of such thoroughbred legends as Native Dancer and Discovery and the workplace of horsemen such as Lucien Laurin, Secretariat's Hall of Fame trainer, and Henry Clark, a Marylander also in the Hall of Fame.
Set in rolling limestone hills just a few miles from the Beltway, the farm was a virtual city-state of horses, jockeys, trainers, grooms, blacksmiths, veterinarians and managers.
"It was at the top of the list of Maryland's farms; nothing else even compared," said Snowden Carter, the longtime Maryland racing writer.
Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt Jr., one of the lions of American racing, owned the farm for 54 years and made sure its shimmer was sustained. Although he lived in New York, his farm gave Maryland credibility when it was a dim star in the breeding industry's Kentucky-centered galaxy.
"In all areas of horsemanship, from training to breaking to breeding to foaling, it was top-notch," said Paul Randall, a former Sagamore exercise rider who now works at Laurel and Pimlico and raises horses. "If you had a letter of recommendation from Sagamore, it was like saying you were a copilot on the Concorde."
