Lady S Manor

The Maryland and national timber racing seasons will be launched in earnest today when the 95th annual My Lady's Manor program is conducted in Monkton. A three-race card starting with the $25,000 feature will begin at 1:30 p.m., with eight contenders scheduled to go in the three-mile My Lady's Manor event over timber fences. Nearly 10,000 fans are expected for Harford County's most-attended sporting event in what promises to be ideal spring weather. Until last year -- when Irv Naylor's New Zealand-bred, Askim, prevailed -- trainer Tom Voss had dominated at My Lady's Manor in the 2000s, winning three straight with Ironfist and scoring again two years ago with Sam Sullivan.

Two Harford dairy farms have added cattle breeding to their business and are establishing international reputations for the quality of their herds. Ehrhardt Farms in Baldwin and My Lady's Manor Farm in White Hall were recognized recently by Harford agriculture officials for their innovative approaches to developing new business. The farms practice somewhat different methods, but both have found markets in Japan, South Korea, Germany, Britain, China and France. The Ehrhardts market bull semen nationwide and sell their cow embryos internationally, grossing $80,000 a year.

Baseball has Opening Day. Steeplechasing has My Lady's Manor, and yesterday the annual rite of spring again brought elaborate picnics and thundering horses to the rolling green hills of Harford County. The first of these races was held in 1902, and not so many years ago it was a small affair. A few hundred people would show up in tweeds and waxed cotton jackets to watch horses hurdle timbered fences across a three-mile course. They might make a few gentlemanly wagers between sips of bourbon or bites of chicken, but no one worried about beating the traffic out of the parking lot. The Hunt Cup, held later in the spring, "was always the big cocktail party" of Maryland steeplechasing, said Pedie Killebrew, who has attended the My Lady's Manor races for more than 30 years with friends and family.

The master of the Manor will strive for his fifth straight victory today as Maryland timber racing's spring season opens with a flourish. As usual, trainer Tom Voss will be in absentia at the 94th annual My Lady's Manor program in Monkton, where his wife Mimi's horse, Sam Sullivan, will try to win the $25,000 feature for the second year in a row. Voss, whose sprawling farm is only a mile from the Manor course, again will be in Atlanta, where he has...

Lovisah Perdue Cockey and her husband, Joshua Hutchins Cockey III, can trace their roots back 250-plus years to ancestors who first settled in the area known as Monkton. Lovisah Cockey was born on her family's farm and now lives across the street on 10 acres. Joshua Cockey, a retired high school teacher, was born in Monkton's general store, which now is the Manor Tavern restaurant. Both grew up in Monkton, worked on farms, met at church - and have spent nearly all of their 64 years of their marriage there.

On March 18, 2003, MAUDIE HALL, of My Lady's Manor. Devoted wife of the late Miles Ross Patterson; devoted mother Miles Ross Patterson, Jr., Nancy Patterson Young, Michael Hall Patterson and Mary Margaret Hendrix. Also survived by nine grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. A private family burial will be held at St. James Episcopal Church, My Lady's Manor and a memorial service will be held at the church, on Saturday, March 29 at 2 P.M. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to St. James Church, Preservation Fund, 3100 Monkton Road, Monkton, MD 21111 or Manor Conservancy, 2520 Lemon Road, White Hall, MD 21161.

A tradition more than a century old will be renewed today with nine horses scheduled to go postward in the first of Maryland's steeplechase Triple Crown series, the 92nd running of The My Lady's Manor in Harford County. And, on paper, the $20,000 race figures to be ruled by an Ironfist again. The 9-year-old gelding trained by the state's grand master at the jumps, Tom Voss, is favored to capture his third straight My Lady's cup over the 3-mile course that has been softened somewhat by recent rainfall but is still expected to be rather firm.

AROUND THE HARBOR Street performers strut their stuff Watch jugglers, mimes, musicians, comedians and other talents compete to earn a spot on Harborplace's summer street performance roster, beginning at noon Saturday at the Harborplace Amphitheater. Performers are given 15 minutes to display their routines before a panel of judges. Admission is free. Call 800-HARBOR-1. My Lady's Manor Steeplechase Enjoy an afternoon in the rolling hills of Harford County Saturday, picnicking and cheering riders in the 90th running of the My Lady's Manor Steeplechase Races, the first leg of Maryland's triple crown of steeplechasing.

When the Hanlon farm goes on the auction block tomorrow, there's likely to be plenty of interested buyers -- and even more tears.The 172-acre former dairy farm in Monkton is prime real estate, nestled in the rolling hills of My Lady's Manor, a portion of Baltimore and Harford counties famed for its horse farms, riding clubs and fox hunts.For the Hanlon family, the auction means losing a piece of their heritage dating to World War II, a place tied to childhood memories of farm life and legends of Civil War-era treasure buried in the fields.

As 31-year-old Jay Marshall took his fiancee, Kim Zaicko, to her first My Lady's Manor steeplechase races yesterday, he remembered not only his three decades of watching the horses but also his high school years working at the Ladew Topiary Gardens."