Sagamore

Orb's path to the finish line in the second leg of the Triple Crown remains uncrowded. Normandy Invasion, the fourth-place finisher in the Kentucky Derby, dropped from contention for Saturday's 138th running of the Preakness on Sunday. Trainer Chad Brown and owner Rick Porter decided to stick with their original plan and point the horse toward prestigous races for 3-year-olds later in the summer. That leaves Orb, the colt co-owned by Baltimore County resident Stuart Janney III and Ogden Mills "Dinny" Pipps' stable, with only seven confirmed challengers at this point.

Horse racing Sagamore Farm's Walkwithapurpose wins Caesar's Wish Trainer Ignacio Correas saddled Walkwithapurpose and Listen Boy in Saturday's $150,000 Caesar's Wish Stakes and saw them run first and second in the one-mile test for 3-year-old fillies at Laurel Park. Both fillies are Sagamore Farm homebreds, the winner by Candy Ride, the runner-up by After Market. "It's a great day for Sagamore," Correas said. Walkwithapurpose was the prohibitive 2-5 favorite under Jeremy Rose and won by 91/2 lengths in 1 minute, 38.38 seconds.

It wasn't just a 425-acre swath of one of the prettiest sections of Baltimore County. The place pulsed with history. Its red-roofed barns had housed some of the 20th century's greatest thoroughbreds. The remains of Native Dancer, the genetic link between many modern champions, lay beneath a tombstone at its center. Sagamore Farm fit the ambitions of Under Armour founder Kevin Plank. When he plucked his high school buddy, Tom Mullikin, from a Kentucky farm to start a racing and breeding outfit, Plank said the only goal was to win a Triple Crown.

Under Armour founder and CEO Kevin Plank has aggressively marketed his company from the beginning, unabashedly challenging established titans like Nike, Adidas and Reebok. A man who often speaks in sports-centric slogans, it can appear at times that he runs his primary business with the fury of a soon-to-retire linebacker facing playoff elimination. But in his secondary pursuit, Plank has shown patience in a sport that, by nature, often destroys it. He has owned Sagamore Farm for seven years, rebuilding it gradually and allowing manager Tom Mullikan - an old high school buddy and football teammate - to methodically put together a breeding, training and racing program.

For decades it has been a Maryland landmark. Drive out Green Spring Avenue to Worthington Road and feast your eyes on Sagamore Farm, the famed horse center where Native Dancer, one of the equine sport's great performers, once galloped. The white fences surrounding the 400-acre showplace farm and the romping thoroughbreds in the pasture came to signify all that was grand about Maryland's long racing tradition.But in recent years, Sagamore Farm has come to signify all that has gone wrong with Maryland racing.

The continuing struggle to preserve Northern Baltimore County's farmland and the area's rural character now is focusing on Sagamore Farms, one of the nation's most storied horse farms.A deputy zoning commissioner last week tentatively ruled that part of the Worthington Valley farm was illegally subdivided.The subdivision by Patricia A. Ward, wife of developer James J. Ward III who purchased Sagamore Farms in 1987, and Dr. Richard D. Maffezzoli and his wife, Mary, violated the county's agricultural preservation zoning as well as its development regulations, said Deputy Zoning Commissioner Timothy Kotroco, whose ruling is not official until a written opinion is issued.

Once again the fields of Sagamore Farm, one of Maryland's great thoroughbred breeding and training establishments, are filled with mares and foals and there are horses galloping on the historic six-furlong training track.After sitting empty for nearly three years, Sagamore, near Hunt Valley in Baltimore County, reopened for business Aug. 1.The 400-acre showplace, home and final resting place of Native Dancer, one of the sport's great equine performers, was sold by its longtime owner Alfred G. Vanderbilt to Baltimore developer Jim Ward in 1987.

Garnet "Buddy" Troyer, a horse trainer who early in his career prepared thoroughbreds at Baltimore County's Sagamore Farm and regularly exercised the legendary racehorse Native Dancer, died of cancer Friday at Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, Pa. The former Glyndon resident was 70. Born in Baltimore, he was raised on the grounds of the Greenspring Hunt Club, where his father tended the hounds. A 1953 Franklin High School graduate, he served in the Air Force in North Africa. He then became a caretaker and ran the horse breeding stable at Piney Grove, the Butler-area estate of Elizabeth Nichols, and worked for well-known Maryland horsemen Henry Clark and Harry A. Love before becoming the farm trainer at Sagamore -where Native Dancer was standing at stud.

Pulte Homes Corp. has opened a model at The Fields of Sagamore in Worthington Valley in Baltimore County. The community features public water and sewer and gas heat. The model, the Briarwood, starts at $354,900 for 3,202 square feet. The first floor of the model includes an 11-by-13-foot dining room, a 17-by-14-foot family room, a 12-by-27-foot living room, a 9-by-14-foot kitchen with 8-by- 12-foot nook, a powder room, a laundry room and a two-car garage. The second floor features a 13-by-14-foot bedroom, 13-by- 10-foot bedroom, 11-by-11-foot bedroom, 12-by-17-foot master bedroom with walk-in closet and master bath.

GLYNDON -- A single-alarm fire last night destroyed a hay barn at Sagamore Farm in the 3500 block of Belmont Ave., formerly one of the country's most prestigious breeding farms for thoroughbred racehorses.The Worthington Valley property -- formerly owned by Alfred Vanderbilt, and the burial site of his champion horse, Native Dancer -- is owned by a developer.Horses are no longer raised or trained there.Shortly after 8 p.m., fire broke out in a wooden 60-by-75-foot barn containing more than 100 circular bales of hay, said a spokeswoman for the Baltimore County Fire Department.

Sagamore Farm's Charged Cotton left the starting gate as the 7-5 favorite and lived up to top billing with a rallying score in the $100,000 All Brandy Stakes for registered Maryland-bred fillies and mares at Laurel Park. The All Brandy was contested over the firm turf and included 10 starters. Horacio Karamanos was at the controls as Charged Cotton, a lightly raced daughter of Dehere, stalked the pace from fifth before swinging three wide into the stretch and overtaking front-runner Daydreamin Gracie, then held off a late surge by long shot Grant Park to win by a length and a quarter.

Millionreasonswhy, a three-year-old filly from Sagamore Racing, died Sunday morning after crashing through a rail on the 3/4-mile training track at Sagamore Farm. She died instantly of internal injuries. “This is a very emotional day for our team,” said Tom Mullikin, Sagamore Racing's general manager. “Millionreasonswhy was a classy and tough filly that had not yet reached her full potential.  She was also a very sweet horse that was always a pleasure to be around.  I want to thank [trainer]

Kent Desormeaux, who was taken off his mounts Friday at Belmont after failing a Breathalyzer test, will not ride Sagamore Farm's Tiger Walk in the Preakness. Sagamore manager Tom Mullikin said Ramon Dominguez will get the ride. "We just can't have that," Mullikin said Friday after watching Sagamore filly Millionreasonswhy finish second in the eighth race. "We're trying to be professional. We don't need those distractions. " Dominguez is tied for the best winning percentage among all jockeys this year (with Javier Castellano, at 25 percent)

Kevin Plank can't help himself. The Under Armour CEO might know, in his heart of hearts, that his horse is a long shot against the world's finest 3-year-old thoroughbreds. His farm manager, Tom Mullikin, describes the dark bay colt as more "grinder" than star. But Plank's own rise, from blindly ambitious college kid to billionaire apparel mogul, is an underdog tale. So he can't help but play Joe Namath and talk big about his colt's chances in the 137th Preakness Stakes. "Tommy, did you guarantee on Tiger Walk?"

As the man responsible for rebuilding Sagamore Farm shook hands with the son of the man who oversaw its halcyon days, Tiger Walk stood stoically in his stall. The other horses in the barn had long since poked their heads out in response to commotion created by television crews and a small gathering of reporters. Tiger Walk faced the other way, looking out his window. Kevin Plank, the Under Armour founder and CEO who bought Sagamore Farm in 2007, hopes Tiger Walk can remain unflappable.

A year ago, Shared Account arrived at Churchill Downs for the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf as an outsider. Oddsmakers made her a 46-1 long shot, and her response was to win. This year, she's back to defend her title in the $2 million Grade I race. Do the oddsmakers love her? Not exactly. They've given her 30-1 morning-line odds, a fact that has Sagamore Farm general manager Tom Mulligan sending out a warning. "The field is deep, and it's another tough ask of her," Mulligan said.

Sovereign Storm was putting on a big run, coming from last place in yesterday's seven-horse Sagamore Stakes at Laurel Park.So, leader Fireside Brass decided it was time to get down to serious business."

Maryland bloodstock agent Don Litz has long dreamed of bringing thoroughbred stallions to the Worthington Valley in Baltimore County. His dream became real yesterday in a ceremony celebrating the start of construction on the Maryland Stallion Station, a new breeding operation situated on a hill overlooking historic Sagamore Farm in Glyndon. Backed by Lane End's Farm of Kentucky, a top commercial breeder, and $7 million in investor capital, the stallion station is the first to open in Maryland since Cecil County's Northview Stallion Station opened in 1989.

Et cetera Sagamore Farm filly wins Belmont's Matron Millionreasonswhy, a 2-year-old filly from Sagamore Farm, won the 104th running of the $150,000 Grade II Matron Stakes on Sunday at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y. Under jockey John Velazquez and trained by Ignacio Correas IV , the 6-1 shot finished two lengths in front of Say a Novena while clocking six furlongs in 1minute, 12.68seconds. A $115,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase by Sagamore last year, Millionreasonswhy is by Grand Slam out of the listed stakes winner In Secure, by A.P. Indy.