Sagamore

Today's Maryland Million at Laurel Race Course celebrates this state's long history of horse racing. But the event is more than celebration. The 120 horses that will gallop around the track illustrate the importance of fostering a home-state thoroughbred industry. After years of decline, there are signs of a gradual revival.Part of this renewed interest is due to the Maryland Million, the brainchild of the late Frank J. De Francis. All of the lucrative races today are open only to the offspring of Maryland stallions.

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.

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.

LAKE GEORGE, N.Y. -- The 350-room Sagamore Resort completed a $250,000 renovation two years ago that turned the 110-year-old Victorian landmark into an Adirondack mecca for health and fitness buffs.What used to be the downstairs disco is a gleaming, glassed-in fitness center overlooking Lake George, boasting a 10-stop Keiser weight-training circuit, three Stairmasters, treadmills and a wooden dance floor where 40 exercise classes a week take place. Should the waters of Lake George prove too chilly, it's unlikely you'll get the shivers waiting for a swim in the beautiful indoor pool.

A Mass of Christian burial for Malcom Maloof, associate administrator and director of nursing at the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Washington, will be offered at noon today at St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church in Washington.Mr. Maloof, who was 39, died Saturday at his home in Washington of complications to AIDS.He began working at the hospital in April 1989 after working for six years at the Montebello Center in Baltimore, where he was nursing director. In Baltimore he did volunteer work with HERO.