Valley Crossing

Horses owned and bred by Robert Meyerhoff continued their domination of Maryland stakes events yesterday when Broad Gains rallied from last place and won the $109,600 Snow Goose Handicap at Laurel Race Course.The 4-year-old filly was pinched back near the half-mile pole -- but split rivals in mid-stretch after a ground-saving ride by Clarence "Jo Jo" Ladner -- and caught front-runner Buffels in the final sixteenth of a mile. New York invader Avie's Daisy was third.Meanwhile, Meyerhoff's 1993 Maryland-bred Horse of the Year, Valley Crossing, was running almost simultaneously at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark. The horse, absent from the races since November, finished second, beaten by a nose by Loblolly Stable's Dalhart in a $40,000 allowance race.

Billy Turner is reluctant to call Popol's Gold his "Derby horse.""Let's put it this way. He's going to have to drag me to the [Kentucky] Derby," the trainer said last night, just hours before he was to load the horse onto a van and ship him from Laurel Race Course to Aqueduct to start in today's $250,000 Gotham Stakes.The New York feature, simulcast at Laurel as the sixth race, pits two Maryland-based horses, Popol's Gold and Mr. Meadow, against 10 other 3-year-olds, including California invader Irgun, a son of 1983 Kentucky Derby winner, Sunny's Halo.

No one has bred more Maryland stakes winners this year than Robert Meyerhoff.The number reached five yesterday when Meyerhoff's Broad Brush filly, Broad Gains, came from 18 lengths off the pace and won the $125,000 Maryland Juvenile Filly Championship at Laurel Race Course.It was the second straight win in the state-bred filly race for Meyerhoff. His Star Minister won last year. Previously, in 1986, a Meyerhoff colt, Hay Halo, won the division for colts and geldings.Both of those other Meyerhoff runners were named Maryland-bred champions, but the verdict could still be out on Broad Gains.

The thought of an off track at today's $700,000 Pimlico Special isn't exactly sending trainers scurrying to scratch their horses.One man in particular was smiling as the rain and unseasonably cold weather made for a mucky racetrack yesterday, possibly clouding the chances of overwhelming favorite Best Pal. That man was Hall of Famer Ron McAnally, trainer of Ibero, the Argentina-bred horse who is 2-for-2 over a sloppy track."

Today: The win and place finishers in the Hoover Stakes are among a dozen colts and geldings entered for the seventh running of the Endless Surprise Stakes. Philadelphia Park-based Power by Far, and Wise Dusty, a regular on the Maryland circuit,, will match strides with Crosspatch, who is returning from vacation. Crosspatch was the upsetter in the John B. Campbell Handicap at Pimlico last April. The Endless Surprise purse, worth $75,000, will be divided among the first four finishers to reach the wire after six furlongs.

Carnirainbow seeks her sixth 1992 stakes victory today in the $50,000-added Cameo Stakes at Laurel Race Course.But a rematch with Broad Gains, who beat her in the Maryland Juvenile Championship about a month ago, will not take place.Trainer Dick Small said yesterday he has sent Broad Gains to his Pacoma Farm in Camden, S.C., for the winter along with other such stable stars as Star Minister and Valley Crossing.The plan, Small said, is to bring Broad Gains back to Maryland when the Hayward Avenue side of Pimlico Race Course opens in the spring.

Breeders' Cup Classic winner Concern has emulated his sire, Broad Brush, by being named Maryland-bred Horse of the Year by the Maryland Horse Breeders' Association.The MHBA released results of voting for the 1994 honor yesterday. The award marked the fourth time in the past nine years that Robert Meyerhoff, a Baltimore builder, has owned and bred the Maryland-bred champion.Meyerhoff's Broad Brush was named Horse of the Year in 1986 and 1987, followed by his Valley Crossing in 1993 and Concern.

Declan's Moon, the early Kentucky Derby favorite scheduled to make his 3-year-old debut Saturday in California, has been named 2004 Maryland-bred Horse of the Year in an annual poll conducted by the Maryland Horse Breeders Association. Bred by Brice Ridgely at his Spring Meadow Farm in Cookesville, Declan's Moon won all four of his races as a 2-year-old and captured the Eclipse award as outstanding 2-year-old male. He is the first 2-year-old to become Maryland-bred Horse of the Year since Devil's Bag in 1983.

LAUREL -- Andrea Seefeldt, the leading woman jockey at Laurel Race Course, won her first Maryland stakes race this year when she guided Star Minister to a 2 1/4 -length victory yesterday over Singing Ring in the Pearl Necklace Stakes.Seefeldt, 29, has won three 1992 stakes at Philadelphia and Delaware parks, but none locally until yesterday. She missed riding for the first three months of the year when she was sidelined with a broken collarbone.Star Minister galloped faster than Singing Ring for the lead, then under a mere hand ride by Seefeldt won in the easiest possible way."

Trainer Bud Delp doesn't scare easily.But even he admitted he had a few anxious moments at the top of the stretch yesterday when his horse, Sunny Sunrise, looked as if he had lost the lead in the $100,000 John B. Campbell Handicap at Pimlico Race Course.But the 5-year-old gelding, who was the 4-5 favorite in the seven-horse field, had something left and came on again under a vigorous hand ride by jockey Mike Smith to beat Valley Crossing by 1 1/4 lengths.For a while, it looked as if Valley Crossing, the 4-1 second choice, had taken the lead after making what track announcer Dave Rodman termed "a monster move" on the final turn.