Sagamore Farm
Thoroughbred Horse breeding & training Farm | |
Industry | Thoroughbred Horse racing |
Founded | 1925 |
Headquarters |
Reisterstown, Maryland, United States |
Key people |
Alfred G. Vanderbilt II, owner until 1986 Kevin Plank, current owner |
Website | http://www.sagamoreracing.com |
Sagamore Farm is an American Thoroughbred horse breeding farm on Belmont Avenue in Reisterstown, Baltimore County, Maryland.[1] Established in 1925, it was owned by Margaret Emerson Vanderbilt who gave it to her son Alfred G. Vanderbilt II for his twenty-first birthday. As a member of New York's wealthy Vanderbilt family, Alfred would become the owner and president of Baltimore's Pimlico Race Course. As well, he served at various times as head of the New York Racing Association and the United States Jockey Club.
In 1941, Vanderbilt teamed up with Walter P. Chrysler Jr. and other investors to acquire for breeding services the 1935 English Triple Crown winner Bahram from the Aga Khan III. Bahram stood at stud at Sagamore Farm then was sent to Chrysler's North Wales Stud in Warrenton, Virginia. In 1966, Vanderbilt was part of another syndicate that bought Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner Kauai King who would also stand at stud at Sagamore Farm.
Vanderbilt/Sagamore Farms' best known racehorses were Discovery, Bed o'Roses, and Native Dancer, all of whom were inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.
Vanderbilt sold the farm to developer James Ward in 1986. In 2007 Maryland native Kevin Plank, CEO of Under Armour apparell company, bought the farm with a long term plan for a major restoration. Equestrian architect, John Blackburn of Blackburn Architects in Washington, D.C. is renovating the farm that includes a historic 90-stall training barn with a quarter-mile interior track. The facilities, are across the way of the Maryland Stallion Station. The back of the facilities are visible from Tufton Avenue.
On November 5, 2010, a Sagamore Farms owned horse named Shared Account won the $2 million Breeders Cup Fillies and Mares race. She defeated one of the best horses in the world, Midday.
References
- Maryland Life magazine article by Jason Tinney titled Saving Sagamore
- Video at YouTube of the HRTV program on the history of Sagamore Farm
Coordinates: 39°29′29″N 76°46′24″W / 39.49139°N 76.77333°W