Laurel Park, October 18, 1986: First Maryland Million Day: State Pride, National Attraction

Herat, owned by four-time Eclipse Award-winning owner John Franks and trained by Hall of Famer Jack Van Berg, won the featured event, the $200,000 Budweiser Maryland Classic, on the inaugural Maryland Million Day card.

Sent off as the overwhelming 1-2 favorite in the field of seven, the diminutive 4-year-old sprinted to the lead under Hall of Famer Jerry Bailey, led at every call, and cruised home a 5 1/2-length winner.

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A few more moments from 1986:

• Northern Dancer was the only sire with multiple winners on the nine-race card, as his son Glow, trained by Hall of Famer Woody Stephens, won the $100,000 Ryland Group Turf.

• Hall of Fame trainer Allen Jerkens sent out First Patriot and Yet Wave, first and third-place finishers, respectively, in the Business Express Maryland Nursery

• Winner of the first Maryland Million race was Sam-Son Farm’s 2-year-old filly Smart Halo (Smarten) in the USF&G Maryland Lassie. She was bred in Canada by E.P. Taylor

• Freshman sire Salutely’s first stakes winner was First Patriot. A son of Hoist the Flag, Salutely stood his first three years in Maryland, went to Virginia for a year, but returned to stand at Sagamore Farm the season after the inaugural Maryland Million

• Two of the day’s winning owners planned to launch breeding operations in the state. John Franks, from Shreveport, La., was sending a group of mares to his 268-acre Heatherten Farm, a former dairy farm adjacent to Allaire duPont’s Woodstock Farm in Chesapeake City. William Rickman, breeder/owner of First Patriot, had purchased more than 500 acres in Poolesville and was moving a dozen mares and a stallion from Florida to his new Williams Grove Farm.

• The Maryland Million’s first Maryland-bred winner was John and Kitty Merryman’s Smart ‘n Quick (Wise Exchange), trained by Katy Voss, in the Omni International Maryland Oaks for 3-year-old fillies.

• Edward P. Evans’ Dismasted (Restless Native), a Grade 1 winner in her previous start, won the $150,000 Eskimo Pie Maryland Ladies on the turf

• Less than six weeks after winning the First National Bank of Maryland Sprint Handicap, Dickie Dutrow-trained King’s Swan, a 6-year-old Kentucky-bred by King’s Bishop, captured the Grade 1 Vosburgh in New York

• The day’s handle surpassed $2.6 million, the second highest total in Laurel’s 75-year history