Maryland Million Watch Spotlight: Cheese On

By Jessica Tugwell

How a young man’s legacy lives on in the spirit of a racehorse. 

In the early morning hours of May 28, 2012, a drunk driver swerved into the bus lane of Ocean City, Maryland’s Coastal Highway, striking and killing 22-year-old Matthew Cheswick. 

By all accounts, Matthew Cheswick was a kind, hard-working, and compassionate young man with a brilliant smile that earned him the “Best Smile” superlative among the Glenelg High School senior class of 2008, as well as the affectionate nickname “Cheese.”

“He’s one of those people that nobody ever said a bad word about, and he just made people feel better. Any little concern somebody might have, or some kind of catastrophic event they were going through in their lives, he was there and he made them feel better,” said Matthew’s father, Christopher Cheswick. “He was just an incredible guy and I knew that I couldn’t let his memory and his legacy just pass by, so I started with Cheese On. His nickname was Cheese because it’s a derivative of our last name, but more importantly, everyone called him Cheese because he was always smiling like you do for a photograph. So it was a most appropriate name. I miss him every day, but I’m so glad I can keep his spirit ongoing.”

In the years since Matthew’s death, his family and friends have ensured his legacy endures, starting with a banner bearing the “Cheese On” slogan, which hangs in the end zone at M&T Bank Stadium. Matthew and his father had been season ticket holders for the Baltimore Ravens since Matthew was seven years old, and Matthew had never missed a Ravens home game. After his passing, Christopher Cheswick and Matthew’s younger brother Luke wanted a way for Matthew to continue attending games, and so the first Cheese On banner was created.

“Matthew never missed a Ravens game. I make a different banner for each season, so he’s there every game. Every game, because that was his team,” explained Cheswick.

In addition to the banner, Cheswick has created Cheese On t-shirts that have been worn on all seven continents, including Antarctica. “There’s hundreds of people wearing the t-shirts and they travel all over the world and they remember to put the tee in their baggage, be it Europe or Asia or Africa, or so many states in this country. It’s so amazing and heartwarming to me that these people will pack for a trip and always make sure they bring their Cheese t-shirt…. I just want to keep it going. You know, people always want to pay me and I’ve never taken a cent; my payment is that they wear it and continue to spread his legacy. I would hope any parent would do the same thing that I’m doing. It’s been seven years now and it’s still as strong as ever.”

The Story Behind the Name

After Matthew’s death, family friend Dave Baxter, who breeds Thoroughbreds on his Narrow Leaf Farm in Dayton, Md., decided to name a foal to honor his friend’s son.

“There’s a memorial bench in Ocean City in [Matthew’s] honor on the boardwalk, and my son and I sat down at that bench and that’s where we came up with it,” Baxter said. “It just kind of put a chill over you to sit on that bench, and we said ‘what can we do to keep this thing alive’ and I thought well, I have several horses every year that I have to name, I think that would be a good way of getting it out there. So we did.”

The name Cheese On was bestowed upon the 2015 son of Baxter’s broodmare Tejano Sea by Scipion; a full brother to 2012 Maryland Million Nursery Stakes winner Keep Momma Happy.

“I have several horses I name every year, but it just kind of came to me that this is the one that should be named Cheese On, it was kind of weird. Never really gave it a second thought, it was just ‘this is the one, this is what the name should be,’” said Baxter. “The name itself, it’s different. It’s one that people don’t forget.”

Todd McCarty’s Cheese On debuted in a five-furlong maiden special weight at Laurel Park on June 17, 2017. Sent off at 12-1 in a field of nine, the nearly black gelding raced off the pace under jockey Sheldon Russell before swinging five-wide in the upper stretch and driving clear to win by a length. Behind him that day were eventual multiple stakes placed winner Onemoregreattime and graded stakes placed Old Time Revival.

“You never know what a horse is going to do, a lot of horses don’t even make it to the racetrack, but this horse did and the first time out he won, and the crowd was incredible. It was almost like Matthew was on the horse that day. There was a huge crowd there and a lot of them had Cheese On shirts, which was pretty cool. The winner’s circle was quite the scene. Not a dry eye in the bunch,” said Baxter.

Trained by Timothy Kreiser, Cheese On followed up his debut win with a game victory in an allowance optional claiming race at Delaware Park a month later, and his record to date stands with four victories, one second and five third-place finishes from 23 career starts, with earnings of over $130,000.

As a Maryland-sired horse, Cheese On appears on this year’s Maryland Million Watch List, with the potential to race on Jim McKay Maryland Million Day, Oct. 19. 

Cheese On’s sire Scipion, a son of A.P. Indy out of Strawberry Reason, and three-quarter brother to late champion and promising Kentucky sire Vindication, sold as a yearling for $1.9 million in the Fasig-Tipton New York Saratoga 2003 Select sale. Among a career of 17 starts over four seasons, the Christophe Clement trainee won the Risen Star Stakes-G3, finished third in the Cradle Stakes-G3 and second in the Point Given Stakes, with total earnings of $194,056.

Retired in 2007, Scipion entered stud at Murmur Farm in Darlington, Md. in 2008. Now 17 years old, the stallion has sired 156 foals, with 78 winners out of 125 starters and $6,586,050 in progeny earnings. Along with Keep Momma Happy, he sired 2012 Mark McDermott Stakes winner Pitch N Roll and 2014 Victor S. Myers Stakes winner Speed is Life.

Scipion stood at Murmur Farm in 2019 for $2,500 live foal.


A Bigger Purpose

Since Matthew’s death, multiple initiatives have been taken by the state of Maryland to increase traffic safety and awareness in Ocean City, spearheaded by the award-winning Ocean City Walk Smart program that began in 2013. In 2016, the public voted on a name for the campaign’s lifeguard crab mascot and “Cheswick” was the overwhelming choice, as 4,000 of the 5,502 total votes submitted.

The Walk Smart program has pioneered an aggressive campaign focusing on education, engineering and enforcement to increase traffic and pedestrian safety in Ocean City. Improvements from the campaign include increased signage, road markings, and a dune-style fence down the center median of Coastal Highway, designed to direct pedestrians to crosswalks. This summer, construction began on a shared-use path for pedestrians and cyclists entering and leaving Ocean City, via the Route 50 Bridge and extending ¾ of a mile to Route 611. The project is expected to be done this fall.

Cheswick the Crab will be the star of a children’s comic book titled “One Smart Summer,” written with the help of Christopher Cheswick and illustrated by Dave Baxter’s daughter, Krissy Baxter.