Jim McKay (McManus family portrait)
Billy Boniface, legendary Maryland Thoroughbred owner, breeder and trainer talks with WBAL’s Scott Wykoff about helping his lifelong friend Jim McKay found Maryland Million Day 40 years ago.
Mike Pons, Country Life Farm owner and member of the Jim McKay Maryland Million Board of Directors, talks with WBAL Radio’s Scott Wykoff about this year’s “Maryland Day at the Races”
Hear Scott Wykoff’s WBAL Radio interview with Maryland State Delegate Sandy” Rosenberg, who introduced the bill that formally renamed the annual October race day as Jim McKay Maryland Million Day honoring his close friend
WBAL Radio’s Scott Wykoff’s interview with Maryland Million-winning trainer Brittany Russell talking about the 40th Jim McKay Maryland Million Day and the excitement of saddling Maryland champion Post Time in the Maryland Million Classic
Saturday’s 40th Jim McKay Maryland Million Day at Laurel Park is truly “Maryland’s Day at the Races” as it’s one of the most anticipated days of Thoroughbred racing each year in Maryland.
It’s a day of racing named for the late Hall of Fame and 13-time Emmy Award-winning broadcaster of ABC Sports and Wide World of Sports fame who with his wife Margaret was a proud Maryland Thoroughbred-owner, breeder and Maryland Million winner themselves with Sean’s Ferrari in 1987. He was a horse they bred and named after the car their then-young son Sean McManus aways dreamed of driving when he got his license. Like his father, Sean went on to also have a distinguished career as a respected and talented broadcaster including as President of CBS TV News & Sports.
Jim helped launch the groundbreaking concept of the Maryland Million in 1986 and the rest you could say is history as Jim McKay Maryland Million Day has evolved into the second-biggest day on the state’s racing calendar behind only Preakness Day at Pimlico, the Middle Jewel of Racing’s Triple Crown.
The special first post time for 12-race 40th Jim McKay Maryland Million Card at Laurel Park is is 11:30 am with the gates opening at 10:00 am at Maryland’s track by the tracks.
Jim’s brainchild that his friend and trainer Billy Boniface and former Pimlico GM the late Chick Lang helped make happen after a meeting around the family breakfast table at Jim and his wife Margaret’s Bellefield Farm in Monkton celebrates Maryland’s stallions as well as its rich and diverse racing history, which dates back to the founding of the Maryland Jockey Club in 1743. Over the last 4 decades Jim McKay Maryland Million Day has spawned copycat events at tracks in states across the United States and Canada.
“The idea of the Maryland Million came to me not necessarily as a broadcaster, but more as a Thoroughbred breeder, as the husband of an owner, and as a loyal Marylander”, said Jim McKay in a 1985 interview.
“I had been thinking for some time about an exciting and dramatic event that might bring recognition and attention to Maryland, while at the same time galvanizing the people of Maryland with a great event in which they can take pride. I’m hoping the Maryland Million can serve this very important purpose.”
It goes without saying that it has been doing just for going-on 4 decades now.
While not a Maryland-bred himself, the Maryland Million Day founder was born in Philadelphia in 1921 as James Kenneth McManus and became a Marylander as a young teenager when his family moved to Baltimore. After beginning his fabled career in 1946 as an Evening Sun reporter, Jim went on to start his sportscasting career at Baltimore’s WMAR TV where in 1947 he hosted the first live television broadcast in Baltimore television history, fittingly from Pimlico Race Course. Before that his was the first voice to ever be heard on Baltimore Television
In creating “Maryland’s Day at the Races”, Jim’s goal was to give life to a stand alone day celebrating the best in Maryland Thoroughbred racing, including not only Maryland breeders, but also Maryland Thoroughbred owners, trainers, jockeys, horses and Maryland racing fans and enthusiasts alike.
Post Time drawing away to score by 13 ¼ lengths on May 3rd at Laurel Park (Maryland Jockey Club photo by Jim McCue)
Jim would be proud that Saturday’s 40th edition of Maryland Million Day will feature reigning Maryland-bred Horse of the Year and fan favorite Post Time taking his unbeaten record at Laurel Park (10-0) into the $150,000 Milton P. Higgins III Memorial Maryland Million Classic.
Other Maryland Million Day races includes the $125,000 Turf for 3-year-olds and upward at 1 1/8 miles on turf, the $125,000 Ladies at 1 1/16 miles on turf, the $100,000 Distaff for fillies and mares sprinting seven furlongs on dirt, the $100,000 Turf Sprint for 3-year-olds and upward at 5 ½ furlongs and the $100,000 Sprint. Freeze the Fire, third in this race last year, is among the notable names, along with multiple stakes-winner Twisted Ride.
Juveniles take center stage in the $100,000 Nursery for 2-year-olds and $100,000 Lassie for 2-year-old fillies, both sprinting six furlongs.
And rounding out the program are four Maryland Million Starter Handicaps. Two of them, the $50,000 Turf Starter for 3-year-olds and upward, and the $50,000 Turf Distaff Starter for fillies and mares, are contested at 1 1/16 miles. On dirt, the $40,000 Maryland Million Distaff Starter for fillies and mares, and the $40,000 Maryland Million Starter for 3-year-olds and up, are run at seven furlongs.
With several mounts on Saturday, Jevian Toledo is tied for most victories among Maryland Million jockeys with Hall of Famer Edgar Prado.
Jerry Robb is the leading active trainer in Maryland Million history. His 12 wins place him three behind all-time leader Dale Capuano.
Great Notion, Maryland’s leading sire since 2016 and standing at Northview Stallion Station in Chesapeake City, Md., has produced at least one Maryland Million winner for 15 consecutive years, a streak continued by Starstruck Notion (Turf) and Brilliant Ice (Classic) in 2024.
Great Notion’s 22 wins have him tied for second with Allen’s Prospect behind all-time Maryland Million leading sire Not For Love (37), a former breeding farm stablemate of Great Notion at the Golden family’s Northview Stallions.
Also during Maryland Million Day, Christine Reter, Evie Hickman and Michael Reuter, the co-chairs/coordinators of the hugely popular Maryland State Fair attraction Horseland, will be honored as the winners of the Maryland Million 2025 Joe Kelly Unsung Hero Award.
Presented by the Board of Directors of Maryland Million Ltd., this award honors the memory of Joe Kelly and celebrates important characteristics that are valuable, but sometimes go overlooked. Kelly was the first and only publicist for the Maryland Million and served in that role from the event’s inception in 1985 until his death in 2012.
Currently on display at the Maryland Horse Library & Education Center in Reisterstown is “The Wider World of Jim McKay” exhibit showcasing his life and incredible broadcasting career and passion for Thoroughbred racing, which was curated by MHLEC’s Program Director Maryanna Skowronski and originally presented, in cooperation with Jim McKay’s family, at the Hays-Heighe House of Harford Community College in 2017 when McKay was selected to receive the Robert and Anne Heighe Award for Excellence in Equestrian Journalism.
Maryland’s Day at the Races at Laurel Park (WBAL Radio Photo by Scott Wykoff)