GOOD NIGHT SHIRT (Concern), two-time Eclipse Award winner as the nation’s
leading steeplechaser, was named 2008 Maryland-bred Horse of the Year, as well
as champion steeplechaser, in the annual poll conducted by the Maryland Horse
Breeders Association. Good Night Shirt is a third-generation Maryland-bred Horse
of the Year, following 1994 Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) winner Concern, and Broad
Brush, Horse of the Year in 1986 and 1987.
Good Night Shirt dominated his division last year at age seven, going
undefeated in five Grade 1 steeplechase stakes and setting a steeplechase
single-season earnings record of $485,520, which topped all Maryland-bred
starters for the year. He launched 2008 by taking the Georgia Cup (NSA-G1) at
Atlanta in April and concluded with a stirring victory in the Colonial Cup
(NSA-G1) at Camden in November. In between were scores in the Iroquois (NSA-G1),
Lonesome Glory (NSA-G1) and Grand National (NSA-G1).
Owned by Sonny and Ann Via and trained in Maryland by Jack Fisher, Good Night
Shirt pushed his career earnings to $969,083, ranking him 18th on the all-time
Maryland-bred money winners list. He is the first of his division to be named
Maryland-bred Horse of the Year.
Good Night Shirt was one of four 2008 stakes winners bred solely or in
partnership by Tom and Chris Bowman of Chestertown, Maryland. All were named
divisional champions, the others being two-year-old male PEACE TOWN (Peace
Rules), three-year-old male WILLSBORO POINT (Point Given) and older female SMART
AND FANCY (Not for Love).
Other divisional winners were two-year-old filly MISS CHARM CITY (Bowman’s
Band); three-year-old filly SWEET GOODBYE (Louis Quatorze); and HEROS REWARD
(Partner’s Hero), who was named champion older male, sprinter and turf runner.
Five of the seven champions were sired in Maryland (Good Night Shirt, Miss
Charm City, Sweet Goodbye, Smart and Fancy and Heros Reward) and four were out
of daughters of Maryland stallions — Two Punch (Good Night Shirt), Thirty Eight
Paces (Sweet Goodbye), Shelter Half (Smart and Fancy) and Caveat (Heros Reward).
Voting for this year’s champions were the MHBA board of directors, MHBA
members (combined as one vote), Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred editors Lucy Acton and
Cindy Deubler, Maryland Jockey Club racing secretary Georganne Hale and
communications director Mike Gathagan, as well as seven Maryland racing writers.