Crabcakes Races for Late Owner-Breeder in $75,000 Miss Disco
Crabcakes Races for Late Owner-Breeder in $75,000 Miss Disco
Buckingham Farm’s Elizabeth ‘Binnie’ Houghton Passed Aug. 7 at 79
Among Three Stakes on 12-Race Maryland Pride Day Program Saturday
LAUREL, MD – Elizabeth ‘Binnie’ Houghton waited a lifetime to have a horse good enough to name after her favorite delicacy. Crabcakes lived up to those expectations, winning her first three starts and adding her name to a roster of more than 40 stakes winners bred by Buckingham Farm.
Crabcakes’ victory in the 2016 Maryland Juvenile Filly Championship last December would be the last for Buckingham under Houghton’s watch. The matriarch of the Chestertown racing and breeding operation died of a respiratory illness Aug. 7 at the age of 79.
Trained by Houghton’s nephew, Bernie Houghton, Crabcakes will be the sentimental choice in Saturday’s $75,000 Miss Disco, a six-furlong sprint for 3-year-old fillies, one of three stakes worth $225,000 in purses on the 12-race Maryland Pride Day program at Laurel Park.
Other stakes Saturday are the $75,000 Find for 3-year-olds and up and $75,000 All Brandy for fillies and mares 3 and older, both contested at 1 1/8 miles over Laurel’s world-class turf course.
Binnie Houghton founded Buckingham Farm in 1964 with her husband, Eddie, who passed away in 2008. Among the many stakes winners they bred, raised or campaigned were five Maryland-bred champions and four winners of the Maryland Million Classic.
Buckingham’s top horses include the gelding Castelets, a multiple Grade 3 winner of $614,486 from 1982-89; 1997 Gallorette (G3) winner Palliser Bay and 2004 Iowa Oaks (G3) winner He Loves Me; multiple stakes winner For Kisses; Laplander, a gelding who went 20-20-21 with $334,352 in earnings from 121 starts between 1970-77; back-to-back Maryland Million Classic winner Timely Warning (1990-91) and Maryland Million winners Master Speaker, Forry Cow How, Top of the News, Kalli and Roaring Lion.
Crabcakes is out of the mare Aunt Elaine, who Buckingham bred and raced to three wins and more than $91,000 in purse earnings in 2005-06. Crabcakes’ granddam, Annie Cake, was a Grade 3 winner of nearly $165,000 bred by Houghton’s father, Anderson Fowler, and raced in her mother Elaine’s name.
“I wanted to do it a couple times but I never had the horse for it. I guess this was the right time,” Houghton said in February about bestowing the name Crabcakes on her promising young horse. “She is very exciting to have, very gratifying. As you know it takes forever to watch this sport come around and, personally, this is very gratifying. It’s been in my family for so long, that makes it all the better.”
Crabcakes has not won since her lone stakes victory, finishing second in the Feb. 18 Wide Country at Laurel and April 15 Austintown Filly Sprint at Mahoning Valley prior to running eighth in the Miss Preakness (G3) May 19 at historic Pimlico Race Course.
In her most recent effort, Crabcakes was a game second behind multiple stakes winner Shimmering Aspen in the seven-furlong Alma North June 17 at Laurel. Forest Boyce, aboard for the first time in that race, returns to ride from Post 7 in a field of nine as the 122-pound highweight.
“She’s doing good. It’s been a while since she ran. We just couldn’t get a race to go for her but I have her ready. I had this stake picked out for her a month ago anyway, so I’ve got her ready. She’s training very well, awesome,” Bernie Houghton said. “She sure ran a big race the last time against a real nice horse, so I expect her to run well in this race Saturday. She’s training well for it and everything’s good.”
Houghton said the family has received an outpouring of support from both inside and outside the industry. Binnie Houghton’s daughter, Genevieve Pierce of Ennis, Mont., has been staying with her mother for the past six months and was with her when she passed.
Pierce and her 21-year-old daughter Kaitlin will be among the family and friends that plan to be on hand for Saturday’s race. Binnie Houghton is survived by two daughters, including Kelly Houghton Johnson of Landing, N.J., and four granddaughters.
“I had talked to her the week before. She was such a neat person,” Houghton said. In addition to Crabcakes, he has 3-year-old Maryland homebred geldings Wolfinbarger and Love of the Bay as well as an unnamed yearling on the farm for Buckingham.
“Her daughter is coming to the races and bringing her daughter, so we’re kind of hoping that we can win this one for her. That would be fantastic,” Houghton said. “Her and my uncle were all about Maryland racing, that’s for sure. We’re just going to keep the horses going here for a while and see what happens.”
Juddmonte Farms’ Ascertain is entered to make her stakes debut for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott in the Miss Disco. The daughter of Grade 1 winner Blame broke her maiden Feb. 12 at Gulfstream Park and defeated winners in a six-furlong entry-level allowance against state-breds May 29 at Pimlico, both going six furlongs. Last time out she held the lead into deep stretch before coming up a neck short in an open allowance on a muddy, sealed track July 1 at Laurel.
Linda Walls’ homebred Faze the Nation, six-for-11 lifetime over the Laurel surface with a pair of seconds, returns to dirt sprinting after finishing last of six in the 1 1/16-mile Pearl Necklace for state-bred fillies on the turf July 1. Prior to that race she beat older horses in an open six-furlong allowance July 1 at Laurel, her second start since being re-claimed by trainer Phil Schoenthal.
“We’re really pleased with her. She’s doing everything right and she’s the kind of horse where it doesn’t really matter – track condition or pace or whatever else – she seems like she always shows up and gives it her best effort. And she loves Laurel,” Schoenthal said. “She’s a sprinter and we know that now. You have to take a chance and run in a spot like that with a short field and the kind of money they’re offering to find out. We did that and found out she doesn’t want to go long on the grass so it’s back to doing what we know she likes to do in this race. Hopefully she’ll rebound with a better effort.”
Rounding out the Miss Disco field are stakes-placed stablemates Hailey’s Flip and Lucky in Malibu for trainer Gary Capuano, Le Weekend, Misty On Pointe, Saint Main Event and Troublesome.
