Contenders

     Hall of Famer began riding in his native Louisiana in 1986, then moved to Maryland the next year where entered the national stage. He led all riders in wins (450) riding in the Free State in 1987 then, in 1989, he set a record with 599 victories in the year, crushing Chris McCarron’s mark of 546. Eclipse Award winner of 1987, ’89 and ’92, he won the George Woolf Award in ’93. He’s won Preaknesses with Big Brown (2008) and Real Quiet (1998), with three seconds from 11 mounts.
     While longtime Maryland-based rider and local superstar Mario Pino had the mount, Tone It Down’s connections thought “It was the time to make a little change,” according to co-owner Mike Horning. “No one knows Pimlico better than Mario Pino, but on a stage this big, who knows Pimlico and the Preakness better than Kent Desormeaux?”

          Mike Horning and the then-Debbie Komlo had their first date almost 30 years ago. Naturally enough, as each was a horseman’s child, they had it at Pimlico.      They’ve been married 26 years and, after raising three children, they thought it might be time for another major undertaking.
     “I was going to get my wife an anniversary present, and I thought, ‘Let’s have some fun now,’ and she had the choice of another diamond ring or a horse. She picked the horse,” Mike said. The horse, named Debbie’s Diamond, earned over $70,000, which encouraged them to own more horses and have more fun.
     Debbie is the daughter of trainer William Komlo and Mike, an insurance executive for a Chevy Chase-based company, is the son of the late Larry Horning Sr. and the brother of trainer Larry Horning Jr. Larry and Mike are the eldest in a family of eight children.

          Signal calling is a skill that runs through the family. He played college football for the University of Maryland in the ‘50s, and two of his sons, Jeff at the University of Delaware and Drew at the University of Maryland before transferring to Catholic University, played college football. Jeff made it to the pros, playing for the Detroit Lions, Atlanta Falcons and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
     The elder Komlo, 74, was recruited out of western Pennsylvania, played on the Maryland team that lost an Orange Bowl to Nebraska. A racehorse owner since the ‘60s, he learned bits and pieces about training while his horses were stabled next to those of legendary trainer Frank Whitely.
     Komlo, like his son-in-law Mike, is also an insurance executive, partnered in an insurance firm with his son Drew and his other daughter, Wendy.
While his son and two of his children are partners in the insurance business, his daughter Debbie and he are partnered in the mornings.
 

          A local legend in the Middleburg, Va., area, 74-year-old Barbara Cross Graham breeds horses in Virginia and typically sends the mares to foal in Kentucky. Upon their return she will l break and train them at the Middleburg Training Center.
     “She’s bred some nice horses,” said Don Litz, President of the Maryland Stallion Station. “Over the years she’s had stakes winners like Gin Talking and Rollodka. The one thing about her, what makes her somebody very special, is that at 73 or 74 years of age, she can still outride anyone I’ve seen. Allen Jerkens still uses her on trouble horse when she goes to Saratoga in the summertime.”