Coffeewithchris takes his breeder, NTRA's Rooney, into a classic

Coffeewithchris, who is trying to become the first Maryland-bred in four decades to win his birth state’s biggest race, has already been a breakthrough horse for current National Thoroughbred Racing Association president and CEO Tom Rooney, as the first stakes winner he has bred.

Rooney’s family owns Shamrock Farm in Woodbine, Md., established in 1948 by his grandfather Art Rooney. Tom Rooney, who was named to his position at the NTRA in the fall of 2021, also owns Moon Tower Ranch in Indiantown, Fla. Tom Rooney claimed the Outflanker mare Andiemac toward the end of her career and has bred her to Florida stallions. Coffeewithchris, by 2014 Preakness runner-up Ride On Curlin, is Andiemac’s second foal and was delivered in Maryland to support that state’s programs.

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The young horse was a $2,000 purchase by trainer John Salzman Jr. out of the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic fall yearling sale in Timonium, Md., and now races for Salzman, Fred Wasserloos, and Anthony Geruso. He won the 2022 Heft Stakes and this February’s Miracle Wood Stakes at Laurel, and owns three other career stakes placings.

The eight Maryland-breds to win the Preakness are Cloverbrook (1877), Dunboyne (1887), Refund (1888), Sly Fox (1898), Challedon (1939), Kauai King (1966), Bee Bee Bee (1972), and Deputed Testamony (1983).

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