As other successful businessmen who have a sporting interest are wont to do, Maryland's Robert Meyerhoff, a developer and an avid art collector with his wife, Jane, entered the Thoroughbred racing scene in the early 1960s. The acumen needed to succeed in vocation often translates to avocation and not much time had passed before Meyerhoff's racing enterprise began drawing attention.
Meyerhoff's penchant for racing soon turned to breeding his own horses to supply his racing stable. To this end, he acquired Hay Patcher. From the excellent producing family of 1959 Kentucky Oaks winner Hidden Talent (by Kentucky Derby winner Dark Star, the only horse to defeat the great Native Dancer), Hay Patcher scored in the New Castle Stakes at Delaware Park, finished second in the Polly Drummond Stakes there, and ran third in the inaugural Cotillion Stakes (G2) in 1976 at Keystone.
Retired at Meyerhoff's Fitzhugh Farm in Maryland, Hay Patcher wasted little time in becoming a foundation mare.
In 1982 Meyerhoff chose 1971 Horse of the Year, champion older male, and champion sprinter Ack Ack for his young mare by Hoist the Flag, a champion son of the Maryland-connected—via his 1965 Preakness Stakes victory—champion Tom Rolfe. The result was a leggy, bay Maryland-bred colt whom the art-collecting couple named Broad Brush.
Trained by Richard Small, the 16.2 granite-tough version of that leggy colt certainly put his artistic touches on the racing landscape in 1986.
Neither bred nor built to be precocious, Broad Brush was late to the races his juvenile season, breaking his maiden in his second start, a 1 1/16-mile maiden special weight at Philadelphia Park in early November. He entered the stakes rolls in his last start of the year, the Inner Harbor at Laurel Park.
Based with Small in Maryland, Broad Brush entered the Triple Crown conversation with victories in the General George and Federico Tesio stakes at Pimlico Race Course.
Small then sent him to test his ability in the depths of other waters and he accounted himself well, taking the Jim Beam Stakes (G3) at Latonia and the all-important Kentucky Derby (G1) prep, the Wood Memorial (G1) at Aqueduct Racetrack.
Broad Brush held his own the Derby, finishing third to Ferdinand and Bold Arrangement, and in the Preakness (G1), third again to Snow Chief and Ferdinand.
Small took him on a Midwest tour, where he scored in the Ohio Derby (G2) at Thistledown and was runner-up in the rich Saint Paul Derby at Canterbury Park.
Broad Brush's midsummer campaign came off the boil, with an unplaced effort to the unlikely but improving Wise Times, in the Haskell Invitational (G1) at Monmouth Park. Wise Times returned to the Travers Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course with Broad Brush a closer fourth.
Come September, Broad Brush had shaken off the summer doldrums and fell just short of Belmont Stakes (G1) winner Danzig Connection in the Pegasus Handicap (G2) at Meadowlands.
The next stop on his schedule was the eighth running of the Pennsylvania Derby (G2) at Philadelphia Park where he and jockey Angel Cordero Jr. had little trouble in wresting control from six rivals after four furlongs and despite blowing the turn and taking a scenic crowd-counting trip, scored by 1 1/4 lengths in the nine-furlong event.
Broad Brush ended the year carrying the yellow and blue diamond blocked silks of the Meyerhoffs to a 3 3/4-length victory in the Meadowlands Cup (G1), his first encounter with older horses and a harbinger of things to come.
Formerly Philadelphia Park, Parx Racing hosts both the Pennsylvania Derby and the Cotillion Stakes (now both G1) Sept. 25.
