Boniface to Receive Maryland Racing's Highest Honor

Longtime Maryland trainer J. William (Bill) Boniface, jockey Weston Hamilton, breeders Angie and Sabrina Moore, and top-class racehorse Glorious Empire will be honored Feb. 18 at Laurel Park by the Maryland Racing Media Association.

Boniface was voted the organization's highest honor, the Humphrey S. Finney Award for lifetime achievement in Thoroughbred racing in Maryland. Boniface was the trainer of 1983 Preakness Stakes (G1) winner, Deputed Testamony, a horse he also bred via his family's Bonita Farm operation. Deputed Testamony is the most recent Maryland-bred to win the state's biggest race and a member of the Maryland Thoroughbred Hall of Fame.

Boniface also saddled grade I winner Ops Smile and graded stakes winners Oliver's Twist, who was second in the 1995 Preakness, Angelina County, Jane's Dilemma, and Irish Forever. Boniface was among the driving forces behind the inception of the Maryland Million, and Bonita Farm stands three stallions this year—Dortmund , Kobe's Back , and Alliance.

Hamilton, son of former local jockey Steve Hamilton, was selected as the Dale Austin Newsmaker Award winner following a season in which he also garnered the Eclipse Award as champion apprentice jockey for 2018. Hamilton won with 120 of his 920 mounts and earned just more than $3.5 million last year en route to becoming the 11th Maryland-based jockey to earn the Eclipse Award as champion apprentice. The award is named for the late longtime former Baltimore Sun horse racing writer Dale Austin, a longtime MRMA member and past president.

Angie Moore and her daughter Sabrina Moore will receive the Nancy Alberts Breakthrough Award after emerging on the scene in 2018 as breeders courtesy of Knicks Go, winner of the grade I Claiborne Breeders' Futurity at Keeneland and runner-up behind Game Winner in the Sentient Jet Breeders Cup Juvenile (G1) at Churchill Downs. 

Glorious Empire, trained at Fair Hill by Chuck Lawrence in 2018 for owner Matthew Schera, will receive recognition as Maryland-based Horse of the Year. He won four of six starts last year and earned $767,830. His 2018 ledger included wins in the grade 1 Sword Dancer Stakes, the Bowling Green Stakes (G2T), and the Fort Lauderdale Stakes (G2T). He was an Eclipse Award finalist for top male turf horse.

"It has been an amazing year in Maryland racing," said Maryland Racing Media Association president Frank Vespe. "We're so pleased to be able to recognize some of the many people and horses that have made it special."

All of the recipients will be honored with their respective awards Monday, Feb.18, when Laurel hosts the 28th running of the Maryland Racing Media Stakes for fillies and mares.