Popular Maryland-bred multiple stakes winner Ain’t Da Beer Cold has been retired, trainer Kenny Cox confirmed Wednesday.

The seven-year-old Freedom Child gelding concludes his racing career with seven wins and $469,714 in earnings from 45 career starts. He won the 2023 Maryland Million Classic via disqualification and also scored in the 2024 Native Dancer, both at Laurel Park, his home track where he made virtually all of his starts.

“He retired sound,” Cox said. “He just didn’t want to do it anymore.”

Ain’t Da Beer Cold was bred in Maryland by Matt Spencer and Kelly Jo Cox, Kenny Cox’s wife, and owned by them in partnership with Cox’s longtime client Bonuccelli Racing. He is out of the winning With Distinction mare Distinct Affair but wasn’t exactly stamped for success from the start.

“We tried to give the mare away in foal,” Cox said with a laugh. “So that tells you right there.”

Ain’t Da Beer Cold had won five times but never in stakes company prior to the 2023 Maryland Million Classic. That day, with Jevian Toledo in the irons, Ain’t Da Beer Cold, off at 36-1, zipped to the front and engaged in a spirited battle with Market Maven, falling a neck short. But that rival had bumped Ain’t Da Beer Cold inside the final furlong, and the stewards elevated him to the victory. It was the first Maryland Million win of Cox’s long career.

“It’s a team working together to have everything fall in place after a lot of miserable Maryland Millions for me,” he said in the winner’s circle afterwards. “If he would have been second without even an inquiry or objection or anything, I would have went home almost like I’d won Maryland Million because he’s a homebred.”

Six months later, as an overlooked 12-1 shot, Ain’t Da Beer Cold and Toledo teamed up to reprise that effort, winning the Native Dancer by a head in a frantic finish.

“When he came back and won the open stake, it kind of made like he was legit, no matter what,” the trainer said. “You know that, to me, really meant a lot that he made himself out to be that good, not by a gift.”

Still, Cox said more than the wins, he’ll remember the horse’s personality.

“He had the most personality of pretty much any horse you could ask for. Out on the track, he was a terror,” Cox said. “But in the barn, his personality was so great.”

Cox said that there are a couple of options for Ain’t Da Beer Cold’s future, the first of which is to determine if he can be retrained as a foxhunter.

Ain’t Da Beer Cold’s name comes from one of longtime Baltimore Orioles’ and Colts’ announcer Chuck Thompson’s catchphrases, helping cement the horse’s popularity in Maryland.

“I’m glad the name turned out with the horse, because I love the name for our own history,” Cox said. “And like I said, Matt [Spencer], they own a liquor store in Baltimore. They’re huge Oriole fans, huge Baltimore fans. And you know, when you get a good name, you hate to waste it.”

TARTABULL EXPECTED TO STICK AROUND

Tartabull is expected to stay in Maryland to prepare for the state-restricted Maryland Juvenile Stakes Dec. 6 at Laurel Park, connections have said.

Trained by Chad Summers for Gold Square LLC, Tartabull has been at Laurel in veteran trainer Jerry Robb’s barn for the last week-and-a-half and has used the time to good effect, earning his maiden victory Oct. 25.

By Tapit, he is out of the Great Notion mare Anna’s Bandit, one of the more popular and successful local runners of recent years. Anna’s Bandit won 17 races and over $800,000 for Robb and his wife Gina, including winning the West Virginia Breeders’ Classics Cavada and Maryland Million Distaff a week apart in 2019.

In an article about Tartabull’s maiden win, Jessica Lindsey, Robb’s top assistant, urged reporters to use their “magic” to convince Summers to leave the horse in Maryland, where he is housed in Anna’s Bandit’s old stall. Summers responded to a post on X linking to the article: “The Aladdin genie says your wish is our command – let’s do it,” he wrote.

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PRICEY NEWCOMER

Jane Allen’s Warwick Equine Services, on behalf of Eric Bakker’s HYTECK Racing LLC, signed the ticket on a $350,000 Justify yearling colt at the Fasig-Tipton October sale last week. It’s perhaps the biggest splash yet for either Allen or Bakker.

The colt is out of the unraced Cindago mare Black Valentine and is a half to the stakes winner Roo’s Valentine and two other stakes horses. His second dam is the dam of multiple Grade 1-winning millionaire Evening Jewel, and the colt’s catalog page is a sea of black-type.

The New Jersey-based Bakker’s HYTECK Racing has had two runners to date: a Violence colt which he purchased for $90,000 and who broke his maiden last out at Delaware Park and a Laoban filly that set him back $150,000 and who recently ran second in maiden company at Aqueduct. Both are trained by Chuckie Lawrence at Delaware Park.

Allen, the daughter of longtime Maryland-based trainer Ferris Allen, said buying a horse at that level is an experience she’ll remember. Bakker had authorized her to go to $300,000, or even $20,000 beyond.

“The bid went to 300, and I was like, dang it, I cannot lose this horse,” she recounted. “I mean, the vetting was great. The horse is just a monster, and to buy a Justify yearling that fits the bill, you’ve got to spend over 250. So it went to 320 and I’m starting to feel nauseous. Then I went to 330, and then somebody else did 340 and I was like, I can’t lose it over $10,000. I’ve come too far. I made a quick decision: if he gets mad about the 350, I’ll stay in for the 30.”

That, fortunately for her, was the winning bid, and Bakker reportedly had no qualms. So keep your eyes out next year for HYTECK’s latest acquisition.

“It was so surreal,” Allen said. “I’m still on Cloud Nine.”