Happy New Year. In the monthly magazine world, we finished this before the old year ended, so don't expect a tidy, neat bow on 2024 anywhere in these pages. Like always, the year in racing went in every direction at once, seemed to last forever and somehow sped past in a hurry.

Anybody keep up with the news? We tried, but mostly we race into 2025 with more hopes and dreams than facts and understanding.

Here's hoping: Maryland gets itself sorted out. The state turned a page Jan. 1 with the launch of the new Maryland Jockey Club. The non-profit was formed in 2024 to manage racing under a new blueprint with a rebuilt Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore and a built-from-scratch training center. The MJC will be overseen by the Maryland Thoroughbred Racetrack Operating Authority, another new entity created by the state in 2023. It's all bigger business than I understand, but they better get it right, and also better get to work. Anybody want to make predictions on what all this looks like in January 2028?

Here's dreaming: Maryland does get it right, the Preakness Stakes returns to its former glory as a tentpole event for the state and for racing; the training center gets built in the right location for everybody and turns into the model for the lives of racehorses with varied training surfaces, therapies, turnout space, veterinary care and a research/educational component. Oh, and all of that solidifies -- really solidifies -- the state's breeding businesses.

Here's hoping: Great Notion soldiers on. Seeing the now 25-year-old at Northview Stallion Station's open house in December was like getting a dose of optimism. He was the region's leading sire again, hopefully topped $6 million in 2024 progeny earnings and was booked full for 2025.
Here's dreaming: A son or daughter wins a Grade 1 in 2025 and whenever his stud career ends, he lives a long retirement.

Here's hoping: The flock of Pennsylvania stallions make it work. Newcomers Zozos, Enticed and Tyson form a nucleus around which a state breeding program can build.

Here's dreaming: Their 2-year-olds come out running in 2028.

Here's hoping: Blofeld's big crop foaled in 2023 makes an impact. The Maryland stallion found success with a small pool of horses from his first four seasons at stud. Everything changed when 86 mares went to the pride of Murmur Farm in 2022. Those foals turn 2 this year.

Here's dreaming: That crop includes some runners, and Murmur declines offers to move Blofeld to Kentucky.

Here's hoping: Post Time enjoys his rest. No regional-bred runner made more noise than Hillwood Stable's 4-year-old, who placed in three Grade 1 stakes and earned $975,000 last year. He also won four times in nine starts and had people searching his dam Vielsalm's name. It's a town in Belgium that hosts an iconic cycling race.

Here's dreaming: Post Time figures out how to stay with the Grade 1 peloton early so he can utilize his late charge from a stalking spot rather than the back of the pack.

Here's hoping: Jump racing continues to find ways to soar. Horses raced for a record $6,979,000 in purses last year, most of it raised without the help of wagering takeout or contributions from alternative gaming.

Here's dreaming: The Virginia and International Gold Cup meets get to run at Great Meadow again. North Carolina's Queen's Cup and Tryon/Block House meets return to the calendar. Mother Nature cooperates and the turf is good all year. And Maryland's Fair Hill Races come back. Oh, and an American-bred horse travels to race in England or Ireland.

Here's hoping: The region's Thoroughbred incentive programs stay liquid and remain part of their states' budgets. Never stop selling the agriculture, open space and jobs part of the equation to legislators, no matter where you live.

Here's dreaming: Somebody figures out how to link the state-by-state incentive programs in the region. Virginia rewarded its Thoroughbred owners/breeders/developers with a bonus program that crosses state lines several years ago and it's paying off. Pick two states to link, do the math, pay bonuses in both states, imagine the possibilities.

Here's hoping: The downward trend of racing fatalities continues. At the University of Arizona's global racing symposium in December, Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority CEO Lisa Lazarus said the fatality rate over the 12 months ending Dec. 10 was .88 horses per 1,000 starts -- the lowest figure ever recorded and a 28.5 percent decline over the previous 12 months.

Here's dreaming: HISA and its critics find common ground and continue to work on that number, and other issues facing the sport.

Here's hoping: The Thoroughbred business in 2025 is so good that its success filters out to all aspects of the sport -- from major racetracks to fair circuits, from new- and old-money owners to hotwalkers living on the backside, from math-wizard handicappers to $2 bettors, from million-dollar yearlings to looking-for-a-home retirees, from super trainers with 200 horses on the set list to just-making-it horsemen hoping the stable star doesn't get claimed.

Here's dreaming: The horses all run fast, jump high and come home safe.