The six lanes of Laurel Park's turf course carry the names of turf greats All Along (Fr), Bowl Game, Kelso, Dahlia, Exceller and Fort Marcy. But the Maryland track, opened in 1911, ranges even deeper into Thoroughbred racing history.

Not that everyone is aware.

"We don't have any of those really historic names the way Pimlico does," said Georganne Hale, senior vice president of racing development at The Maryland Jockey Club and a 40-plus year employee of Maryland's racetrack manager. "War Admiral and Seabiscuit didn't run at Laurel."

Hold all tickets.

To be fair, it was way before Hale's time -- and that of pretty much anyone able to remember -- but both legends raced at Laurel.

"They did?" Hale asked as part of a conversation April 15. "I better get my facts straight before Preakness Week."

She and everyone else were running out of time to study.

Due to construction at Baltimore's Pimlico Race Course, which hosted its first races in 1870, the Preakness Stakes-G1, Black-Eyed Susan-G2 and their accompanying cards of quality racing shift about 30 miles south to Laurel. Attendance will be limited to 4,800, but that won't restrict the attention paid to the first Preakness away from Pimlico since 1908.

Despite its recent history as a workaday racetrack and home to the bulk of Maryland's racing dates, Laurel Park is no stranger to major racing events and world-class Thor­oughbreds.

Start with the heroes mentioned by Hale, who clashed in a match race at Pimlico in 1938. Seabiscuit won, further launching himself into racing lore that includes a 1999 best-selling book and a 2003 Oscar-nominated movie. They didn't compete against each other at Laurel, but were there -- quite possibly at the same time.

n War Admiral made three starts at the track. As a 2-year-old in 1936, he finished second to Bottle Cap in the Richard Johnson Stakes. The following year, after sweeping the Triple Crown, he won a $1,200 allowance Oct. 26 and four days later took the Washington Handicap. The races were preps for the Pimlico Special, which he won to complete an undefeated 3-year-old campaign.

Seabiscuit raced at the track twice, both in the Laurel Stakes. In 1937, 10 days before War Admiral's allowance win, Seabiscuit dead-heated for the win with Heelfly. The next year, prepping for the Pimlico match with War Admiral, Seabiscuit finished second while conceding 24 pounds to a 102-pound featherweight winner.

From top: Juvenile stars Secretariat, Affirmed and Alydar, and Numbered Account graced Laurel for major stops in the Laurel Futurity and Selima Stakes.Opposite: The International field heads toward the saddling area for a mid-1960s running.

Though they're some of the first, those stars of the 1930s aren't the only legendary figures to grace the track. Many made a 100th anniversary feature written by Cindy Deubler for the October 2011 edition of this magazine. Find it at midatlantictb.com. Still others dot various milestones for the track, which conducted a fall meeting that rivaled the summer season at Saratoga Race Course as a destination.

The first Laurel meet lasted 26 days and took advantage of New York's decision to ban racing. The grandstand sat 5,000 and was adjacent to a Victorian-style clubhouse with open-air dining, a balcony and a grassy lawn. Within two years, however, Laurel co-owner and manager H.D. Brown went to court with The Jockey Club -- which granted racing dates -- over an unpaid fee. New York City grocery entrepreneur and racetrack owner James Butler bought the track in 1913 and put Col. Matt Winn in charge. Famous for his impact on Churchill Downs and the Kentucky Derby, Winn brought his promotional skills to Laurel and in 1917 the track hosted a match race between Kentucky Derby winner Omar Khayyam and Belmont Stakes winner Hourless.

The Belmont winner scored by a length. The next year, top 2-year-olds Billy Kelly and Eternal met on the track with Eternal scoring by a head. In both cases, the winning owners used their race earnings to benefit the American Red Cross during World War I.

Sir Barton won the Maryland Handicap in 1919, the same year he became racing's first Triple Crown winner. Exterminator, who won 50 of his 100 lifetime starts, raced at Laurel 12 times and won six including stakes in 1918 and 1922. Crusader, an early star for owner/breeder Sam Riddle's Glen Riddle Stable of Man o' War and War Admiral fame, won at Laurel in 1925, 1926 and 1927. Virginia-bred Sun Beau, for a time the leading earner in the nation and a three-time champion in the 1930s, made his first three starts at Laurel in 1927 (in eight days) -- winning the second under future Delaware Park icon Phil Goodwin. Sun Beau returned to win the Maryland Handicap in 1928 and Washington Handicaps in 1929 and 1930.

The 1930s brought more big names. Discovery won the 1934 Maryland Handicap under 130 pounds. Maryland-bred Challedon won the Maryland Futurity at the track in 1938, a year before he put together a 15-start Horse of the Year campaign that included a second in the Kentucky Derby, a win in the Preakness and a score in the Maryland Handicap. Johns­town won the 1938 Richard Johnson as a 2-year-old the season before landing the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes. A star in California for Seabiscuit's connections Charles Howard and Tom Smith, Argentine import Kayak II won twice at Laurel in 1938.

The Triple Crown winner of 1941, Whirlaway, stopped at Laurel during his 1942 Horse of the Year campaign, winning the Washington Handicap under 130 pounds (to 110 for the runner-up). Four days later, Whirlaway won the Pimlico Special in a walkover. Twilight Tear, the first filly Horse of the Year, won the 1944 Queen Isabella Handicap at Laurel that championship season. Maryland-bred heroine Gallorette made the first six starts of her career -- in a month -- at the track in 1944. She won three, finished second by a nose against males in the Maryland Futurity, was third in the Selima. Somehow, they were her only starts at the track in a Hall of Fame career that included 21 wins and battles with Assault, Armed, Stymie and Polynesian.

Sagamore Farm's star filly Bed o' Roses won an allowance and the Selima within five days in 1949, near the end of a 21-start campaign that resulted in a 2-year-old championship. She was a champion again in 1951.

Few eras in American history bring back nostalgia like the 1950s, and Laurel played its role under the direction of John Schapiro. His father Morris bought the track in 1950 and put his 36-year-old son in charge. In search of a signature event, Schapiro announced the $50,000 Washington, D.C., International Stakes to be run in 1952. Laurel invited international competitors, paid their expenses, hosted press parties at foreign embassies in the nation's capital, attracted various celebrities and filled the building with spectators.

Ultimately, competitors from 25 nations, including the Soviet Union, Hungary, Sweden, Venezuela, Singapore, Uruguay and Japan, in addition to more traditional racing countries Great Britian, Ireland, France and Germany, took part over the race's 43 runnings. English horse *Wilwyn won the first; France's *Worden took the second, and the race was off and running. The 1954 race included a horse owned by Queen Elizabeth. In 1956, former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill sent a runner. In 1958, well into the Cold War, Soviet horses Garnir and Zaryad showed up. They finished sixth and 10th while racing for their nation's Agricultural Department. Zaryad's half-brother *Zabeg was third in 1960. In all, Soviet horses made nine trips to Laurel for the race with Anilin finishing third in 1964 and second in 1966.

The race's roll call reads like a Hall of Fame roster.

Carry Back finished third in 1962, a year after winning the Kentucky Derby and Preakness. Damascus finished second (by a nose) in 1967, the year he won the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes. Fort Marcy was that year's winner, and won again in 1970. Five-time Horse of the Year Kelso finished second in 1961 (to T. V. Lark), 1962 (*Match II) and 1963 (Mongo) before breaking through with a win in 1964. English star Sir Ivor won in 1968.

French trainer Maurice Zilber and American owner/breeder Nelson Bunker Hunt teamed up to win three in four years -- Dahlia (1973), Nobiliary (1975) and Youth (1976). Zilber and Hunt finished third in 1977 with Exceller, who went on to win six Grade 1 stakes in 1978 for trainer Charlie Whittingham. In that year's Jockey Club Gold Cup, Exceller defeated Triple Crown winners Seattle Slew and Affirmed.

Bowl Game flew the Greentree Stable silks to victory in 1979, part of a championship season that closed with three consecutive Grade 1 wins. All Along (Fr) won the 1983 race as part of a North American Horse of the Year season that included victories in her home country's Arc de Triomphe-G1, Canada's Rothman's International-G1 and Aqueduct's Turf Classic-G1.

Before its time (way), the International proved that foreign horses could trek to the United States and compete. Thirty-four years after that first running, the Breeders' Cup formed and in 1994, the International went to the post for the final time (won by champion Paradise Creek).

Future Stars on Display

Still part of the stakes calendar at Laurel, as turf races, the Selima and Laurel Futurity stakes were major stops for 2-year-olds in the fall.
Dating to 1921, when it was the Pimlico Futurity at that track, the race was run for the first time at Laurel in 1966 and won by In Reality over that year's juvenile champion Successor. Future Belmont Stakes winner High Echelon won for trainer Hirsch Jacobs in 1969. Winners in the 1970s included Riva Ridge, Secretariat, Canadian champion L'Enjoleur, Honest Pleasure and Spectacular Bid.

The 1977 edition -- 11⁄16 miles around one turn -- featured the sixth meeting between Affirmed and Alydar. They hooked up on the turn, passed Star de Naskra with ease and slugged it out through the stretch. Inside, Alydar stayed on his left lead. Outside, Affirmed built a slim lead and never gave it back as jockey Steve Cauthen never turned up his whip. The parking lot was packed.

Future leading sire Deputy Minister won in 1981. Juvenile champion Devil's Bag won in 1983. Future Belmont Stakes winners Bet Twice and Go and Go (Ire) scored in 1986 and 1989, respectively. Future leading sire Tapit won the race, by then downgraded to a Grade 3, in 2003. Moved to the turf in 2005, the Laurel Futurity nevertheless hosted a future classic winner as Barbaro stormed to victory just shy of six months before winning the Kentucky Derby.

The Selima, for fillies, made itself a similar must-stop race through a history dating to 1926. It was named for a daughter of the Godolphin Arabian and a colonial-era racing star who later became a leading broodmare in Maryland. Hall of Famers Busher (1944), Bed o' Roses (1949), Shuvee (1968), La Prevoyante (1972) and Mom's Command (1984) won the Selima. Like the Futurity, the Selima thrived as a Grade 1, a status the race held from 1972-1988.

Champion Numbered Account won in 1971, and later outdid herself as a broodmare. Her daughter Dance Number won a Grade 1 and produced champion Rhythm and leading Maryland sire Not For Love. Numbered Account's son Private Account won two Grade 1 stakes and sired Hall of Famers Personal Ensign and Inside Information.

Locals Only

Laurel hasn't hosted a Grade 1 stakes since the 2009 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash won by Vineyard Haven. That sprint attracted big names for a while, with wins by Housebuster, Smoke Glacken, Kelly Kip and others over the years but it -- and the others -- have become Mid-Atlantic fixtures and the track's most well-known runners are typically based (or bred) in the region.

Maryland-bred Safely Kept did most of her local running at Pimlico, but won Laurel's Politely in April 1989. Seven months later, she finished second in the Breeders' Cup Sprint-G1, a race she won the next year to solidify a spot in racing's Hall of Fame. Maryland-based Xtra Heat fueled her Hall of Fame career at Laurel, winning eight of nine -- including the Barbara Fritchie-G2 in 2002 and 2003 -- on the way to 26 wins, a second against males in the 2001 Breeders' Cup Sprint-G1 and $2,389,635 in earnings. Turf sprinter Ben's Cat won 11 races at Laurel, his home track while part of breeder/owner/trainer King T. Leatherbury's stable.

NOTES: Horses aren't the only famous names to grace the track, 20 miles from U.S. Capitol building. In 1969, a month before Woodstock, the Laurel Pop Festival hosted performances by Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, Sly and the Family Stone and The Guess Who at the track . . . Actress Elizabeth Taylor made a winner's circle visit, so did then Vice President Richard Nixon, former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover and Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill . . . Actor Mickey Rooney, in the area while acting in a play, called about free tickets, became a regular and appeared in a television commercial promoting the track (he played a doctor who advised his patient to attend the races).