Article courtesy of Blood-Horse.

Trainer John Servis June 26 selected Sagamore Farm’s filly by Into Mischief out of the Not For Love mare Roadtohanna as champion of the 82nd annual Maryland Horse Breeders Association’s Maryland-bred yearling show.

The yearling show was held at the Timonium Fairgrounds horse show ring in Timonium.

The winner of Class IV (for fillies conceived in states other than Maryland), the bay filly was one of 115 yearlings to compete in this year’s show, the largest number to be judged since 2004.

“I like a big, rangy, two-turn looking horse and that was her,” said Servis, saddled Smarty Jones to victory in the 2004 Kentucky Derby and Preakness (both gr. I). “She had a lot of the things that I like. She looked very athletic.”

Into Mischief stands at Spendthrift Farm near Lexington.

Servis also noted of his top selections of the 33 shown in the class, “I wouldn’t mind having any one of those five fillies in my barn.”

The Into Mischief filly is the seventh of eight foals for her dam, who has produced four winners from as many starters: listed stakes winner Tell a Great Story, graded II-placed Give No Quarter, stakes-placed All I Karabout and $237,825-earner Going to Market.

Roadtohanna was one of the first purchases made by Kevin Plank’s Sagamore team when he entered the Thoroughbred business in 2006. Sagamore Farm has had a long history with the MHBA yearling show, initially with Alfred G. Vanderbilt, who exhibited seven champions, which remains the record for an owner in the show’s history. Modern-day Sagamore Farm also bred, owned, and exhibited the 2013 champion Macho Uno filly.

Servis’ reserve champion, a son of Maclean’s Music, was the winner of Class II, for colts conceived in states other than Maryland.

“He had that athletic look to him. He wasn’t a big horse, but he looks like a horse who has plenty of length to him and would probably stretch out with no problem,” Servis commented.

A dark bay out of Keeper Kell, by Two Punch, owned and bred by R. Larry Johnson, descends from Johnson’s foundation mare Ran’s Chick. He is a half brother to stakes-placed Change of Seasons.

Maclean’s Music stands at Hill ‘n’ Dale Farms near Lexington.

The leading Maryland sire of the show was Freedom Child, a son ofMalibu Moon who stands at Country Life Farm near Bel Air, Md., and whose first crop are yearlings.

Freedom Child took title to the Northview Stallion Station Challenge Trophy by having three ribbon winners, a second and third in Class III for Maryland-sired fillies, and a second in Class I for Maryland-sired colts and geldings.

The “Young Showmanship Award” was presented by the MHBA for the first time, and the recipient was 14-year-old Katie Morgan of Chesapeake City, Md., who received $100 for the special award which recognizes handling as well as fitting.

All yearlings who entered the show ring are now eligible for the $40,000 premium award, which will be split and distributed twice, with $20,000 going to the exhibitors of the four show contestants who earn the most money as 2-year-olds during 2016, and another $20,000 divided among the exhibitors of the four highest-earning 3-year-old runners the next year.