06/22/2024
June 1973 was a tough time for the Sommer/ Martin team... Sham's Belmont injury, surgery and retirement cut short his promising career... A week later Knightly Dawn finishes dead last in the Ohio Derby... and by the fall Knightly Dawn would be retired. It may not have seemed like it at the time but brighter days were ahead for the Sommer Martin team.....1974 would be a record year for the team...PRINCE DANTAN, ACCIPITER, RUBE THE GREAT, INFURIATOR, RAMAHORN, FREE HAND, would all win stake races. 1974 the Sommer Martin team would set records for wins and money won. Martin would saddle 130 winners in 1974. The stakes wins would continue to pile up through the 1970s. Martin would also continue to dominate the New York race circuit through 1982. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1981. Sham's story was not over either, he would retire to beautiful Spendthrift Farm in Kentucky. He would sire many stakes winners, Spanish Fake, Arewehavingfunyet, Jazzerio, Col Moran, Shamgo, Safe Play, Diablotain, Sherry Peppers, are just a few. Off the race track his filly Shamie would become an accomplished jumper.
