The story of last Saturday’s Maryland Million Classic winner Brilliant Ice began with sad tears and ended with happy ones. In between came 30 years of striving towards just such a moment.

All of which makes it a quintessential Maryland Million story.

The bond LeeAnn Bartz and Quick Shift had was one of those things: hard to explain, but maybe all the more real because of it. LeeAnn and her husband Phil, who race as Crystal Park Stables and bred and campaign Brilliant Ice, claimed Quick Shift for $8,500 in late 1991, and the then-five-year-old mare and her new owner became fast friends.

“We had a bond, she and I,” LeeAnn Bartz remembered. “It’s almost like we knew what each other were thinking. I know that sounds silly, and if you don’t love horses, you don’t understand it. If you do, you do.”

But the Bartzes lost Quick Shift the same way they’d obtained her, via the claimbox, four months later.

That, of course, is the way of the claiming game. But no one had adequately prepared LeeAnn for it.

“I cried and cried and cried” after Quick Shift was claimed, she recalled.

It was so upsetting that it prompted Phil Bartz to call the racing office to track down the horse’s new trainer, who happened to be Annette Eubanks, whom the Bartzes did not know. Phil’s message to Eubanks was plaintive.

“Can we just come visit her? I won’t claim her back or anything. I got my wife and daughter, and they’re crying all the time,” he told the conditioner.

Quick Shift was claimed away from Eubanks in June of 1992, and 18 months later, just prior to Christmas 1993, showed up at Laurel for an $8,500 tag. The Bartzes, now with Eubanks as their trainer, dropped a slip on her, and she was theirs once again.

“It was the best Christmas present I’ve ever gotten her,” Phil said. “Annette had them put a big wreath around her neck and a bow. When I took [LeeAnn] out there, she was, like, in a state of shock because we hadn’t had her in almost two years.”

This time, Quick Shift remained in the family. After eight winless starts in 1994, the Bartzes retired her to the breeding shed.

In her racing career, Quick Shift, by Double Zeus, had been a model of consistency and durability, finishing in the money in 54 of 81 starts, including 16 wins. Her daughter Crystal Ice, by Horatius, got the durability, if not the talent: 65 starts and three wins. 

Crystal Ice’s daughter by Housebuster, Little Ice Patch, continued that trend: 48 starts and four wins. Now it’s Little Ice Patch’s son by Great Notion, Brilliant Ice, whom the Bartzes own with Steve and Eileen Rosenthal, who’s bringing the family full circle. 

Brilliant Ice, now five and like his dam and granddam trained by Annette Eubanks for Crystal Park, has five wins and just shy of $315,000 in earnings from 26 career starts. In the Classic, he slipped through along the rail under Jeiron Barbosa and powered to a much-the-best 5 ¼-length victory. It was Crystal Park Stables’ first stakes win and trainer Eubanks’ first Maryland Million triumph.

“He fit, and we just thought, give him a shot,” Phil said of his barn’s star. “He’s out-of-his-skin happy right now. When they’re happy, they usually run pretty good.”

Eubanks, who recently had knee replacement surgery, was unable to attend Maryland Million. A 10% trainer in her career, she’s winning at a 25% clip this year, and her barn’s $633,000 in purse earnings dwarf her prior best.

“Mom’s 80 years old and having her best year ever. This is amazing,” said Eubanks’ son Daniel Eubanks. “These horses can break your heart, and sometimes they can make it.”

Brilliant Ice certainly was making it Saturday for the Bartzes. LeeAnn Bartz fought a sometimes losing battle with tears of joy as she remembered the journey from Quick Shift to the Maryland Million Classic winner’s circle: the bleak feelings when that mare was claimed away, the joy when she returned, lying in the mud with her as she breathed her last.

And now this. The highest moment on a journey begun when then-toddler Phil learned to read by learning to handicap.

“He’s the great-grandson of the first horse,” Phil said. “You’re there the day that he’s born. It’s just awesome. It’s like having your kid win.”

He added, “It’s incredibly emotional. It’s like, we love Annette so much. She does all the hard work. To see it pay off like this, it’s like a dream come true.”

“And having had the great grandma…” LeeAnn added before words failed her. She didn’t need any more words, though; if you love horses, you understand.

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