Maritime Traveler, a chestnut colt foaled May 15, 1990, carried the distinction of being from the great Secretariat’s last foal crop. Out of the Northern Dancer mare Oceana, Maritime Traveler was bred by the late E.P. Taylor’s Ontario-based Windfields Farm. His breeder consigned him to the 1991 Keeneland September yearling sale, where Arthur Appleton bought him for $55,000.
Maritime Traveler made five lifetime racing starts, all at Canada’s Woodbine Racetrack, with his best finish being a fourth. He earned all of $1,572 and soon after his last start, on June 12, 1993, Appleton retired him to Bridlewood Farm. That operation, one of Ocala’s legacy thoroughbred farms, was founded by Appleton and his wife Martha in 1976.
George Issacs has a long history with Bridlewood Farm and Maritime Traveler. He was Bridlewood Farm’s stallion manager from 1989 to 1992, leaving to become the general manager of Allen Paulson’s Ocala-based Brookside South Farm. In 1996, Isaacs returned to Bridlewood Farm as general manager, remaining in the position through the death of Appleton in 2008 and the ensuing Appleton Family Trust ownership. In 2013, John and Leslie Malone purchased Bridlewood Farm and Isaacs remains the operation’s general manager…