During the early part of the 21st century, while harness racing in Maryland has suffered a precipitous drop in live racing and breeding, Winbak Farm in Chesapeake City has not only weathered the storm but also bucked the trend in dramatic fashion.

Trotters and pacers bred by Joe and JoAnn Thomson's Winbak Farm have not only won their share of major stakes races, but three of them - No Pan Intended (2003), Rainbow Blue (2004) and Muscle Hill (2009) - have garnered Harness Horse of the Year honors, ending a state-bred drought that had dated back to Fresh Yankee in 1970.

Following a year in which neither Rosecroft Raceway or Ocean Downs offered a single pari-mutuel race - Ocean Downs presented four days of non-betting races last summer - another Winbak Farm product is among the early contenders for divisional honors and possibly Horse of the Year. Roll With Joe, a son of former sophomore pacing champion and Winbak Farm product Bettor's Delight, displayed a combination of early speed and late determination to capture the $1 million Meadowlands Pace final at The Meadowlands in East Rutherford, N.J., on Saturday night.

Joe Thomson has always based his breeding theories on having an abundance of stellar, productive broodmares and currently Winbak Farm has over 300 of them, which Thomson quickly recalls is still shy of the number of mares owned by famed Hanover Shoe Farms in Pennsylvania. Perhaps the best broodmare that Thomson has owned thus far is Classic Wish, who was also the dam of Bettor's Delight and No Pan Intended. Bettor's Delight won the Little Brown Jug, the middle jewel of pacing's Triple Crown and was eventually named champion three-year-old colt pacer. But No Pan Intended went further, winning the Triple Crown and the Breeders Crown en route to being named Horse of the Year in 2003.

"What I liked about her was her breeding and her speed," Thomson said of Classic Wish, who won 26 of 144 races and earned over $435,000 while taking a mark of 1:52 as a three-year-old in 1993. "She was by (Canadian Hall of Famer) Armbro Emerson and out of an Albatross mare (Best of the Best) and she had a mark of 1:52, which for mares back then was very fast. It's still a good time. She's one of those mares that has been good from the start."

Classic Wish, a Hall of Fame inductee as a broodmare who passed away in March, may be gone now, but her legacy in racing and certainly at Winbak Farm continues to grow. Roll With Joe has won three of six starts this year and earned almost $960,000, and he now sports a 5-4-1 slate and $1.1 million in career earnings from 15 lifetime starts. He had earlier posted a victory in a division of the Somebeachsomewhere Stakes at Mohawk Raceway in Canada and had been second in the $1.5 million North America Cup final at that seven-eighths mile oval in Toronto.

But Saturday night, he ascended to the head of the current sophomore pacing class by delivering a stellar effort. Sent away from the gate quickly by Hall of Fame driver Ron Pierce, Roll With Joe raced parked to gain command from post eight after long shot Wink N Atcha (Yannick Gingras) led the way by the opening quarter in 26.1 seconds. Roll With Joe then reluctantly yielded the advantage to Custard The Dragon (Montrell Teague), coincidentally another Winbak Farm product who had won an elimination race for this event one week earlier.

"I almost didn't let the boy cross over because this colt felt so good," Pierce said, referring to Teague, 20, the youngest driver ever to compete in the Meadowlands Pace final. "I felt like leaving him out there, but I figured I'd let him cross over and see what happens."

Custard The Dragon led the field through the far turn and by three-quarters in 1:21 flat, but Roll With Joe was on the attack again turning for home. After Pierce angled the Cam's Card Shark colt from the pocket, Roll With Joe surged to command in mid-stretch and then outlasted the late bid of favored Big Jim (Phil Hudon) for a neck victory in 1:48.2. It was the third victory in the last four editions of the Meadowlands Pace for Pierce and the first for trainer Ed Hart, who despite his long history at the New Jersey oval, had never had a horse reach the final of its signature event.

"He had an excellent week and trained good," Hart said. "Pierce drove him super. He put him in the race and he had confidence in him. I'm just thrilled. I've been racing at the Meadowlands my whole life. To win this race, I can't believe it."

"Several people called me up last week and told me this colt can really go," said Pierce, who guided Rainbow Blue to 20 wins in 21 starts in 2004 en route to that three-year-old filly being named horse of the year. "He was better than everybody thought he was, I can tell you that. He was as slick as they come. I'm telling you, he really felt super."

Roll With Joe was a $100,000 yearling purchase at the Lexington-Selected Sale in Kentucky and is co-owned by Winbak Farm, Blue Chip Bloodstock (Mike Kimelman Jr. and Thomas Grossman); Stephen Demeter and Not To Worry Stable (Sheila Baird and Scott Kimelman).