Beyond The Wire to Honor Michele Enck, Jessica Lindsey at Laurel Park

Who will pick up the stack of transfer papers, microchip files and unpaid rescue bills if the people who quietly shoulder Maryland aftercare step back? Beyond The Wire will put that question on a public stage when it recognizes Michele Enck and Jessica Lindsey at the program’s namesake Beyond The Wire Stakes at Laurel Park on Saturday, March 21, 2026.

Beyond The Wire, a Maryland-based aftercare program launched in 2017, recommended the honors and the selection was approved by the Beyond The Wire Board of Directors, which lists members including A. Ferris Allen III, R. Thomas Bowman, H. Graham Motion and Michael J. Trombetta. The recognition uses the stakes program to spotlight operational work that directly affects placements and rehoming of retired Maryland runners.

Michele Enck’s contribution is administrative but essential. After serving as The Maryland Jockey Club’s Horse Identifier, Enck was recently named Stakes Coordinator earlier this year and has been instrumental in obtaining and organizing papers and microchip numbers for every horse that has come through Beyond The Wire since 2017. Enck routinely contacted other racetrack offices to transfer registration papers to Jessica Hammond and supported partner facilities and fundraisers. Her adoption of a bay gelding named Rebound illustrates the hands-on side of her work: Rebound was foaled April 16, 2013 in Ireland, passed through sales at Goffs and Tattersalls before arriving in Maryland, came through The Foxie G Foundation and was visited weekly by Enck for three months before she adopted him. Enck said, “I never thought I would find another heart horse in my life. And I did.” She added, “I said, ‘You found my horse,’ ” and that “Rebound is loved and cared for seven days a week.”

Jessica Lindsey brings decades of barn-level rescue work to the recognition. A longtime assistant trainer for John Robb, Lindsey has repeatedly paid to ship former Robb barn runners back to Maryland and kept them in her care until suitable homes were found. One concrete case cited by program materials describes a former Robb runner with a significant injury who was not receiving adequate care at another farm; Lindsey took the horse into her barn and maintained him at her own expense for almost six months before he was re-homed as a pasture pet. Those nearly six months of private support exemplify the direct financial and labor burden individual caretakers absorb to keep horses safe.

Beyond The Wire administrator Jessica Hammond framed the selections as a morale and operational signal, saying the honorees are “two people that go above and beyond out of their love of horses.” Hammond added, “We really want to recognize the selfless efforts of Michele and Jessica because both go above and beyond in regard to caring for Maryland’s retiring horses and they have done so for years. We need more people like them in the horse racing and breeding industry.”

The program partners that receive horses include The Foxie G Foundation, a Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance accredited organization where Laurie Calhoun helped facilitate Rebound’s adoption. Beyond The Wire’s placement work depends on accurate papers and microchip records assembled since 2017, a process Enck has driven, and on caretakers willing to fund shelter and rehabilitation like Lindsey. For operational questions about the recognition ceremony or Beyond The Wire services, the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association office can be reached by phone at 410-902-6844; the Maryland Horse Breeders Association also provides industry resources online.

Laurel Park’s March 21 presentation will make visible the paperwork, sheltering and personal expense behind aftercare placements, and the Board-backed recognition signals a broader industry need highlighted by Hammond’s final note: “We need more people like them in the horse racing and breeding industry.”