Elizabeth “Lizzie” Merryman

Elizabeth “Lizzie” Merryman is the TOBA August Member of the Month.

Elizabeth “Lizzie” Merryman is riding high as the breeder, and as former co-owner and trainer, of reigning turf titan Caravel. Bred in Pennsylvania by Merryman, Caravel has rattled off five straight graded wins, including two grade 1s. Undefeated so far in 2023, the six-year-old mare beat the boys again in the June 10 Jaipur Stakes (G1T).

Caravel won four of five starts at two in 2020, including a pair of stakes at Presque Isle Downs. By the end of her juvenile season, “she was having some growing pains,” Merryman recalled, adding, “She would get really high behind and then need time to level off.” She also tied up a few times, so she was turned out for the rest of the fall.

Brought back in late spring 2021, she won her second and third starts of her sophomore season—both stakes—“and then the calls started coming in about selling her.” The Mizzen Mast filly RNA’ed for $330,000 at the 2020 Wanamaker’s October Online Auction. Merryman’s daughter, Liza Hendriks, co-founded Wanamaker’s. In her final start for Merryman, Caravel captured the Caress Stakes (G3T).

In summer 2021, Merryman sold 75% interest in Caravel to Bobby Flay. “I got a pretty bad breast cancer diagnosis,” she said, “and so I had to have chemo and radiation and surgery and everything, so I knew I wasn’t going to be able to train her like I was training her and kind of be here all the time, like I was at Fair Hill [Training Center in Elkton, Maryland].” Caravel eventually sold for $500,000 to Fergus Galvin, agent, at the 2021 Fasig-Tipton Night of the Stars sale. She currently races for Qatar Racing, Marc Detampel, and Madaket Stables LLC.

After the Caress, Caravel took some time to find her footing again. She rounded out 2021 with an off-the-board finish in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint (G1T) at Del Mar for current conditioner Brad Cox. “They’re a really wonderful group of people and they’ve kind of kept me in the loop and included me in going to the races and seeing her,” Merryman said.

In 2022, the talented turf star came back with a vengeance. She won five stakes, three graded, including the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Keeneland at odds of almost 43-1. Merryman said of the Breeders’ Cup, “I knew she was a real longshot, and it probably wasn’t going to work out, but I thought, you know, this is such an amazing filly and I’m so excited to watch her in the Breeders’ Cup because I have so much faith in her.” She added, “When she’s doing well, she has such a cocky air about her. She just thinks you’re kind of visiting her world, and that’s how she always was here.”

On the recommendation of horsewoman Kim Brette, Merryman acquired Caravel’s dam, the winner Zeezee Zoomzoom (by Congrats) and bred her to Mizzen Mast. “Caravel was so beautiful and perfect-looking—just perfect conformation, delightful disposition as a baby—that I was very taken with the mare,” she said. One of Merryman’s two broodmares, Zeezee Zoomzoom has also foaled winners Witty (a $337,460-earning stakes winner) and Tipsy Chatter. In foal to Justify for 2024, she has a Great Notion two-year-old and Street Boss yearling. The mare’s three-year-old gelding, Mission Man (by Holy Boss), is a Merryman homebred. Trained by Merryman’s son McLane Hendriks, he broke his maiden June 21 at Delaware Park.

Residing on Buffalo Run Ranch in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, Merryman hails from a family full of accomplished horsemen and horsewomen. Parents John and Katharine “Kitty” Merryman bred numerous stakes winners like 1975 Top Flight Handicap (G1) victress Twixt. Katy Voss, eldest of their six children, trained Twixt, and she became co-breeder of 2021 Qatar Racing Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1) winner Aloha West.

Another daughter, Ann, is a trainer and breeder, as well as one of Lizzie’s best friends, and her son Michael is a successful horseman. Their brother, Edwin, shares Lizzie’s Fair Hill barn and breeds, and his son Louis and daughter-in-law Grace stand stallions at Anchor & Hope Farm in Port Deposit, Maryland. Other members of the Merryman family are stars in the firmament of North American racing.

Merryman mused that her father would’ve “been so excited when Aloha West won [at the Breeders’ Cup in 2021] and then Caravel won the next year.” And Merryman herself is loving Caravel’s ride. “And Brad Cox has really figured her out and just does a great job with her, so it’s really fun and rewarding for me as a breeder to watch her rise and be so successful. It’s been pretty incredible.”