By JAY BERGMAN
This is the best our sport has to offer.
This year it may not ALL come down to the Breeders Crown, as the slogan goes, but for those who came down for the Breeders Crown at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs last Saturday, it was a spectacle that cast a bright light on this sport. For those witnessing the sport for the first time there was a great balance of favorites and longshots. For those who’ve been there before there was compelling drama, more of the unexpected than the expected. The format worked because in a very small window we were able to show that all races aren’t the same. We were able to show why horses who enter without hope can actually win. We were able to show that though statistics say horses from inside positions win more, posts eight and nine can capture the big ones. We showed that leading drivers can make mistakes and first time drivers can steer perfectly..
Personally what I found best is that great horses triumphed and not all did so under ideal conditions. Great horses were also forced to engage in battles that left scars, more questions and bewilderment in the minds of many, not sure what they had witnessed.
Some of the biggest stars didn’t handle the Pocono surface as had been expected. Lucky Jim and Shark Gesture, the dominant males in their respective trotting and pacing classes both broke stride as betting favorites. Even Hambletonian champion Muscle Massive couldn’t keep his stride while challenging for the lead.
But, let’s not blame the track surface for these losses of composure. It was in fact the battle that would ensue or had ensued that caused these generally well-mannered horses to lose their action. Some might argue that the breaks took away some luster from an otherwise brilliant night. I look at it the other way, put horses under pressure, make them do things they naturally don’t have to do and the unexpected will happen.
Such was the case in many of the races as the favorites made mistakes, drivers made mistakes and misfortune turned to fortune for longshot players and angst for chalk eaters.
It was rich to see Rock N Roll Heaven get the last laugh. He had to do it alone with Dan Dube posting a memorable 1:19.4 three quarter clocking while arch-rival One More Laugh again made a break at that same point five-eighths of the way into the mile that he had at the beginning of the season.
Enough Talk let his actions speak volumes with a commanding wire-to-wire performance for Ron Pierce. It was the first of three wins for Pierce, all upsets and all with trotters. Pierce seemed to set the tone for the night in the evening’s third event, the Crown for juvenile trotting fillies. With Dustin Jones putting him up on outsider Martiniontherocks, a 30-1 shot in the event Pierce managed to overcome the eight hole with little problem as three rivals broke in front of him. John Campbell, with Seducedbychocolate, wished to regain the lead from the longshot and found quickly that courtesy retakes were not on the menu for this extraordinary evening. At the wire Pierce was an easy winner and Campbell’s charge faded and eventually broke.
Perhaps memory or temperament hadn’t changed when the drivers took the track for the next race, the Crown championship for three-year-old colt trotters. Clearly there was more on the line for both Campbell and Pierce in this clash. For Pierce’s Muscle Massive had upset Campbell’s Lucky Chucky in the Hambletonian and the Crown was expected to answer the question of who was better?
Both colts looked fabulous scoring down. Lucky Chucky looked a whole lot smoother than he had pre-Hambletonian and Muscle Massive looked the picture of a salestopper.
I don’t know but I get the feeling had Pierce and Campbell not lit the fire in the third race, the fourth race may have been very different. Perhaps because he looked and felt so good Campbell rolled Lucky Chucky to the front setting a wicked :27.1 opening quarter while seating Flex The Muscles in the process. Pierce, like he did in the Hambo, also left the gate but didn’t sprint as quickly as the other two and began to seriously challenge Lucky Chucky heading into the straightaway. The next few seconds of the race will define this night and hopefully in some ways define the future of a sport pining for national attention and to be taken more seriously in the mainstream. Campbell didn’t grab the rains and release his rival. Instead he kept Muscle Massive and Pierce parked.
It was a battle of titans usually reserved for the homestretch, but on this night the battle raged much earlier and proved to be the demise of both. With Muscle Massive breaking stride for the first time as a three-year-old, Break The Bank and Brian Sears took the offensive and pushed Lucky Chucky like he had never been before. The result was a major victory for Break The Bank and a shocking third place finish for Lucky Chucky, now bitten with two major disappointments in a year most consider him the best colt.
But Breeders Crown not only proved some of the drivers have flaws, it also proved some of the handicappers have flaws. When Bob Heyden congratulated Big Jim’s owner for “sticking with driver Phil Hudon,” he was speaking for those punters who thought Big Jim’s only problem in losing was his driver. But Hudon proved Heyden and other experts dead wrong with a flawless drive and an easy victory. Our sport is rich in history and we shouldn’t lose site that many of our greatest standardbreds weren’t driven by our greatest drivers.
It’s not likely that a Justice of the Peace will grant Randy Waples a marriage license anytime soon, that is until equine and human unions become legal, but apparently they are in the state the Waples lives in. Waples comments following his victory with Dreamfair Eternal were entertaining and in need of a larger audience.
Most Spectacular Performance of the Night
I don’t know if the fans really got a chance to appreciate what may have been the most phenomenal two-year-old trotting mile of all time. Manofmanymissions victory was the equal of Artsplace’s 1:51.1 two-year-old breakout mile at Pompano as a two-year-old in the Crown some 20 years ago. The fact is the son of Yankee Glide was actually off the gate at the start by a few lengths with his driver, Andy Miller being extremely cautious not to miscue. Miller managed to avoid some breakers early and get his horse into sixth.
The race was hotly contested with one half of the Jim Takter uncoupled entry Leader of the Gang parking race favorite Dejarmbro to the half while Pastor Stephen, the more accomplished member of the Takter stable waited to pounce. Yannick Gingras wasted no time with Pastor Stephen once they passed the half and he trotted powerfully to the front on the backstretch. Andy Miller in the meantime was tracking that move but being most cautious not to accelerate too quickly or lose his stride.
In watching the race and replay it was clear to me that Miller would have been happy to finish second with Manofmanymissions right up until the closing yards. He had his hands full just making sure the colt stayed on gate, but finally with the wire approaching Miller let his horse go and he ate up ground to win in a 1:53.2 clocking.
It’s hard to say how fast Manofmanymissions will go in the future, but he does seem to have unlimited potential, especially if he can
Breaks You Don’t Want to Get
The untimely breaks of Lucky Jim and Shark Gesture robbed racing fans of the epic duels expected in their respective divisions. For Shark Gesture it was his second straight race where he broke for no apparent reason while leading an important contest. While no one was looking or making any excuses for the horse, maybe the Shark is telling us something about the racing wars. We’ve become so spoiled with the sub 1:50 miles and what some of our elite horses can do, we sometimes lose site of the toll these miles may take. I’m hopeful we’ll get to see more of the kind of Shark Gesture we’ve seen in the last few years, but if the war horse is telling us he’s had enough by his most recent races he most certainly deserves a dignified retirement.
Finally, give the staff at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs credit for putting on a first class event which brought out a large crowd of newcomers. The betting on the evening’s program was an impressive $2.25 million, with a respectable portion coming on track. The game Mohegan Sun and the Pennsylvania Horsemen took in sponsoring the event has paid off richly for our sport.
