1986 Breeders Crown

Pompano Park, which along with Rosecroft Raceway is the only racetrack to have presented a Breeders Crown event in each of the first three seasons, was the site of the 1986 Two-year-old Colt Trot. Workaholic and Express Ride, the winners in this division in 1984 and 1985, both went on to win seasonal honors, and the One More Time Stable was hoping that Mack Lobell, a colt which many observers felt was the best freshman they had ever seen, would be able to keep the streak intact.

Trainer Charles Sylvester, whose enormous success with freshman trotters had not extended to Breeders Crown competition, had the Lana Lobell-bred son of Mystic Park on edge for the final start of his initial campaign, and driver John Campbell, who had not won a Breeders Crown in 1986 after capturing four in 1985, handled the colt perfectly. Avoiding several breaking colts around the first turn, Campbell steered Mack towards Buckfinder, who had made the front at the quarter, and with a wicked burst of speed, Mack Lobell trotted to the lead. With much of the field outclassed or off stride, there would be no outside challengers, and Campbell downshifted the son of Mystic Park through a :31.4 third panel. As they turned for home, the top pair had opened a dozen lengths on the field.

O'Donnell wheeled Buckfinder out halfway down the stretch for the final challenge, but Mack hit overdrive at the eighth pole, trotting his last quarter in a blistering :28.2 to complete the circuit in 1:59.1. The valiant Buckfinder was a length back, and, eventually, Nevele Olympian crossed the wire third. Mack Lobell would be the only Crown winner of 1986 for both Sylvester, whose odds-on pupils Armbro Fern and Britelite Lobell had lost heartbreaking contests at Canterbury and Freehold in the previous weeks, and Campbell, and would become the third straight winner of this race to also cop divisional honors.

The only event to be split into eliminations in all three editions of the Breeders Crown, the Two-year-old Colt Pace was the first of the four races held at Garden State Park on November 14, and the $817,000 contest set the tone for the surprising night of racing that followed.

Track Robbery was the first to hit the wire in the earlier, and weaker of the eliminations, but the Governor Skipper colt broke into a gallop shortly before the finish and was placed second behind the valiant Maxamillon Hanover, who cut every step of the 1:55.3 mile before succumbing to Track Robbery's surge. Third and fourth places, and spots in the final, went to Meadowbranch Bret and the favorite, Nukem.

The second elimination was a showcase for the richest two-year-old in the history of harness racing, Jerry Smith's Redskin. The chestnut Storm Damage homebred was sent to the front past the half, and posted an easy 1:55.3 victory for driver Bill O'Donnell. Three longshots followed the 1-5 shot across the wire: Savage Breeze, the lightly-raced Sunset Warrior, and Run The Table, a stablemate of Maxamillon Hanover in the Del Insko shedrow.

The final was a shocker. Sunset Warrior, who had finished fastest of all in the eliminations, was sent to the front by Bill Gale, and, when O'Donnell, who had worked out a perfect second-over voyage for the odds-on choice, asked Redskin for speed, Sunset Warrior responded with just a little more. Bill Gale popped the earplugs out of the homebred Sundance Skipper colt's ears, and the pride and joy of the Little Farm and trainer Bob McIntosh chugged onward, maintaining a three-quarter of a length lead at the wire. Maxamillon Hanover was third, four lengths behind the winner.