1987 Breeders Crown

The powerful Swedish empires of Team Nordin and Continental Stable are usually well-represented in all of harness racing's trotting divisions. 1987 proved no exception, as both stables turned out one diagonally-gaited champion after another. However, among the two-year-old colts, no one horse or trainer overpowered the somewhat fragmented division. Of the many contenders, some, like Supergill, showed flashes of brilliant speed, and others, like Firm Tribute, displayed remarkable consistency.

By the end of October, not all the heavyweights of the division were still racing, and it appeared the Breeders Crown event hosted across the Canadian border at Mohawk Raceway could be anybody's race. Twelve colts were willing to take a shot at the richest purse trotters had ever seen in Canada, necessitating the event to be split into two eliminations and a final.

There were, of course, two favorites. In the first elimination, The Team Nordin-trained Grundy's Cohnection, owned by Michigan hardware magnates Clifford and Seymour Grundy and their partner Sydney Cohn, looked to be the chancy colt. An unruly son of Speedy Crown, Grundy's Cohnection displayed a tendency for going off stride. But he also was able to recover quickly from his miscues, and though he broke in several stake races, his speed when he resumed trotting usually enabled him to make up enough ground to be close at the wire.

But it was the Continental Stable starter, Continental Spirit, who took the first elimination for his owner, Ed Rudner. The colt had shown a facility for negotiating smaller tracks, and driver Jan Johnson steered him around the Mohawk five-eighths oval smoothly, taking advantage of the pace-setting cover of the other Team Nordin entrant, Petri Kosmos. Johnson maneuvered the colt free at the top of the stretch and won in 2:01.4. Grundy's Cohnection, parked the mile but staying onstride, finished third and made the final.

In the second elimination, a newcomer to the Grand Circuit trotting ranks was making his presence felt. Young Mark O'Mara bought a son of Bonefish, named Firm Tribute, at the yearling sales for $25,000 and was unable to find any partners on the horse. A year later Firm Tribute was in the Breeders Crown with almost $350,000 on his card, more earnings than any other colt in the field. The heavy favorite, he did not disappoint, taking command at the quarter and winning by an unchallenged-two-length margin in 2:01.2.

When the colts returned for the final an hour later, Firm Tribute was once again the favorite in the wagering and with the rail did truly appear unbeatable. Also starting were two colts from the Team Nordin Stable and two from Continental, as well the well-regarded but lightly campaigned Armbro Gaylord from the Lofty Bruce Stable. Hall of Famers from both sides of the border were represented, as driver/trainer Ron Waples had finished fourth with Huggie Hanover and driver/trainer Howard Beissinger squeaked in with a fourth place finish behind his homebred colt Defiant One. Beissinger had almost elected not to race Defiant One. The morning of the race the colt came up with a slight temperature and Beissinger seriously considered scratching him before deciding to go ahead and race him.

In the final, Berndt Linstedt, driving King Of Broline, stole the front end and then set leisurely fractions to the three-quarters in 1:31. Past the three-quarters, O'Mara had moved Firm Tribute out and was steadily advancing up the outside. The pair seized the lead at the head of the stretch but the toll the overland journey had taken was apparent, and the field was closing in. Suddenly from out of nowhere, came Howard Beissinger and Defiant One. Seventh at the three-quarter pole, Defiant One, owned by Ann Beissinger and Eva Duringer, was sailing by horses. At the wire, Defiant One was past Firm Tribute by three-quarters of a length. The horse and driver barely appeared on the television monitors before the tote board flashed a final time of 2:01.4.

Howard Beissinger is in the Hall of Fame because he is a consummate horsemen and has few peers as a developer and driver of young trotters and pacers. All that experience was brought to the fore in this brilliant Breeders Crown victory. The win was also a continuing association with a great trotting family for Beissinger and his wife, Ann, who sold part of the homebred to her friend and former Miss Austria, Eva Duringer. Beissinger developed both the sire of the new Breeders Crown champion, Defiant Yankee, winning the Dexter Cup with him, as well as his grandsire, the great Speedy Crown. He also trained the dam of Defiant One, Only A Rose; her dam, Lindy's Rose, and her sire, Lindy's Crown, with whom he won the trotting Triple Crown.

Defiant One, a little under the weather in the morning, was crowned a winner that night and Howard Beissinger reminded the world that he wasn't through parading champions yet.

When Frederick Van Lennep envisioned the creation of the Breeders Crown series, one of his many objectives was to create a nationally recognized showcase for true champions of the standardbred breed. It's fair to say that the series has accomplished that; the races have either been hard fought battles waged to settle divisional honors, or centerpieces in which a dominant horse performs with such authority as to confirm that he or she is indeed the "Horse of the Year".

When the Breeders Crown returned to beautiful Rosecroft Raceway for the fourth time in four years, it was to showcase the two-year-old pacing colt division. The "Raceway on the Beltway" was in for yet another treat. The track had hosted the division in 1985, and seen the impossible - tiny Robust Hanover defeating the huge Barberry Spur, demolishing the track record on the way. In 1984 Rosecroft fans witnessed a devastating performance by the three-year-old trotting filly Fancy Crown, who handled her foes with embarrassing ease and went on to win "Horse of the Year" honors. Then in 1986 the two-year-old pacing fillies fought a thriller to the wire that saw Halcyon emerge victorious by a neck and also be awarded divisional laurels.

This year's race had all the ingredients for another classic confrontation. There was Camtastic, a first-crop son of two-time "Horse of the Year" Cam Fella, who had only been defeated once coming into the Breeders Crown at Rosecroft. There was the regular pilot of Camtastic, $10 million dollar man Bill O'Donnell, the man behind Fancy Crown's tour of the same half-mile oval two years prior, a man who had captured more Breeders Crown crystal trophies than anyone except John Campbell - who would be sitting right on his back with an inauspicious colt named Money Lender, a New Jersey Sires Stakes star who could get around a half-mile track with astonishing versatility.

Eleven other freshman were willing to test Camtastic's win streak, including early season's star Pied Piper and a steady little pacer owned by Richard Staley and trained by Doug Ackerman named Ever So Rich. Two New Jersey-breds, Scoot Herb and Nuclear Nightmare were at the top of their game coming into the race, and Woodrow Wilson winner Even Odds, a disappointing eighth in the Presidential at Rosecroft the week before, was looking to make amends.

Camtastic had swept the Presidential series in handy fashion, and jogged a wire-to-wire 1:59.2 mile in his Breeders Crown elimination. Ever So Rich won the other elim in similar fashion, in a time of 1:59. The many members of Dreamaire Racing Corp. III, under whose ownership Camtastic competed were assembled in the clubhouse. Dining on the splendid buffet Rosecroft had laid out for all the owners, the atmosphere appeared festive and relaxed. But an undercurrent of tension ran through the group, because in horse racing there is no such thing as a sure thing.

Surprisingly, O'Donnell elected not to send Camtastic after the lead when the gate wings folded. First Ever So Rich got the front, pursued by a three-wide Even Odds, and the two dueled it out until the quarter, when Even Odds finally got the top. Camtastic had taken the tuck into the three-hole behind Ever So Rich and waited for the horses to settle out of the second turn before making his move. An undecided D.R. Ackerman was half in and half out in front of him, and that was all the motivation O'Donnell needed. Approaching the half he guided Camtastic out of the three slot and the colt unleashed a ferocious brush past the two leaders. From there Camtastic aired the rest of the field, striding out under little prompting from O'Donnell as two then three then four then five lengths separated him from his nearest pursuer at the wire. A new track record of 1:56.2 shone from the timer, and a new champion was crowned in the crowded Rosecroft winner's circle. The Bob Bencal-trained Camtastic had so overwhelmed his peers that he not only was awarded divisional honors, but was also lauded as "Pacer of the Year".

Nuclear Nightmare, owned by the Sartorial Splendor Stable, followed Camtastic's winning move nearing the half-mile pole, but could simply not keep up in his wake, though he held bravely for second. Arlene Traub's Even Odds, pressured from the word "Go", did his best to get third place.