Artsplace - 2CP
The freshman pacing colt division of the Certified Vacations Breeders Crown series has never failed to provide some of the most electrifying competition of the year. In the seven-year history of the series, names like Dragon's Lair, Robust Hanover, Camtastic and Kentucky Spur trigger instant recall of rousing stretch drives and world record airings. The 1990 event will long be remembered as the capper to them all, and the end result could not have been more stunning.
The field of 11 colts included Tooter Scooter, world champion on a half-mile track, Mantese, a winner of five of his first six starts, including a 1 :53.4 victory in the Little Pat at Springfield and Cambest, triumphant in 12 of 17 starts. But the drama revolved around two colts vying for top honors in their class - Segal and Monieson's Artsplace, and Val D'Or Farms and Alnoff Stable's Die Laughing.
Die Laughing, from the father-son trainer-driver team of Jerry and Richie Silverman, burst on the scene in a big way at the Meadowlands, winning the Niatross and the $1 million Woodrow Wilson. Artsplace, trained by Midwest conditioner Gene Riegle, took a more circuitous route to the spotlight. He won divisions of the Hanover-Hempt at Vernon, and the Arden Downs at Ladbroke at The Meadows against softer company before posting a monstrous mile in the Metro Final at Mohawk Raceway, a wire-to-wire 1 :54f score that was the first harbinger of things to come.
Die Laughing defeated Arts place in the Presidential Final and seemed to have a lock on divisional honors, but Artsplace turned the tables on his foe in the Governor's Cup, the final start for both colts prior to their Crown events. Though the affable trainers of both colts downplayed the rivalry, the media made much of it, and divisional honors were suddenly at stake.
Die Laughing drew his lucky post position, number five, the same post from which he won the Wilson, Niatross and Tattersalls. But post position draw was where the son of No Nukes' luck ran out. Artsplace, beside Die Laughing in the four post, shot directly to the lead under the supervision of top reinsman John Campbell. Die Laughing, the public's choice at 60 cents on the dollar, took off in pursuit of the slickly-gaited son of Abercrombie, but Tooter Scooter, driven by Bill Fahy, zipped up into position and s uck on Campbell's back. The trio passed in front of the grandstand the first time with Campbell showing no signs of relinquishing the lead, and Silverman in trouble as Die Laughing was too cranked up to drop into the ever-widening gap between the three leaders and the rest of the field. The crowd got the message that Campbell was playing hardball when the first quarter in :26.2 erased the Crown record ( :26.3) for that station, set in 1984 by Dragon's Lair in the very same event.
When the half-mile time flashed :53.2, and Die Laughing was still a length in arrears of Artsplace, parked outside of Tooter Scooter, murmurs of disbelief rose from the packed house. That half-mile time was also a new Crown record, erasing the :55 half set by Anniecrombie in the Mare Pace at Lexington, a mile track. With the three-quarters in 1 :23, Artsplace could afford a bit of a breather, when it became obvious that Die Laughing, his closest challenger, was beginning to tire. When Campbell raised the whip around the last turn Artsplace could have slowed to a jog and no one would have been surprised, but instead he rallied down the stretch as if he'd just stepped on the track. He opened up eight lengths with little urging from Campbell and tripped the teletimer in 1 :51.1.
Die Laughing was eased up and finished last, Richie Silverman was gracious in defeat, likening his strategy loss to "an immovable object meeting an irresistible force, except I suddenly was moving backward. No one could have beaten Artsplace tonight." Berry Stable's Stormin Jesse, a second-tier starter, flew in the stretch to pass L. & L. De Visser Partnership's Tooter Scooter for place money.
That time of 1 :51.1 needs some clarification. Not only was it the fastest mile ever for a two-year-old on any size track, it also eradicated Beach Towel's month-old all-age track record at Pompano of 1 :51.2, set in his Crown event. Even more shocking is that in the 78 races that comprised the Breeders Crown series since 1984, Artsplace, a two-year-old, is responsible for the fastest clocking of the series.
The win made Artsplace harness racing's newest millionaire, and the leading money-winning freshman pacer of the year. George Segal and Brian Monieson's home bred captured year-end divisional honors by a landslide, and Gene Riegle. who turned out one stake winner after another in 1990, was named a co-winner of the Glen Garnsey "Trainer of the Year" award. Once again, the Breeders Crown Two·Year-Old Colt Pace provided the stage for a race the harness world could not stop talking about throughout the winter and long into the next year.
Extras
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Bay's Fella - Open Pace
Beach Towel - 3CP
Caesar's Jackpot - Mare Pace
Crysta's Best - 2CT
The early sensation in the 1990 freshman trotting ranks was Super Pleasure, a brother in blood to the great Mack Lobell. The flashy colt annexed several of the early colt trotting contests, including divisions of the Reynolds and Historic series, and his Peter Haughton elimination. In the Haughton final, Super Pleasure galloped at the start, spotted the field some 15 lengths and still was beaten just a nose at the wire by Charlie Ten Hitch, a colt owned by Washington Redskin's player Mark May. Charlie Ten Hitch was not staked to many events, including the Breeders Crown, but many considered him the best in the freshman class, that is until the tail-end of the stake season rolled around.
By the end of November the spotlight was on Mr. Chin, a fractious son of Speedy Somolli, owned by Garofalo, Nigito and the Lindy Racing Stable. Under the tutelage of top trotting trainers Oswaldo Formia and Jorn Kvikstad, (responsible for the '89 • '90 Hambletonian winners Probe and Harmonious), Mr. Chin had a mere $2,000 to his name in early October. Their patience was soon rewarded, and Mr. Chin's next three starts tallied a triple stakes wins In the Dancer Memorial, Valley Victory and the Matron at Pompano Harness.
Entries from 14 colts caused two eliminations raced a week in advance of the lucrative final. In the first, Mr. Chin extended his win streak to four, taking control past the quarter and notching an easy 1 :59.4 victory. Peter and Gail McCann's Carry The Message was the highest price trotting yearling of 1989, fetching $315,000 at the Tattersalls Sale in Lexington. Though he, too, was prone to going offstrlde at inopportune moments, Carry The Message was trained by Chuck Sylvester, one of the best in preparing horses for big money events. With John Campbell in the bike, Carry The Message behaved perfectly in his elimination, fashioning a wire-to-wire, five-length triumph in 1 :59.1.
The Ohio-sired Crysta's Best, driven and trained by Dick Richardson, Jr., had accumulated a tidy little bankroll in excess of $140,000, racing almost exclusively in the Midwest. Richardson realized the colt was something special when he set a season's mark in the Ohio Sire Stake Final by some nine lengths. Crysta's Best possessed the discouraging habit of making breaks at the start of his mile, but Richardson still decided to try him in some late-season stakes. In his Valley Victory elimination at Garden State Park in New Jersey, the bad habit cost him a berth in the final, but Richardson opted to send him on to the Breeders Crown anyway.
In the elimination won by Carry The Message, Crysta's Best jumped leaving the gate. He resumed trotting and took off in pursuit of the field, traveling wide most of the mile to finish a convincing third and grab a spot in the next week's final.
At post time, Mr. Chin was the even money favorite, with Carry The Message second choice in the wagering. The last race of the year for freshman colt trotters represented high stakes: the role as winter-book favorite in the Hambletonian, divisional honors and a healthy amount of purse money. True to form, Crysta's Best made an anxious break behind the starting gate, gapping off the field and dropping back to seventh. Carry The Message and John Campbell sprinted out to a secure lead, with Mr. Chin following behind them. By the half, Crysta's Best had just one horse beaten, the wildly galloping Harlan Lobell.
It had to be seen to believed. Crysta's Best, out of contention at the start of the race, regained control and steadily picked off horses, trotting on the outside behind weak cover. Mr. Chin was trapped along the rail, with no possible racing room. By mid-stretch baci...ers of Carry The Message were counting their money, yet a few strides later, Crysta's Best represented a serious threat to their payoffs. The two colts were noses apart at the wire, and after a long photo, it was a stunned group of happy Ohioans running for the winner's circle.
Biddle, Breidenbach, Huber and Montgomery's Crysta's Best thrust his nose through the timer in 2:01.1, denying Campbell and Carry The Message another wire-to-wire score. Somatic, driven by Tom Haughton trotted steadily for third honors. Perhaps the greatest achievement of the evening belonged to entrepreneur K. D. Owen, a successful owner and breeder for more than 60 years, and a wizard with pedigrees. Owen bred both Jean Bi and Crysta's Best, the trotting freshman Breeders Crown and divisional champions, an unprecedented accomplishment for a small breeder.
Extras
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Embassy Lobell - 3CT
Me Maggie - 3FT
Miss Easy - 2FP
There was only one name in the two-year-old freshman filly pacing ranks and it was a particularly felicitous tag: Miss Easy, a first crop daughter of Amity Chef, had been plucked from the Stoner Creek Stud consignment at the Tattersalls Sale in Lexington for $46,000 by Lou Guida. Guida was purchasing some yearlings to race in partnership with his neighbor at his winter home in Vero Beach, Florida. The neighbor, Jerry Swanson, owned thoroughbreds, and Guida assured him his money would go a lot further in the harness racing game.
More than $1 million later, Swanson and the rest of the members of the Royal Palm Stable had to agree. Miss Easy won her first 11 pari-mutuel starts of 1990, simply devastating her peers in such stake races as the Historic-Debutante, the Countess Adios, and her elimination and the final of the Sweetheart Pace. Trained by Bruce Nickells, conditioner of Central Park West. the 1988 Crown freshman filly champ, Miss Easy was also attended to by Laurie Voris, the caretaker of both Follow My Star and Central Park West.
Miss Easy blazed her stakes trail at The Meadowlands in New Jersey, winning eight straight races on the mile oval, costing the Meadowlands nearly $300,000 in minus pools. When that meeting closed, Miss Easy won both the Lady Baltimore and a division of the Kentucky Standardbred Sales Company Pace, at Rosecroft Raceway, lowering the track standard to 1 :55f. Back on the mile track at Lexington's Red Mile, Miss Easy dropped jaws and gave the harness world pause with a 1 :51.2 victory in an elimination of the Bluegrass Stakes. That time was a world record for a two-year-old of either sex, and matched the distaff standard of the four-year-old mare Caesar's Jackpot for the fastest race mile ever.
The horse van shipping Miss Easy from Lexington to Garden State Park in New Jersey was delayed when another horse on the van became sick and had to be returned to Lexington. The delay caused Nickells to miss a training session with his filly, and the public was soon to find out Miss Easy was not Miss Infallible. In her Three Diamonds eliminations, she carved out 3/4 pole fractions of 1 :26.2, but came up short in the stretch, finishing third behind Yankee Co-ed and Cam's Exotic. She quickly made matters right in the foal, though, and when Yankee Co-ed made a break in the first turn, Miss Easy had no trouble abandoning the field by some nine lengths. The chalk-players breathed a sigh of relief, and the Breeders Crown title seemed just a formality on the way to unanimous divisional honors.
Surprisingly. 10 other fillies were willing to lake on the invincible Miss Easy. including Prince Lee Acres' Cam's Exotic. who had finished ahead of Miss Easy in their Three Diamonds elimination. The Canadian-owned and trained Big Bloomer also put in an eye-popping Crown prep race, closing like a train to finish second against older horses. But the mischievous fates were not done tweaking the hopes of the conneclions of all fillies entered, and on the Friday prior to the Breeders Crown event, Miss Easy, entered in a morning qualifier just to keep fit. shocked the few people actually in attendance by breaking into a wild gallop before the first turn. Even her ace pilot John Campbell was taken by surprise, and though he got her pacing enough to finish fifth, she was timed in a dismal 2:07.1f.
The phone wires Ht up the East em Seaboard and the vet examined her from head to toe. but nothing could be found amiss with the miss. At post time. despite her outside eight post position, the bettors were still in Miss Easy's corner, making a $2.00 bet on her worth 40 cents. Some 100 owners, friends, and members of the Miss Easy Fan Club gathered to cheer her on.
Though Cam's Exotic sprinted for the lead, Campbell didn't waste any time in hustling Miss Easy after her. Doug Brown, winner of this event last year with Town Pro, held the front past the quarter in :27 .2, but Miss Easy was picking off fillies, moving up slowly on the outside. In her wake scampered Wedgies, driven by Steve Condren. At the half in :57.1, Cam's Exotic was ready to defend her lead against Miss Easy. but was no match for the big filly when Campbell pressed her for more speed. Miss Easy was in control past the five-eighths. and it was clear sailing from the three-quarter pole on. Though Cam's Exotic dug in, attempting to narrow the gap, Campbell kept a length measure of safety between Miss Easy and the field, crossing the wire in 1 :541. Cam's Exotic was second and Wedgies, racing uncovered after Miss Easy assumed the lead, hung gamely for third.
Miss Easy gave trainer Bruce Nickells his third Crown title. Stoner Creek Stud it's third breeders credit, and Campbell his fifteenth driver's trophy. The Royal Palm Stable won it's first Crown title, with it's first entry in Crown competition. Miss Easy became the ninth horse to wear a Crown for a partnership or syndicate that was managed by Lou Guida, and her victory boosted her earnings to $1.1 million, making her the richest freshman pacing filly of all time. Ironically. the filly she displaced, 1985 Breeders Crown champion Caressable, was also owned by a Guida-managed partnership, LPG Standardbred Associates. Miss Easy danced off with the divisional title, and was one of three female pacers featured on the limited edition Harness Hero Cards, in the heady company of Fan Hanover and Sllk Stockings.
Extras
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No Sex Please - Open Trot
Full ESPN Broadcast featuring the 1990 Breeders Crown Final for Open Trotters from Pompano Park in Pompano Beach, FL won by No Sex Please
Peace Corps - Mare Trot
Town Pro - 3FP
