1990 Breeders Crown

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 offstride 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 backers 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.

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 Artsplace 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 stuck 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.