A RECAP OF THE NORTH AMERICAN AWARD WINNERS

I thought it might be useful this week to do a recap of the 1998 season, honor the divisional champions, and offer some of the highlights of the season, at least from the perspective of Curt’s Corner. First, let’s examine each of the divisional champions, with a few of the exceptional performances of each noted. Here is a compilation of the divisional champions, complete with their racing records for the year.

MONI MAKER WAS THE STAR OF THE SHOW

Moni Maker was named Horse of the Year in North America, with a 35 vote plurality over the 3-year-old Muscles Yankee. This was expected to be a close ballot and it was, with most observers feeling that Moni Maker clinched the title when Muscles Yankee failed so remarkably in the Kentucky Futurity, and Moni Maker continued her winning ways late in Europe.

For the season, including her most recent win this past weekend in Rome (December 26) Moni Maker made 17 starts, with 12 wins, three seconds and two thirds, for earnings in excess of $1.1 million, bringing her career winnings to more than $2.8 million. Her purse total moves her into sixth all-time among trotters, trailing only Peace Corps, Ourasi, Mack Lobell, Reve D’Udon and Sea Cove. The wondrous Speedy Crown mare trails only the legendary Peace Corps as the leading money- winning trotting mare of all time, and we now await the outcome of the famous Prix d’Amerique approximately one month from now to help us determine Moni Maker’s true position in the list of all-time greats. Moni Maker’s biggest North American wins were the Breeders Crown and Nat Ray on back-to-back weekends at the Meadowlands in August, and her world record Elitlopp in Sweden in May. She made but four starts in North America this year, and only two of those in stakes, but her reputation and world record in the Elitlopp all helped to carry the day.

MUSCLES YANKEE SHOWED THE WAY AMONG THE 3-YEAR-OLD TROTTERS

Muscles Yankee was the dominant colt in the three-year-old trotting ranks, His season summary reads 12-9-1-1 with $1,258,611 earned. The Valley Victory colt won the Hambletonian, Yonkers Trot, Beacon Course, Transylvania and Breeders Crown. Six of his 12 starts were at the Meadowlands; he had one start on the half-miler at Yonkers, three at Lexington, and two in the Breeders Crown at season’s end in Virginia. As was reported in this same space a few weeks ago, Muscles Yankee had 21 career starts, which is just about the average number for a son of Valley Victory, Muscles won right at $1.4 million lifetime, and his race mark of 1:52 2-5 in the Hambletonian made him the fastest male performer to date from his champion sire.

Muscles Yankee looked to be headed to Horse of the Year honors after his stunning Hambletonian triumph, and the rather easy dispatch of his rivals in the Yonkers Trot. Inexplicably, he threw in a very bad race in the Kentucky Futurity, and lost all chance of being Horse of the Year. Muscles must be appraised as one of the soundest of all of Valley Victory’s accomplished champions. He was also good-gaited, overcame the breaking problems that had cost him so dearly as a two-year-old, and is a very attractive stallion candidate, since his pedigrees mirrors that of both Victory Dream and Donerail in nearly every detail. His introductory stud fee of $15,000 seems high when compared to that of recent stars Pine Chip and Malabar Man, who both stood for $10,000 in their debut seasons, but I am quite sure there will be no shortage of mares for him at Perretti Farms, given the fact that his own sire is virtually inaccessible at this time to anyone other than a syndicate member.

FERN LED THE LADIES NEARLY THE ENTIRE SEASON

The 3-year-old trotting fillies were led throughout the season by the oily-gaited and reliable Fern, a daughter of Sierra Kosmos who won only one race and less than $15,000 in an uneventful two-year-old season in 1997. Fern’s solid season marked the second year in a row that a daughter of Sierra Kosmos was judged the best 3yo filly in the land, following the memorable No Nonsense Woman's season of 1997.

Fern won 12 times in 19 starts, with major victories in the Hambletonian Oaks, Kentucky Futurity Filly and Delvin Miller Memorial. It was the Miller Memorial at the Meadowlands in early July that introduced Fern to the upper levels of the breed, and one had to take notice when she dispatched a courageous, late bid from 1997 two-year-old champion Feel The Motion in that stake. Fern followed that with an easy win in the Hambletonian Oaks, and then once again showed courage, as well as speed, when she was severely tested in the Kentucky Futurity Filly stake heats. She was forced to attack her nemesis Lassie’s Goal from the first-over position in the final heat of that stake, and showed her true grit by dispatching her rival, and opening up to win by a widening two lengths. Fern had two notable losses, as she raced poorly in both the World Trotting Derby filly stake and the Breeders Crown, but the rest of her season was nearly unblemished.

Bred by Jeff Gural’s Maraula Associates, Fern will, happily, return to the races in 1999, with the Breeders Crown and Classic Oaks distance series in mind. An effort will be made to have an embryo transplanted from the mare this coming spring while she prepares for her 1999 season. Her owners also hope that Fern can make a short trip to Norway to compete in an international event before she returns to her North American summer engagements. There are no plans to point her at this time for the Elitlopp.

CR COMMANDO BLAZED HIS WAY TO THE 2-YEAR-OLD TROT CHAMPIONSHIP

Prior to 1998, no two-year-old trotter had ever shaded 1:55, and the record for trotting colts was Mack Lobell’s long-standing 1:55 3-5 mark. When the dust settled on this remarkable season, not only had CR Commando recorded his stunning 1:53 3-5 victory in the Breeders Crown final, but Angus Hall also shaded 1:55 in a 1:54 4-5 Crown elimination victory. Enjoy Lavec and Starchip Entrprise took the only other major events for the baby trotters, with Enjoy Lavec winning the Peter Haughton (and thus inheriting the curse for next year’s Hambletonian) and Starchip Entrprise was an impressive winner of the Valley Victory at Garden State Park.

CR Commando won six of his 12 starts this season, and earned just over $350,000, and it was hard for the voters to overlook his heroic world championship effort in the Breeders Crown. CR Commando is another in a long line of champions to be bred, trained, and raced by the remarkable team of Carl and Rod Allen. The handsome CR Commando is a high-headed colt, as are all of Allen’s champions, and he is very much in the mold of his sire Royal Troubador, whom it was recently announced has left Pennsylvania’s Kosmos farm to stand in Kentucky at Walnut Hall, Ltd. alongside both Conway Hall and Garland Lobell. In just the last six weeks of the 1998 season, CR Commando took two impressive victories at Lexington in the Bluegrass and International Stallion Stakes, was second in an elimination for the Valley Victory, and then won his Breeders Crown elimination and final. He made a break at the start of the Valley Victory final, losing all chance in that event. Carl Allen has boldly indicated that he believes that CR Commando will trot in 1:50 at three, and no one doubts Allen’s opinion after seeing the colt rocket down the stretch at Colonial Downs this past fall with trot in reserve.

RUM BOOGIE WAS ANOTHER DIVISIONAL CHAMPION FOR VALLEY VICTORY

Rum Boogie’s triumph in the season-ending Goldsmith Maid at Garden State Park no doubt gave her the nod in the freshman trotting filly ranks. She made only eight starts, but won five times, with two seconds. She was probably most impressive the first week at Lexington, where she scored in a then season’s record 1:57 2-5 in the Bluegrass Stake (Johnston Memorial) defeating eventual Breeders Crown champion Musical Victory and Gillnet. Bred by the powerful Frank Antonacci stable, Rum Boogie is a daughter of the Crowning Point mare Margarita Miss 4,1:56. The only blemishes on her 1998 season were of her own making, and she clearly has the talent to become a star. She will have to be much more consistent and mature next year if she is regain this title at three. This does not appear to be a particularly strong group of fillies, and this should be a contentious division next season.

GLORY’S COMET HAD THE TYPICAL BALANCED IMAGE TYPE YEAR

Glory’s Comet was named the top older trotter in North America, and he had the kind of season we have to come to expect from a top, gelded son of Balanced Image. Glory’s Comet raced from early in the season to late, making 30 starts, all in open company, winning $720,100. His biggest triumph was a remarkable charge from ninth after 1 3-8 mile to win the $412,000 Trotting Classic series final at Mohawk Raceway last fall. Glory’s Comet is the epitome of a tough, fast and durable son of Balanced Image. He lowered his mark to 1:53 4-5 last year at age six, equaled it again this year, and his $720,000 this season brings his lifetime total to more than $1.6 million. He won 13 times this season, and has won nearly 50 races lifetime, with no end in sight.

NEXT WEEK, A LOOK AT THE SEASON-ENDING SIRE TOTALS IN NORTH AMERICA

Happy New Year to all my trotting horse friends throughout the world of harness racing!!! Good luck and good racing.