Tuesday, August 26

A weekend that answered a lot

It was a weekend for answers in the world of harness racing; answers to a series of questions we all have been asking one another over the past few months.

Yes, Somebeachsomewhere can get around a half-mile track.

No, Snow White can’t beat the boys and obviously isn’t completely on her game.

Yes, Crazed is the best of the rest in his 3-year-old trotting colt division.

And, no, Artistic Fella and Mister Big aren’t Alydar and Affirmed.

Let’s start with the big fella. SBSW’s world record has to go down as one of the most devastating miles in the history of the sport. He looked like a man playing with boys at Flamboro Downs on Aug. 17 and some of those boys, like Shadow Play, aren’t exactly your run-of-the-mill stakes fodder.

Somebeachsomewhere’s performance was brilliant and, for the horse and his connections, a smart retort to the post-Pace whispers about his fallibility. He paced the first quarter in 26 and change and the last quarter in 26 and change in the second heat on a half-mile track in the middle of summer.

The owners of all of horses now eligible to the Little Born Jug (including me, as an owner of Share The Delight) ought to pitch in and send MacGrath and Company a really nice box of chocolates for the decision not to bring SBSW to race in the Jug next month. Maybe for Canadians the Confederation Cup, which brought SBSW his world record, is now their nation’s equivalent of the Little Brown Jug? Or maybe the Jug is our version of their Cup? Whatever, it sure looked like a party at “Flammy.”

We also learned this weekend that Snow White can’t beat the boys, although I’m sure the great filly and her connections would like to take another shot. I really wanted her to do well--and not just because she won a big race after I tried to “retire” her here in this space—-but it just wasn’t her day.

In the same race in which Snow White struggled, the nice colt Crazed planted himself as Dewey’s deputy, the Arch Madness of the year, who no doubt will get another crack or two at Deweycheatumnhowe.

Can you imagine seeing SBSW and Dewey on the same card down in Lexington next month? The possibility of such a glorious event ought to have our industry’s marketing folks (and the folks at The Red Mile) out hyping for publicity already. Trotter versus Pacer. Canada versus. America. Ray and Brent. It’s a reality show I would certainly watch.

The next night Mister Big and Artistic Fella met again, this time at Mohawk, for the Canadian Pacing Derby. There was no duel to the finish this round.

Artistic Fella went a hard first-over and faded so that the more patient Mister Big could win it all against tough competition. Has there been a more impressive recent series of races for older pacers than we have seen lately from this horse? Game and gritty, speedy and sound, already I am hearing that Mister Big is going to be a big hit with the ladies once his book opens for stud duty.

What else did we learn this weekend? That the Friday night track announcer at Vernon Downs did not know how to pronounce the name “Tetrick,” as in “Tim.” Poor fellow kept calling him Tet-rick instead of Tee-Trick. Drove me crazy. And, back at Flamboro, the otherwise smooth announcer kept mispronouncing the name of a nice OSS winner Nebupanezzar.

We learned that horses who are ahead by nine lengths at the half can and will lose from time to time. Check out the raceline for Royas Scooter in the third race at Flamboro on Sunday, Aug. 17—you will see why it was one of the more interesting races of the day.

We learned that Lu Lu Q is one razor sharp, New-Jersey-bred pacing filly (it was one of the more interesting races of the day).

In addition, we were reminded by the 12th race at Chester just how dangerous these contests can be.

Oh, and lastly, we learned from Mohawk on Saturday night that the “world’s smallest horse” is a nasty little thing.

Andrew Cohen is a Standardbred owner and journalist who writes this Wire-To-Wire column online each week. He is also the chief legal analyst for CBS News. He can be reached at aco-law@comcast.net.