Jennifer Dalton recently delighted her daughter Reign’s grade school class when she arrived at the Fort Lee, NJ school on Thursday with gelded pacer Somewhere With You.

by Dave Briggs

In what may go down as one of the greatest Show and Tell moments in school history, on Thursday (Oct. 13) Jennifer Dalton brought her six-year-old gelded pacer Somewhere With You to her four-year-old daughter’s Fort Lee, NJ school.

“The whole school knew about it. It was really a once-in-a-lifetime experience for these kids. The owner of the school said, ‘Jennifer I can’t believe not one parent had a problem with their child near the horse.’ In fact, a lot of the parents came to see the horse themselves and we’re taking pictures with Somewhere With You. One of (my daughter) Reign’s best friends, Paris, was sick with a small temperature and her mom brought her to school just to see the horse, so she didn’t miss it. She left after we left to go back home. That means something.”

In all 19 children — and some of their parents — had a chance to meet the horse and go on a jog cart ride with him. Dalton is currently planning a field trip to the Mark Ford Training Center in Middletown, NY — where Somewhere With You is based — to give the children a closer look at harness racing.

‘I’m going to do it big when they come,” Dalton said. “I’ll have my friend Danny Dube and a few drivers come out to show them how fast the horses go. And, of course, give them all another walk/jog on the two-seater jog cart. We’ll order pizza, touch the horses, learn about the equipment, let them watch races on our TVs in our barn, and learn more about harness racing.

“I feel all kids love horses and Reign is very proud of her racehorse. She tells everyone she owns a horse called Somewhere With You and, ‘It’s a standardbred racehorse, not the kind you ride on its back. It’s the kind you drive on a cart.’ I’m not kidding and she’s only four years old.”

Dalton, one of the winners of the Meadowlands’ Own A Horse promotion, went on to buy Somewhere With You in June. She said she was at Reign’s school with the son of Somebeachsomewhere for an hour Thursday.

“We also showed one of Somewhere With You’s races and all the kids went crazy,” Dalton said. “The teachers said we made all the kids so happy… The kids were asking all kinds of questions. ‘What does he eat? Where does he live? Is he friendly? Why do you use a cart and not ride on his back?’ It was awesome. They learned all about harness racing and so did the parents. The parents were intrigued when I said he’s racing at Yonkers Raceway after this tonight.”

The Frank Caleca trainee finished fifth in his $12,500 claimer Thursday at Yonkers with Dan Dube in the bike, but was a clear winner earlier that day on his trip to meet young school children.