Gearing up for the Breeders Crown

by Bob Heyden

Trainer Chris Ryder, who enters the Breeders Crown with unbeaten Party Girl Hill has had a number of notable females in his career.

In 2001, he sent out Cathedra Dot Com ($1,082,619), who was second to Bunny Lake that year in money. Both were the first duo to pass $1 million as sophomore fillies. Cathedra Dot Com wound up at $1,506,933 lifetime.

Mystical Sunshine won back-to-back Breeders Crowns in 2006-2007. The daughter of 2006 Horse of the Year sire Glidemaster out of Yankee Glide (1-2) took a quick mark of 1:50.3.

Too Much Trouble was one of the first top pacing mares conditioned by Ryder.

Put On A Show in 2009-2010 set the 2-year-old filly pacing record from earnings of $1,893,475. She later set the world female all-time mark as a mare of 1:47.3.

I Luv The Nitelife surpassed Put On A Show’s record at 2 and 3 with a combined $1,943,287 banked in 2012-2013. Unfortunately we lost her this year while foaling.

Party Girl Hill is now 12-for-12 as she heads to Indiana for the Breeders Crown. The last two HOY honorees who were undefeated were also ladies — and they did so back to back — 2013 Bee A Magician and 2014 J K She’s A Lady.

Sticking his neck out

Party Girl Hill’s sire, Captaintreacherous, had a habit of sticking his neck out.

He had seven wins by a neck and was never second by a neck. Only once did he win by a nose, never by a head.

Neck wins:

10/19/13 Pocono $500,000 Breeders Crown, Sunshine Beach was second.
10/5/13 Red Mile $215,500 Tattersalls, Vegas Vacation was second.
9/2/13 Tioga $360,215 Cane Pace, Word Power was second.
6/29/13 Pocono $500,000 Hempt final (and elim), both times Vegas Vacation was second.
9/1/12 Mohawk $1,010,000 Metro, Odds On Equuleus was second.
8/18/12 Mohawk in the Nassagaweya, Vegas Vacation was second.

Tall Dark Stranger

Tall Dark Stranger will make his 21st career start in either the elim or final of the Breeders Crown. Both Somebeachsomewhere and Muscle Hill started 21 times in their careers.

TDS’ sire Bettors Delight was a Breeders Crown winner at 2, but was fourth as the .65 cents on the dollar favorite in 2001 as a sophomore.

Tall Dark Stranger would be Nancy Takter’s second Horse of the Year if she wins it. In 2014, J K She’s A Lady won it.

Bettors Delight is the #1 money-winning sire in horse racing history. Can he get his very first HOY in 2020?

Whoever gets it — Tall Dark Stranger (Bettors Delight), Ramona Hill (Muscle Hill) or Party Girl Hill (Captaintreacherous) — it will be 21 years into the new millennium and the 21st different sire to have a HOY credit

Order By Stable

Nice pair of Chapter Sevens bred by Order By Stable. They left Kentucky just $37,000 shy of $5 million in combined lifetime earnings:

Atlanta — $2,524,453
Gimpanzee — $2,438,575
Total — $4,963,028

Plus, Chapter Seven won the Kentucky Filly Futurity too with Love A Good Story.

Lookalike seasons

When Amigo Volo crossed the wire easily taking the Kentucky Futurity, his record at 2 and 3 looked like mirror images:

2: 12 6-2-0 $610,546
3: 12 6-1-2 $595,823

Speaking of mirror images, his sire, Father Patrick, also sired the 2019 Kentucky Futurity winner Greenshoe. He becomes the first sire in the last half century to win the Futurity with his first two crops. Muscles Yankee did it in 2003 and 2005 with his first and third crop — Mr Muscleman and Strong Yankee. Father Patrick is the rare Three Year Old Trotting Colt Of The Year who himself did not win a Triple Crown event, yet both of his stablemates did — Trixton in the Hambletonian and Nuncio in the Yonkers Trot and Kentucky Futurity.

Seventh heaven for Ake Svanstedt?

Ake Svanstedt had seven in the Kentucky Futurity this year. He didn’t win it, but he got 44 per cent of the purse, or $186,480.

He was: second with E L Ideal, third with Third Shift, fifth with King Alphonse, seventh with Coventry Hall, eighth with Jula Trix Treasure, 10th with Gangster Hanover and 12th with Back Of The Neck.

Rare moment

The top three finishers in the 2020 Hambletonian all missed the board on Futurity Day — Ramona Hill, Ready For Moni and Back Of The Neck.