by Bob Heyden

1. Only one horse, No Pan Intended, has won both a Triple Crown and a Breeders Crown.

2. Both the trotting and pacing marks in Crown history were set in 2022: King Of The North went 1:50.3 and Bulldog Hanover went 1:46.4.

3. Diamond Creek exploded onto the Breeders Crown scene in 2015 winning with three homebreds: Pure Country, Creatine and Divine Caroline.

4. David Miller won four straight crowns in 2015 with D’One, Always B Miki, Colors A Virgin and The Bank.

5. In 2013 the top five drivers in North America swept the 12 Breeders Crown races at Pocono. Ron Pierce, Tim Tetrick and Yannick Gingras had three each, David Miller had two and Brian Sears had one.

6. Both John Campbell and Brian Sears were the driving leader in the Crown for six straight years.

7. The top seven drivers in Breeders Crown history have won 47 per cent of the races (217 out of 464).

8. Linda Toscano and Nancy Takter are tied at eight Breeders Crowns each which is No. 1 among female trainers.

9. Nine drivers are past $5 million in the Breeders Crown series. Dexter Dunn is a quarter million from joining the list.

10. Ten years ago, at Pocono, Foiled Again and Captaintreacherous got their lone Breeders Crown win.

11. Eleven of the 27 elimination winners were odds-on favorites last week.

12. Twelve of the 27 elimination winners last week were favored.

13. Thirteen years ago, Buck I St Pat and Won The West won back-to-back Crowns for Burke, giving him his first wins in the series.

14. Fourteen years ago, Muscle Hill became the last horse to win both the Hambletonian and the Breeders Crown in the same year.

15. Fifteen of the 40 Crown horses entered Friday Night are sired by horses that Tim Tetrick drove: Huntsville, Captaintreacherous, Walner, Chapter Seven, Bar Hopping and Boston Red Rocks.

16. Sixteen horses in the history of the Breeders Crown have had at least five starts in a Crown final.

17. Seventeen of the 45 drivers who have won $1 million plus in the Breeders Crown were born in the U.S.

18. Eighteen years ago, two drivers had back-to-back four-winner Breeders Crowns: Ron Pierce and Sears.

19. Nineteen years ago, the Hambletonian/Triple Crown winner Windsong’s Legacy passed on the Breeders Crown.

20. Steve Elliott trained Crown winners 20 years apart in 1988 and 2008.

21. Twenty-one of the past 24 Hambletonian winners have gotten no money in the Breeders Crown 3YOCT. Of course, two were ladies, so actually it’s 19 of 22.

22. It’s been 22 years since Balanced Image sired both the 2YOCT (Duke Of York) and the 3YOCT (Liberty Balance). It has not happened since. This year, Tactical Landing with Karl and Tactical Approach could duplicate it.

23. Twenty-three per cent of Breeders Crown winners have been homebreds. (Defined here as the owners and breeders being one and the same).

24. Twenty-four years ago, four of the top six trainers in year-end Breeders Crown earnings had just the that lone start. It was a victory of course.

25. Bettor’s Delight is 25 and once again is represented in the Crown with this his 20th crop of freshman. He would be the oldest pacing sire to win one. Speedy Crowns’ Moni Maker won in 1998 when he was 29.

26. George Brennan’s average win price in his six Crown wins is $26.60.

27. It’s been 27 years since Peter Wrenn’s last Breeders Crown win in 1996 with Personal Banner in the 3YOFT denying Moni Maker her 20th straight win.

28. Twenty-eight years ago (1995) was the only time a different driver won ever Crown.

29. Twenty-nine years ago, Immortality became the lone $2.10 winner in Breeders Crown history at the time.

30. Hanover Shoe Farms and Brittany Farms are tied as the top Crown breeders with 30 wins each.

31. Thirty-one years ago, half of the Breeders Crown winners paid $2.60 or less. Are we looking at that again in 2023?

32. Thirty-two of the 120 Crown horses are PA-bred.

33. It’s been 33 years since Paul MacDonell lit up the board with Bays Fella for a group of golfing buddies.

34. Dexter Dunn and Scott Zeron are both 34. The last time a driver won three straight Breeders Crowns, he was also 34, Tim Tetrick (2016) with Huntsville, Walner and Bar Hopping.

35. Brian Sears, David Miller and Ron Pierce all won their first Crown at 35. They have since won a combined 95 of them.

36. Thirty-six years ago, Mack Lobell won the Breeders Crown by the biggest ever margin, 12 3/4 lengths.

37. Thirty-seven years ago, the 2-year-old earnings record was set by Redskin at $1,407,263 and has not been touched since. If TCI wins, he will eclipse that mark.

38. Thirty-eight years ago, Prakas became the first horse to win both the Hambletonian and the Breeders Crown and he did so with two different drivers.

39. The Breeders Crown kicked off in 1984, 39 years back.

40. Of the drivers in the 40^th edition of the Crown listed on the morning-line favorite, only Yannick Gingras and Tim Tetrick are actually in their 40s.