by Debbie Little

Twin B Joe Fresh has been ranked No. 1 in the Hambletonian Society/Breeders Crown poll for 15 consecutive weeks and is currently viewed as the favorite for Horse of the Year, which will be announced at the Dan Patch Awards banquet in Orlando, FL, in February of 2025.

Following a second-place finish from the 10-hole in the lone Breeders Crown Open Mare Pace elimination on Saturday (Oct. 19) at The Meadowlands, the question of whether Twin B Joe Fresh needs to win in the Crown final to lock up HOY was discussed on social media.

Twin B Joe Fresh had a nine-race win streak going into her Crown elim. Her only previous loss being her first of the year in an overnight against a field of 4-year-old male competitors, where she finished second.

HRU spoke with co-owner/trainer Chris Ryder about the Crown elim and why he didn’t take a bye.

“It happens,” Ryder said about finishing second. “It’s alright. We just got to keep doing our thing and I believe we’ll be fine. We had a qualifier, and she’s been alright before off a qualifier. Obviously, we had to race and here we go again, so she’ll be all right.

“I chose to race [in the elims, rather than take a bye]. Obviously, it’s a little bit of a tricky situation, but no, I’d rather race. You refuse the bye not expecting to get a 10-hole [in the elims], of course. But that happens. That’s the way it is. It’s part of the risk, isn’t it?”

Had the daughter of Roll With Joe out of the Captaintreacherous mare Fresh Breeze won her elimination she would have earned draw protection between posts 1 through 6 in the final. So, going into Tuesday’s (Oct. 22) draw, Ryder was hoping to have more luck than he had had so far with some of his other Crown entrants.

“They’ve drawn two fields of my horses and one got a 9 and one got a 10, so I’m not doing too well,” Ryder said.

Ryder’s Miki And Minnie drew post 9 in the Breeders Crown 2YOFP, and post 10 with Tarrific in the 3YOFP prior to the Tuesday draw when Gem Quality got post 8 in the 3YOCP, and lastly, Twin B Joe Fresh, post 5, in the Mare Pace.

Even though his other three horses drew towards the outside of the gate, Ryder was happy with post 5 for the Twin B Joe Fresh whom he co-owns with her driver, Dexter Dunn, Peter Trebotica and Barry Spak, especially since it’s one of the winningest posts at The Big M. In terms of win percentage, the top post at the East Rutherford mile oval bounces between posts 5 and 6, with post 6 currently having a slight edge.

If the Hambletonian Society/Breeders Crown poll, which came out on Tuesday before the draw, is any indication, going into tonight’s (Oct. 26) Crown finals, Twin B Joe Fresh’s HOY hopes are still looking good.

To be fair, even though she maintained 27 first-place votes, her overall point total dropped from 336 to 332, but she also widened the gap on her opponents. Jiggy Jog S — who was retired prior to the Crown elims due to an injury — although still second in the poll with seven first-place votes, saw her total points drop from 315 to 300. Off his Crown elim victory, Captain Albano jumped up from fifth to third, going from 193 to 233 points, and Crown ineligible Chantilly, who is reportedly done racing for the year, dropped from third to fourth but gained 16 points to go from 210 to 226. Rounding out the top five is Nijinsky, who moved up in the poll from sixth to fifth after a close second-place finish in his Crown elim, although his total points dropped from 149 to 142.

This year for Twin B Joe Fresh has been nothing short of sensational with her nine seasonal victories coming in the Betsy Ross, Perfect Sting, Dorothy Haughton Memorial, Lady Liberty, Cleopatra, Milton, Dayton Distaff Derby and elim and final of the Roses Are Red. She has banked $627,062 for this season heading into tonight’s finals; a good amount for a pacing mare that, unlike trotting females, doesn’t race against males for much better purses.

But, if indeed Twin B Joe Fresh loses in the Open Mare Breeders Crown final, would she lose her top spot in the poll and for HOY consideration?

In recent years, both Tall Dark Stranger (2020) and Shartin N (2019) finished second in their respective Crown finals but still garnered Horse of the Year honors.

Whether Twin B Joe Fresh will race again this year, after tonight, remains to be seen.

“That depends on the final of the Crown,” Ryder said. “I’m going to leave that on the table, so to speak.”

Having a top horse like Twin B Joe Fresh is nothing new for Ryder, who will be inducted into the Hall of Fame in Goshen in July. But to be on top at the end of the year when the voting happens would be particularly meaningful as he has never had a Horse of the Year and is the only trainer to have a HOY runner-up three straight years: Bettor’s Wish (2019), Party Girl Hill (2020) and Niki Hill (2021).

“Well, it’d be nice [for Twin B Joe Fresh to be Horse of the Year], but I don’t want to get ahead of myself,” Ryder said. “We’ll just race, and we’ll go from there. You know, [the voting is] out of my hands. All I can do is take care of my horse and here we go.”