Chantilly is perfect, but Miki And Minnie also deserves consideration for divisional honors.

by Debbie Little

It’s easy to see why Chantilly is favored to win the Dan Patch 2-Year-Old Filly Pacer of the Year award. After all, she won the She’s A Great Lady, one of the top races in her division, is ranked fourth in the weekly Hambletonian Society/Breeders Crown Poll, and she’s undefeated.

But when doing a deeper dive into the freshman filly pacing ranks, Chantilly shouldn’t be standing alone at the top. Also deserving divisional consideration should be Breeders Crown champ Miki And Minnie.

Miki And Minnie is competing in the Three Diamonds on Saturday night (Nov. 30) at The Meadowlands. Should she win it, she will have captured two of the top three races in the division.

But even if Miki And Minnie doesn’t win on Fall Final Four Night, according to the stats, she still deserves to be in the Dan Patch discussion.

Here’s a comparative breakdown of the two fillies, keeping in mind that both sets of connections clearly leaned more heavily on not over-racing their 2-year-olds than trying to earn year-end glory.

Head-to-head: Who won the head-to-head battle should always be given strong consideration when trying to separate divisional competitors. However, Chantilly never raced beyond the seven-eighths mile oval confines of Woodbine Mohawk Park, while Miki And Minnie, although much more traveled, having competed in Kentucky, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and on a five-eighths as well as two different mile tracks, never ventured north of the border. So, in this case, it’s no factor.

Advantage: No one.

Top races: Both fillies won one of the top three races in their division, but from a purse, prestige and strength-of-competition viewpoint, the edge has to go to the Breeders Crown over the She’s A Great Lady. Advantage: Miki And Minnie.

Supporting races: Chantilly won the Ontario Sires Stakes (OSS) Super Final, a division of the Eternal Camnation, OSS Gold Mid-Season consolation and an OSS Gold leg, while Miki And Minnie won the Kentucky Championship Series final, a division of the Bluegrass as well as a leg of both the KYSS and Commonwealth series. In simplest terms, Chantilly raced in sire stakes in Ontario, while Miki And Minnie did the same in Kentucky. From a quality standpoint, I’ll consider the Eternal Camnation and Bluegrass a wash, although the “Camnation” had a slightly higher purse. The OSS Gold leg and Mid-Season consolation had higher purses than the legs of the KYSS and Commonwealth, however the quality of competition in Kentucky was higher. By all that, the deciding factor comes down to the OSS Super Final and KCS final. Although both series have quality competition, Kentucky’s purse was higher. But that’s still marginal and it wasn’t enough for me to separate them.

Advantage: No one.

Time for the mile: Chantilly went in 1:50.2 in both the She’s A Great Lady and OSS Super Final, while Miki And Minnie went 1:49.4 in the KYSS Championship at The Red Mile. It should be noted that Chantilly clearly could have gone much faster than she did and was protected by driver James MacDonald, but your record is your record.

Slight Advantage: Miki And Minnie.

Record: Miki And Minnie was never off the board in 10 seasonal starts to date, 5-4-1, while Chantilly was a perfect nine-for-nine.

Big Advantage: Chantilly.

Earnings: Reflected in U.S. funds for conformity, Miki And Minnie has $671,750 ($67,175 per start) while Chantilly has $560,315 ($62,257 per start). Chantilly is done for the season, but Miki And Minnie could add more from the Three Diamonds.

Advantage: Miki And Minnie.

My friend, and fellow HRU columnist, the late Ron Gurfein, once accused me of relying too much on statistics. He said: “With two horses that close, you must step back from the numbers and review the entire season.”

He’s right that basic statistics — wins, losses and earnings — won’t show you how easily Chantilly won her races by open lengths or what a herculean performance Miki And Minnie had in the Crown final going parked the final five-eighths.

Next year, when the United States Trotting Association comes out with their graded-stakes system, making decisions like this one should be easier. However, no system is flawless, just ask the committee that decides the college football rankings. But for now, all we have to go on is the statistics.

Both fillies are extremely deserving, so there is no bad choice to be made here.

Chantilly should, and I’m sure will, win an O’Brien Award. I also think that she will most likely win the Dan Patch, because voters will see perfection and that will be very persuasive. For the sake of those connected to Miki And Minnie, I hope at least some don’t take the easy way out.