This year, the Dan Patch award-winners showed a discrepancy between year-end voting and the weekly Hambletonian Society/Breeders Crown poll.

by Debbie Little

For several weeks prior to the Dan Patch Horse of the Year ballots being sent out, there were a lot of discussions on social media about how close the voting in some of the categories were expected to be.

Two of the categories being most discussed were 2-year-old filly pacer and 3-year-old filly trotter.

But at the end of the voting day, the expected down-to-the-wire dogfights between freshman female pacers Chantilly and Miki And Minnie, and sophomore female trotters Allegiant and R Melina, didn’t need a print.

In fact, none of the vote totals for the 12 divisional honors were close.

Perhaps part of the reason those early predictions ended up being off, is that many people look at the Hambletonian Society/Breeders Crown weekly poll as being the true indicator of how the voting will go. Many times, it has been, but the poll only has 35 voters, whereas the voting membership of the U.S. Harness Writers Association (USHWA), which selects divisional honors as well as Pacer, Trotter and Horse of the Year, this year was 142.

“Honestly, with the feedback I was getting, I thought it would be close,” said Chris Ryder who trains Miki And Minnie. “But I’m always hearing it comes down to the Breeders Crown, so I’m pleased that came through.”

There is no question that Miki And Minnie did some of her best work at The Meadowlands winning the Three Diamonds and aforementioned Breeders Crown.

Knowing that Chantilly is one of the favorites for Canada’s Somebeachsomewhere Horse of the Year, Ryder also said, “All the best to Chantilly.”

In the 3YOFT ranks, Allegiant garnered the most votes.

With the divisional announcements being made on Christmas Eve, some horsepeople were busy preparing for the holiday and weren’t able to watch the live broadcast revealing the winners.

Trainer Linda Toscano, who trained Allegiant for the last four starts of the season, was out shopping when the winners were revealed. Upon receiving a text saying “Congratulations,” Toscano figured out that things must have swung Allegiant’s way.

“At the end of the year, I think she kind of asserted herself as the best, so that’s kind of cool,” Toscano said.

To close out the year, Allegiant won a Breeders Crown elimination and final at The Meadowlands, the Matron at Dover and then returned to The Big M where she finished second in the FanDuel Open Mares Championship.

Right after learning Allegiant had won, Toscano had not yet spoken with the filly’s owner Ryan Smith, but she did send him a quick text.

“I said, ‘We got it, congratulations,’ and he sent me back a crying emoji saying ‘That’s amazing. Thank you so much,’” Toscano said.

Once the holidays are over Toscano plans to speak with Smith.

“At some point when I come up for air I’ll touch base with him, but I know he really wanted it, and he’ll be really excited about it,” Toscano said. “I am excited about it. Anytime you win one of these things you get excited about it, but even more so because I know how much it meant to Ryan and I know it means a lot to Vernon [Beachy] too. Vernon’s never had this, so I know it’s got to be very exciting for him too.”

Beachy, 37, had trained Allegiant for most of the season before the late change to Toscano.

“And [Beachy] has handled it like an absolute pro because he instigated the trainer change, and that makes it a little bit easier too, because he’s the one that made the suggestion to the owner to give the horse to me,” Toscano said. “So, he also feels that he’s getting to share in it and at the same time he had a part in it. So, it’s good. It’s a good story all the way around.”

Another surprise in the voting was that Twin B Joe Fresh was the only unanimous choice with all 142 votes.

Many thought that 2-year-old colt trotter Maryland would also be a unanimous vote, and although the divisional standout did receive the majority of the vote (139), Eugene The Genius and Super Chapter each received one vote and one voter chose not to cast a vote for the division.

For anyone that missed it or would just like to see it again, the announcement show can be seen here and all the Dan Patch divisional vote totals can be foundhere.