The 2023 Dan Patch champ returns following a nine-month absence due to a tendon problem.

by James Platz

This evening (March 28), Dan Patch Stakes champion Ponda Warrior will make his 2025 debut for trainer Jay Hochstetler. The now 6-year-old Rockin Image gelding will line up behind the gate for his first pari-mutuel start since July of last year. He returns to action after being shelved for nearly nine months with tendon issues.

“He had a small tendon injury, and you know, I thought we could nurse him through it,” Hochstetler said. “It just was going to get worse, so I stopped before it got to be a major, major injury and just gave him plenty of time off. So far, so good on coming back from it, so fingers crossed.”

After winning Harrah’s Hoosier Park’s signature event in 2023, the conditioner had high hopes for Ponda Warrior returning at 5 last season. The pacer, however, managed only three starts before being sidelined with the tendon injury.

“He kind of had it real early in the year, like in April, and I gave him a short break,” Hochstetler said. “We thought we had it healed, and then after that third start, the line doesn’t look bad, but I said, ‘Something’s not right.’ So even though he didn’t show any real signs on the track, I looked at it again and the ultrasound didn’t show any major injury, but I said it didn’t look as good as it did before he started racing again. So, I just said let’s just stop. There’s no point in trying to create a disaster here.”

A 12-time victor with over $730,000 on his card, Ponda Warrior is owned by the partnership of Hochstetler, Finkelberg Racing and South Of The Tracks Racing. He enters tonight’s sixth race, a $16,000 event attracting a field of five, off a March 19 qualifier where he won by more than 10 lengths in a time of 1:54.2.

“That was a really windy day, and he did it really within himself,” Hochstetler said. “I thought about qualifying him again, but, you know, he seemed like he was plenty fit, and we had trained him hard a couple times before then, down at Pinehurst.”

The trainer and co-owner was concerned his charge would have to make his first start in 266 days going straight into the open ranks. Instead, he will debut in a contest for non-winners of $15,000 (Indiana sired $16,500) last four starts. After the long layoff, Ponda Warrior returned to training around Christmas.

“He’s really easy, honestly,” Hochstetler said. “He gets his fitness back really fast, and, you know, he’s so mellow on the racetrack that it’s pretty easy to keep him regulated and just train him at the speed you want him to.”

The plan is to campaign Ponda Warrior at Hoosier Park before taking aim at the Grand Circuit.

“I’m going to race him at Hoosier for a while here just to kind of get his bearings, and then I focused most of his Grand Circuit stuff at the end of the year,” said Hochstetler, 2023 USHWA Rising Star Award winner. “He’s got the two races at Hoosier; he’s got the Breeders Crown. I think if I can replicate what he was at 4, you know, I think with the way the aged landscape is right now he’ll be a pretty good contender.”

Losing Ponda Warrior last season was a bitter pill to swallow. It was made even more difficult when Ponda Title, 2023 Indiana Trotter of the Year, didn’t return to the track after being diagnosed with Cervical Vertebral Malformation.

“We had her turned out after her 2-year-old season and the farm manager calls one day and said, ‘Hey, she’s just not walking right,’” Hochstetler said. “Then it was a couple of months trial trying to figure out what was actually wrong with her.”

When Ponda Title was diagnosed with Cervical Vertebral Malformation, Hochstetler was told the condition very seldom happens in fillies, and is very rare in standardbreds. He was also told that the ailment is often discovered and diagnosed in yearlings, not 3-year-olds.

“That was brutal,” he said. “I mean, hers was just a one-in-a-million type of thing. She had a freak spinal genetic condition where her spinal cord kind of started collapsing on itself. It ended up costing her life last fall.”

As a freshman, Ponda Title registered seven wins and banked $483,420 for the partnership of Connie Hochstetler, Robert Buddig and Allen Schwartz. Retired from racing, she was in foal when the condition continued to worsen.

“When they diagnosed her, they said she should be fine to be a broodmare,” Jay said. “And she was for a while. We had her at Victory Hill and they called and said she’s really getting worse. She just got so bad where it just wasn’t even going to be sustainable.”

The trainer has another trotting filly that he has high hopes for this season. As a freshman, Ponda Fashion scored a pair of Indiana Sires Stakes leg wins and finished the year with a 1:55.1 mark and $73,750 on her card.

“She didn’t finish the year well last year, but I think she’ll go back to the name she made for herself at the start of the year last year,” Jay said. “She just had some gaiting issues, just 2-year-old growing issues at the end of the year, but she’s training back really, really well. I’m hyped up to see her start her season.”

Also back in action is veteran trotter Ponda Jet. Now 5, the gelded son of Dover Dan has earned over $550,000 in his career. Ponda Jet finished third in his seasonal debut March 22 at Hoosier Park.

“I didn’t stake him really heavy to the Grand Circuit, but he’s got the Caesars Trotting Classic and he’s got the Dayton Derby, so he’ll have a shot to stretch out a little bit,” he said.