by Bob Heyden

April 1 marked 125 days to Hambletonian Day 2025, so it’s time to start fine tuning your knowledge. Let’s get started.

1. Billy Haughton and Stanley Dancer, the two leading Triple Crown conditioners of all time, each won their first Triple Crown race in New Jersey in back-to-back Hambletonians with Speed Bowl in 1982 for Haughton and Duenna in 1983 for Dancer.

2. Tactical Landing is 2-for-2 in his first two offerings in the Hambletonian, a record, but his fastest credit comes on the other side, with Megan Scran trained mare Tactical Mounds (1:49.4).

3. The Steve Phillips starting gate debuted in the 1946 Hambletonian and never looked back, but he was hardly a Johnny-come-lately. At just 23 years of age in 1910, he was already a starting judge, and was the starter for the first Hambletonian in 1926.

4. The 1968 Hambletonian was the only one contested on a Sunday. Nevele Pride dominated. It was referred to then as the only “non-betting $100,000 race in the world.”

5. Three Haughtons — Billy, Tommy and Peter — appeared in a Hambletonian driving at 25 or younger. Billy was 25 in 1949 but finished 18^th, Tommy was 23 in 1980 winning a heat with Final Score. He won the final with Speed Bowl at 25 in 1982. Peter was 21 getting the final check with Quick Pay in the 1976 final, the youngest driver ever to cash in any Hambletonian.

6. Before we see Marcus Melander and Maryland potentially headlining the 2025 Hambletonian, remember Melander amazingly got checks in six of his first seven attempts: ٢٠١٧ (third), 2018 (fifth), 2019 (second, third and fifth), 2020 (fifth), 2021 (sixth and seventh), 2022 (second, third and fifth again), and 2023 (second).

7. Walter Cox dominated the 1929 Hambletonian finishing 1, 2, 3, and 4. He was born three years after the Civil War in 1868 and passed away eight days after Pearl Harbor in 1941.

8. In 1962, A. C.’s Viking was handled by 62-year-old driver Sanders Russell with his leg in a cast, and post 15 too. No matter, he still won.

9. Stars Pride had a record eight Hambletonian winners to his credit. The first three Stanley Dancer Hambletonian winners of five altogether, were all sons of Stars Pride: Egyptian Candor (1965), Nevele Pride (1968) and Super Bowl (1972).

10. There’s a 69-day span between the earliest Hambletonian, Alf Palema (Aug. 1, 1992), to the latest, Walter Dear (Oct. 8, 1929).

HAMBLETONIAN DASHING DEBUTS

Let’s start with 1969 and go forward 55 years, taking a look at those who busted through, while debuting on Hambletonian Day no less, in style.

1969 — Howard Beissinger, 46: He decided to start out with a Triple Crown winner, Lindys Pride, the favorite and the first of three for Beissinger closely followed by Speedy Crown in 1971 and his son Speedy Somolli in 1978.

1970 — John Simpson, Jr., 27: The youngest until 1982, when he won with a son of 1964 Triple Crown winner Ayres named Timothy T. His $71G take on that day was the crowning point to be sure as he banked just $36G in his following 11 Hambletonian finals combined.

1981 — Ray Remmen, 34: The Hambletonian relocated to New Jersey and was won by Remmen and Shiaway St Pat. Remmen had never been in a $100,000 race. This $838,000 pot was by $538G the new Hambletonian standard. His Michigan-bred was second choice twice $7.20 and $4.40 in the race off.

1989 — Bill Fahy, 35: He debuted with Probe and was part of the unreal dead heat of that year with Park Avenue Joe, the ninth contested at The Meadowlands and the first ever Triple Crown race that resulted in a tie.

1991 — Jack Moiseyev: He is the only driver to win the Hambletonian, be the nation’s leading dash-winner, and the leading money-winning driver in the same year, 1991, Giant Victory.

2000 — Trevor Ritchie: He remains the only driver ever to debut in and win both the Meadowlands Pace (Frugal Gourmet, 1987) and the Hambletonian (Yankee Paco, 2000). Yankee Paco was the last chestnut to win the Hambletonian. No chestnut since has gotten a check in the Hambletonian.

2001 — Stefan Melander: He swept in from Sweden and dominated both the elim and final with Scarlet Knight, $3.40 to win.

2002 — Eric Ledford, 30: He held on gamely with Chip Chip Hooray paying $12.60 as the second choice to Andover Hall who made an unfortunate early break.

2005 — Roger Hammer, 59: He and Vivid Photo get the job done reversing tactics storming home from off the pace as the second choice.

2019 — Bob McClure, 28: He won with Forbidden Trade and made it even better in 2024 with a runner up finish thus becoming the only driver in the past half century to be 1-2 in his initial two Hambletonian tries.

2022 — Todd McCarthy, 29: He won with Cool Papa Joe in not only his Hambletonian debut, but his first with the Jim Campbell youngster also. He paid $106, a Hambletonian record price when the smoke cleared.

TIM TETRICK’S PAIR OF ALL-TIME HAMBLETONIAN RECORDS

This year will likely see Tim Tetrick perform on the grandest stage, again, and if so, it’ll be his 19^th-straight Hambletonian final. His current 18 is already the high-water mark, but that’s not all. Tetrick is the only driver to win a Hambletonian heat/elim four straight years: Bar Hopping (2016), fifth in the final, Enterprise (2017), third in the final; Crystal Fashion (2018), fourth in the final, and Green Manalishi (2019), fifth in the final. Nine elim wins overall in the Hambletonian, and he captured the 2012 final with Market Share.