Red letter fortnight at The Red Mile

Numbers and records from the Grand Circuit meet at The Red Mile.

by Bob Heyden

Let’s take a look at some numbers and records from year #150 at The Red Mile in Lexington, KY.

1. History’s first sub-1:50 trotting daily double: Date Night Hanover (1:49.2) and Periculum (1:49.3) to start things off on Futurity Day (Oct. 5). Marcus Melander trains both. It was 25 years and two months after the pacing equivalent was set in August 2000 at The Meadowlands.

2. Ron Burke establishing new freshman world records with colt Al Papi (1:48.1) and Loua Dipa (1:48 flat) on the filly side.

3. Eleven straight different trainers have won the Kentucky Futurity as Luc Blais joined in the fun with Determination Stable’s homebred Emoticon Legacy.

4. Maryland, after his runner-up finish in the Futurity, has 485G on the season without a victory: 8 0-6-1, averaging over 60G per.

5. Yannick Gingras with a unique driving double, finishing second in consecutive Triple Crown races with a different colt: Super Chapter in the Hambletonian and Maryland in the Futurity. It was Gingras’ first time with each.

6. Hats off to Ake Svanstedt, the only driver/trainer in action on Futurity Day.

7. Emoticon Legacy with an all-time first, two straight races, two different countries, two sub 1:50 victories: 1:49.4 in the Canadian Trotting Classic at Woodbine Mohawk Park, and 1:49.2 in the Kentucky Futurity.

8. Emoticons Legacy’s 1:49.2 in the Futurity was just a fifth off the seven-year world record set by Six Pack in the same race of 1:49.1.

9. Muscle Hill’s fastest 3YO credit came in the 2024 Futurity with Sig Sauer (1:49.3), now Walner’s quickest came in the same race with Emoticon Legacy at 1:49.2.

10. Father-and-son sires took home $475,000 of the half million $ Futurity purse with Walner (1) and Chapter Seven (2, 3, and 4).

11. Emoticon Legacy was the only post 10 winner of the week and he started the rare 10-11 exacta with Maryland.

12. This year’s Futurity landed 41 years to the day of history’s first Breeders Crown ever, also at The Red Mile. Workaholic won it with Berndt Lindstedt.

13. Can you say photo-op days? The last two days at The Red Mile required 15 photos, a half-length or less, in the 24 races, including a neck in the Futurity.

14. How many trotters on Futurity Day were race-timed in sub 1:50? A total of 10.

15. Dexter Dunn needed less than 48 hours to post the two quickest freshman miles at two different tracks: Melanie and Peter Wrenn’s Odds On Mr Mamba (1:47.4) at Hoosier Park and then Ron Burke’s Al Papi (1:48.1) at The Red Mile.