Recent observations

by Bob Heyden

As spring approaches it’s time to take a look at a few fun facts before new ones start to bloom.

LEADING MAN AGAIN?

At 61, David Miller is the leading money-winning driver in North America in 2026 as of mid-March.

FOR THE RECORD

Part of the ownership of 2025 Dan Patch Pacer and Horse of the Year, Beau Jangles, is Jonathan Roberts who campaigned possibly the most unlikely all-time leading trotter in a country, Great George Two. Two decades back, Roberts drove the son of Hobokenbahamamamas to the fastest trotting mile in both Canadian history (1:52.1) as well as at Syracuse (1:52.3).

HALL CALLS

Driver Bi Shively, 89, went into the Hall of Fame in 1967 while trainer Frank Ervin went in the following year. The pair were 26 years apart in age. Ervin’s career was monumental, huge, worthy in anyone’s book. He raced Adios, sold Proximity, and was the first repeater (Good Time) and three-peater (Bret Hanover) in HOY balloting. Ervin also groomed for Shively way back when; long before Shively, a Spanish-American War veteran, became the oldest driver ever to win the Hambletonian in 1952 with Sharp Note at 74.

LET’S PLAY TWO

Who remembers Meadowlands double headers? They had eight of them in all, from May 17, 1980 through Feb. 6, 1988, with 16 total race cards averaging 15,931 per in attendance and $2,228,452 bet on track only. April 4, 1981 had the highest combined attendance (40,159) and handle ($4,960,993).

CLAIM TO FAME

March 16 this year marks the 47th anniversary of the sports very first $100,000 claim, Taurus Romeo. A son of 1966 Triple Crown winner Romeo Hanover, Thomas Fay from New Hampshire took him. Two years later on the very same weekend he did so once again, that time it was Sure Show.

HISTORY MAKING PAIR

Is this the most unbreakable record in all of racing? Stablemate trotter and pacer each retired as the richest ever on their gait, Cardigan Bay and Su Mac Lad. Stanley Dancer trained trotter Su Mac Lad who retired in 1965 with $885,095 followed three years later by pacer Cardigan Bay with $1,001,548. Did I mention they were both owned by Irving Berkemeyer?

BOYS OF SUMMER

How do HOYs do in their first starts of their award-winning years? This “Fab Five” didn’t get the ball rolling until that June: Chapter Seven on June 23, 2012, Real Desire on June 1, 2002, Malabar Man on June 15, 1997, Glidemaster on June 10, 2006, and Mack Lobell as a sophomore in 1987 after a 20-start freshman year got underway on June 28.

HITTING THE MARC?

Is this the Marcus Melander breakthrough year in the Hambletonian? Has anyone ever had a better bio in this race prior to winning it? Melander turns 34 on July 1. Ron Gurfein was 53 in 1994 with Victory Dream winning his first Hambletonian, Jimmy Takter was 36 in 1997 with Malabar Man, and Chuck Sylvester was 46 in 1987 when Mack Lobell got him on the board with his first of four visits.

WHAT ARE THE ODDS?

Speaking of the Hambletonian, did you know that none of the last three Triple Crown winners was either first or second choice in the Hambletonian? In 2004 it was Windsong’s Legacy who paid $11 as the fourth choice, in 2006, Glidemaster ($14) was third choice, and in 2016, Marion Marauder ($7) was also third choice. In 1972, Super Bowl was the last trotter favored in the Hambletonian to win the Triple Crown and he was the overwhelming favorite.

MEADOWLANDS SWEET 16

With the recent success of the International Women’s Day celebration at The Meadowlands, what better time to look back to 2004 when Leah Vandevort completed The Meadowlands own “Sweet Sixteen.”

Here are the first 16 ladies to visit the winner’s circle in East Rutherford, NJ:

JoAnn Looney, Jackie Ingrassia, Susan Looney, Bonnie Butler, Linda Gentile, Brooke Nickells, Gail Coppersmith, Linda McNatt (McDonald), Anne Wheeler, Flo Browne, Diane Browne, Anna-lena Ljunggren, Teresa Powers, Lynn O’Donoghue, Karen Fekete, and Vandervort.

No Bea Farber you ask? Nope. In limited Meadowlands action in the late 1970s she got several checks with Easy Irv, but welcome to the Immortals Hall of Fame Queen Bea!