Gearing up for the 43rd Pepsi North America Cup
by Bob Heyden
It’s still early in the 2026 racing season, but already there is huge anticipation for the Grade 1 43rd Pepsi North America Cup set for next Saturday (June 13) at Woodbine Mohawk Park. Here are some interesting notes about Canada’s biggest race for sophomore pacers:
EIGHT FOR THE LADIES
Eight of the last 20 editions have been won by a female trainer with Nancy Takter going back-to-back in 2019 and 2020 starting with a then stakes record 1:47.2 by Captain Crunch, followed by Horse of the Year Tall Dark Stranger.
HUGE WITHOUT TWO MAJORS
Art Major holds the unique distinction of having made the most money in any single sophomore season ($1,562,779 in 2002) without a dime coming from either the Meadowlands Pace or the North America Cup.
THE TRUTH ABOUT PIERCE
Ron Pierce is two weeks away from his 70th birthday.
He started his amazing streak of six straight years winning at least one-million-dollar race with Total Truth in the $1,350,000 2006 edition of the NA Cup getting the best of favored Feelin Friskie.
OWNING THE CUP
Jeff Snyder has owned an astounding four NA Cup winners. Also notable, the 3 Brothers Stable won in both 2014 with JK Endofanera and 2019 with Captain Crunch.
CATLIKE PATIENCE
How about the gruelling wait for “The Catman” Cat Manzi? He had a 21-year wait from 1983 to 2004 between his first million-dollar race (finishing second by a nose with Trutone Lobell in the $1.7 million Woodrow Wilson in 1983 won by Carl’s Bird) and his victory in the 2004 North America Cup with Mantacular.
SWEET REDEMPTION
In 2012, Sweet Lou entered the NA Cup stretch and soon had a three-length lead. He wasn’t able to maintain it that night, but, last year, his son Louprint took it all the way to the wire and set a new stakes record of 1:47.1 in the process.
ON THE ROAD TO SIX FIGURES
Interesting to note that the NA Cup debuted in 1984 at $596,500, the very same year that the Meadowlands Pace went for its biggest ever pot of $1,293,000. On The Road Again won that Pace and when he hung them up he briefly led all pacers all-time in money towards the end of 1985 until Nihilator surged by late.
KATZ’S LEGACY
Marvin Katz, who will be enshrined in the Harness Racing Hall of Fame on July 5 is so high profile and had such success with trotting females it’s easy to forget he is no one-trick pony. He had pacer Expensive Scooter winning the Breeders Crown for freshman pacing colts at Freehold in 1993. He and Al Libfeld and Sam Goldband teamed with Duke Of York to win both the 1997 Meadowlands Pace with Dream Away and the 2001 Breeders Crown for rookie trotting colts, handing overwhelming favorite Andover Hall his first ever defeat in the latter. Katz also won the NA Cup in 2013 with Captaintreacherous and 2020 with Tall Dark Stranger.
HOLLYWOOD HODGEPODGE
• Hats off to Allegiant, who was so dominant last Sunday (May 31) in Sweden. A review of her 2024 Breeders Crown reveals a quirky stat. She was 9-for-24 lifetime entering the race. That was the eighth best career winning percentage in the field.
• Had Green Speed been eligible to the 1977 Kentucky Futurity we likely would have witnessed some history. Had he entered and won, there would have been a Triple Crown winner in both harness and thoroughbred racing for the first and still only time. That was the year Seattle Slew won the thoroughbred Triple Crown.
• June 12 this year marks a full decade since we lost Leo C. McNamara. A third-generation horseman and executive administrator of the SBOA of New Jersey, he was just 60. His legacy will be from Hanover Shoe Farms and Two Gaits Farm.
• Muscle Hill is now 20 and holds a record which may be safe for the next century. On Hambletonian Day from 2016-19, a combined 102 of that day’s combatants were sired by Muscle Hill.
•The June 18, 1977 edition of the Cane Pace might have been the oddest or most unique edition — you decide. Father and son Jack and John Kopas went 1-2 with Jade Prince and Nat Lobell, respectively. A mishap marred the race with breakers scattering horses early, including B Gs Bunny. There were 18 lengths from the top pair back to third.
• Kikikatie is the first broodmare with her first five foals all having a 1:50 or better record. Prelude Lobell was the first broodmare to do it with five offspring in 2:00 or better.
• Can it really be 25 years since the Castleton Farm dispersal? At the end of 2001, 392 weanlings and broodmares collectively brought over $7.6 million.
• Ake Svanstedt moved to the U.S. at the end of 2013 and has been a force ever since. But, his first winner in the States came in late November 1999 at Pompano Park with a pacer — Aldonte by a nose. It was part of the Swedish-American Pace promotion held at the Florida track.
