Modestly-bred Little Road is an easy filly to root for in Breeders Crown final

by Brett Sturman

As is the case with almost any major stakes race in harness racing, the Breeders Crown races are a who’s who of offspring from a short list of the top sires. Which is what makes the background of the 3-year-old trotting filly, Little Road, an unlikely story heading into Saturday’s Breeders Crown final.

Breeding aside for a moment, Little Road would already be a feelgood story on the human element alone. Bred, owned, and trained by 80-year-old Pennsylvania icon Roger Hammer, and driven by an up-and-coming driver at The Meadows in western Pennsylvania, 33-year-old Brady Brown, Little Road already starkly contrasts the profile of typical Breeders Crown connections.

But that’s only one part of it, as the deep-but-modest local roots for Little Road are reflected through her pedigree as much as they are for the connections associated with her.

A pleasantly-surprising winner in her Breeders Crown elimination last week, Little Road is a filly by a lesser-known sire, Fordham Road.

Fordham Road, a $40,000 yearling from 2016, could have had a promising race career, beginning and ending his career two-for-two age 2, including an Ontario Sires Stakes (OSS) Gold win, before an off-track injury ended his time on the track. Standing in Pennsylvania, Fordham Road’s stud fee is just $3,000.

With foals beginning as of 2020, his crops with strong ties to Hammer, have been small, registering only 86 since that time. From his foals of 2023, which featured Little Road, the total that year was just 13. Earnings from all offspring of Fordham Road total a little over $2.5 million, a vast majority of which has been earned through Pennsylvania fair circuit events, although a couple have elevated wins in PA Sire Stakes at tracks like The Meadows and Pocono.

One of those featured foals being a full sister to Little Road, named Little Town Road, also bred, owned, and trained by Hammer. While Little Road has already established herself as Fordham Road’s highest earner, with potentially much still to come starting this weekend, Little Town Road was a sire stakes performer at 2 and earned over $200,000 for her career, good to be the fourth highest earner of Fordham Road.

Going back a generation, the dam of these fillies comes from Hammer too, A Little Laid Back. Going back over 10 years, A Little Laid Back similarly competed on the Pennsylvania fair circuits at 2 and 3, and was able to grind out over $200,000 in the process. Her final start of her 3-year-old season produced a career mark of 1:57.4 in a race at Pocono.

Since then, she’s been bred every year since 2017, six of those years to Fordham Road. Aside from a filly by Creatine that was foaled in 2018 that earned $80,000 for her career, her only other foals to even make it to the races were Little Town Road and Little Road, both of whom have now combined for close to $600,000.

Little Road’s damsire Great George Two is even more of an unlikely story. By what must have been the result of an experiment rather than something built in sound logic, Great George Two was produced by a stallion named Hobokenbahamamamas, a horse with a mark of 2:03 taken as a 3-year-old with a little over $6,000 in career earnings.

Hobokenbahamamamas only ever produced a handful of foals, but one of them was Great George Two, who defied all odds to become a champion horse, probably best known for his win at 3 in the Goodtimes final, and a horse who went on to earn $436,864 lifetime. But as a sire himself, Great George Two couldn’t replicate his success in his offspring, and the filly A Little Laid Back who spent most of her career on the fair circuits, actually became one of his most notable productions.

Through it all, those ties have been very kind to Hammer, and it’s led to this upcoming moment in the Breeders Crown, proving that sometimes breeding isn’t always everything.

As for her on-track performance, I’d say Little Road’s win last week could be characterized as a pleasant surprise. Avenging her defeat from August to Victorianas Secret in the Delmonica Hanover and beating a top filly in Setyoursightshigh in her Breeders Crown elimination in a time of 1:53.3, Little Road proved Hammer correct thus far on the decision to supplement the filly for $72,000.

In the race, Brady Brown put her on the lead early when leaving from the rail position before yielding to race favorite Victorianas Secret. Around the final turn it looked like Little Road was giving away at least a length or two from the pocket, but she found her best gear through the inside stretch to get up for the win when it didn’t seem all that likely with an-eighth-of-a-mile to go.

Little Road will face those same fillies once again this weekend, and will see some new, fast editions as well in the form of Hambletonian Oaks champion Nezuko Kamado S, and Custom, both of whom impressed in the division’s other elimination last Friday in a fast time of 1:51.2.

A breeding anomaly of sorts, Little Road continues to defy any limitations that her pedigree suggests, as shown last week when becoming a Breeders Crown elimination winner. As a filly that will represent all of the sport’s ordinary people, she’s one I will be pulling for.