Breeders Crown sparks a great debate for year-end trotting honors

by Brett Sturman

It’s hard to believe that just a single race could both suddenly and dramatically change who is viewed as the sport’s best trotter, but that’s what transpired in the Breeders Crown race for open trotters this past Saturday (Oct. 24) at Scioto Downs. In one race, could Super Chapter have gone from Horse of the Year leader, to not even a divisional winner?

Super Chapter went into that Breeders Crown as the sport’s top-rated horse in the midst of a sensational 4-year-old season.

Here’s what I said about him in an Oct.16 column, recognizing his standing atop the sport: “His only defeats coming earlier in the season to On To Norway in a pair of thrilling and world-record breaking races at The Meadowlands, and he hasn’t lost since. Wins throughout that time include three Grade 1s, the Cashman, Maple Leaf Trot, and the $1 million Yonkers International. With a win most recently in the Dayton Derby, he’s not only won five major races in a row but did so over four different sized ovals. He’s made the transition to a 4-year-old beautifully.”

With On To Norway surprising with a massive effort in the Breeders Crown — and once again getting the better of Super Chapter in head-to-head matchups — things have become far more interesting and closer than would have first thought possible this same time last week.

On the whole, the overall resume this year of Super Chapter still bests that of On To Norway. But the question becomes, how much do their direct records in races against one another come into factor. The more it does, the more you have to look at On To Norway.

The first time this year On To Norway and Super Chapter met was in the $230,000 Graduate final at The Meadowlands on July 4. On To Norway entered that race having seen his 27-race win streak snapped in a Graduate preliminary division the race prior.

In the Graduate final, with the aid of perhaps the drive of the year coming from Yannick Gingras, On To Norway upset Super Chapter in an all-time North American record clocking of 1:48.3. Super Chapter was valiant in that race having received the wider trip and wound up beaten by a neck as On To Norway split rivals late to win the Graduate in a thriller.

One week later on July 11, those two went at it again, this time in the $425,000 Hambletonian Maturity. And while you could say the trip told the story in the race the prior week, that wasn’t the case at all in the Maturity. In that race, On To Norway and Super Chapter settled away 1-2. Super Chapter, sitting the 2-hole trip, was able to angle off the cones a couple of paths and had the length of the stretch — at the added distance of an extra eighth-of-a-mile to get by On To Norway — but On To Norway was able to dig in and stave off his fellow 4-year-old rival.

Going their separate ways after, where Super Chapter racked up multiple Grade 1 wins as referenced earlier, the two horses wouldn’t meet again until Oct. 3 in the Dayton Derby. This one didn’t provide the same fireworks as those earlier Meadowlands races did, where Super Chapter easily went to the front and On To Norway got away in sixth. On To Norway eventually got into the cover flow third-over when he made a break, though he would have had to be monumental to win from the spot he was in regardless.

In winning that race, Super Chapter repelled a fierce bid from Emoticon Legacy to turn that rival away late and win. For On To Norway, that was one of the races in which he broke stride three times over a four-race stretch. The only race in that span he stayed flat, On To Norway won the Caesars Trotting Classic in uncovered fashion over the likes of Antognoni S and French Wine.

Both Super Chapter and On To Norway opting for byes in the Crown elims, brings us to last week’s Breeders Crown final. I saw this race not necessarily as a strike against Super Chapter but rather a massive win for On To Norway.

In this race, Super Chapter went an impossible trip from post 8 that would have been too much for any horse to overcome, even Super Chapter. Leaving wide around the first turn from an outside post, Super Chapter was wide in behind leaders battling three-wide past the :26.1 opening quarter. From there, Super Chapter remained parked while pressing on for the lead, was parked again in the second turn before finally clearing just at the half in a ridiculous time of :54.

From there, On To Norway moved up with a long, uncovered move and got the better of Super Chapter heading into the stretch. But what was most impressive about his win was that On To Norway had Emoticon Legacy on his back the entire time and that one couldn’t have worked out a better trip if he drew it up that way. Through the stretch, On To Norway kept Emoticon Legacy at bay rather comfortably in earning the upset score, and in the process ran his head-to-head record against Super Chapter to three wins in four common races together.

You can’t discount at all the multiple Grade 1 wins from Super Chapter, but if it’s said it comes down to the Breeders Crown, it does seem like On To Norway, by virtue of that win as well as the other direct wins against Super Chapter, does now have a compelling case for any award between the two of them.

And just for some good measure, does Wrong Sounds Right become a factor at all in the discussion for Trotter of the Year? He’s been one of the more dominant 2-year-olds we’ve ever seen. His Breeders Crown win of 1:51.3 tied the fastest 2-year-old mile on a five-eighths-mile track. Prior to that, he won the Mohawk Million in a time of 1:51.1; another record that bested Apex’s stakes record from the year prior. A case could be made here too.

It’s impossible to say where things will shake out when it comes to year-end voting, but the results will be decidedly closer than how it looked prior to the Breeders Crown.