Countdown to liftoff for Redland Rocket Man

Off a season’s best, Canadian-record 1:46.4 mile in the Simcoe on Saturday the son of Bulldog Hanover has been supplemented to the Little Brown Jug.

by Melissa Keith

Until recently, Redland Rocket Man has flown slightly under the radar in the 3-year-old male pacing division. On Saturday (Sept. 12) night at Woodbine Mohawk Park, the John Pentland trainee guaranteed that he won’t be overlooked again, despite never having been the betting favorite in 12 starts this year. Redland Rocket Man overtook Beau Jangles late in the mile and held off Sweet Lovin Lou to capture the Grade 2 Simcoe Stake in 1:46.4, the fastest mile by a 3-year-old ever on Canadian soil and the fastest win by a North American sophomore pacer this season.

On Monday (Sept. 14), Pentland told HRU he was still savoring the moment.

“I’ll get another day or two out of this,” he quipped while driving to Mohawk. “I have one of my grooms with me here, and neither one of us is shocked that he won it. We might have been surprised, had he won it cutting it out or coming first up, but my team and I all thought that when it’s his turn to get that kind of a trip, we thought he could beat Beau [Jangles], because you can’t race a ton of a lot better than our horse has been racing.”

That’s an understatement from Pentland, who shares ownership of Redland Rocket Man (p, 3, 1:46.4s; $377,020) with Murray Cox of Rockwood, ON and Gary Volpe of St. Thomas, ON. The first crop Bulldog Hanover gelding broke his maiden on July 8, 2025, winning in 1:53.2 in Ontario Sires Stakes (OSS) Grassroots leg 1 at Mohawk for driver Bob McClure. He lowered his freshman mark to 1:52 in his only other victory last year, an Aug. 5 event for OSS Grassroots starters, in which he won going away for Louis-Philippe Roy. Fourth in the Grade 1 Metro Pace and fifth in his OSS Gold Super Final, Redland Rocket Man was sent off at double-digit odds in races dominated by 2025 Somebeachsomewhere (O’Brien) and Dan Patch Horse of the Year Beau Jangles (p, 2, 1:48.3s; $1,489,486).

On April 11, Redland Rocket Man returned from a six-month hiatus to win his comeback qualifier at Mohawk for Roy. After another two qualifiers, his first start of the season came in a May 9 SBOA Stake division at Mohawk, in which he finished third to Borderline Mobby. Closing for fifth in his Grade 1 Pepsi North America Cup elimination, Redland Rocket Man ended up eighth behind Odds On Mr Mamba in the June 13 final. After wiring in 1:53.4 a June 22 qualifier, over a sloppy Campbellville track with a 2-second variant, Pentland’s pacer launched an upward trajectory.

Redland Rocket Man returned $78 to place on June 27, when Borderline Mobby edged him out by a nose in OSS Gold leg 2 in 1:48.2 at Mohawk. (Beau Jangles finished fifth as the 1-9 favorite.) On Aug. 3 at Grand River Raceway, Jody Jamieson took the lines in OSS Gold leg 3, and Redland Rocket Man successfully held off Borderline Mobby by a head in 1:48.2 — the fastest mile ever paced over a Canadian five-eighths-mile track. After an impressive off-the-pace effort in the Grade 2 Carl Milstein Memorial at Northfield Park, overcoming post 7 to finish second to Melillo, Redland Rocket Man set the pace in OSS Gold leg 3 at Mohawk, getting stung late by Beau Jangles in the 1:48.3 mile. He paced identical :25.3 opening and closing quarters as runner-up.

In winning the Simcoe Saturday night (Sept. 12), Redland Rocket Man went 1:46.4 and became the fastest-ever 3-year-old pacer on a Canadian racetrack.

“I’m not complaining about any of his trips, but he’s done a lot of the legwork,” Pentland said. “They haven’t been horrible trips, but he hasn’t had that nice 2-hole trip and been able to pop out at the top of the stretch and get in a position like he did the other night. So, when he did, I wasn’t shocked.”

Crediting Jamieson with “power-driving” Redland Rocket Man to the latest victory, the Dorchester, ON trainer said that his horse was “fresh now partly because of the way [Louis-Philippe Roy] drove him” in earlier starts.

Redland Rocket Man sold for $30,000 at the 2024 Harrisburg Sale.

“I picked him out and bought him as a yearling,” Pentland said. “He’s just a solid, good-looking horse. He was placed a little back in the sale [Hip #479], back further than I thought. I bought two [2024 yearlings] off that same guy. I bought a filly [Redland Saphire] off him too, a real nice filly, but we could never get her to stop tying up… I think the pair of them just undersold.”

Redland Saphire (p, 3, 1:54.3h; $17,860) and Redland Rocket Man were bred by Redland Farms of Bible Hill, NS. Both are from the 54-horse first crop of Bulldog Hanover (p, 4, 1:45.4m; $2,419,000), sired during his Canadian and U.S. Horse of the Year season in 2022.

“I don’t consider myself that much of a prognosticator, but [trainer] Jack Darling and I are really good friends, so I watched ‘Bulldog’ like I owned him,” Pentland said. “At the end of his 3-year-old season, when he went to Indiana… He just started to get so good. The biggest mistake I ever made was, I was going to call Jack and try to buy a piece, but I went, ‘Ah, he’s not going to sell it, I’m not going to bother him.’”

The self-described “super-believer in Bulldog Hanover” was determined to purchase at least one of the stallion’s first crop yearlings at Harrisburg.

“I’m getting to be more of an owner than a trainer,” Pentland said with a laugh.

He now co-owns Sept. 12 Grade 3 Champlain Stakes winner Jersey Bulldog (p, 2, 1:51.1s; $147,418) with a group that includes Darling.

Redland Rocket Man was gelded at the end of his 2-year-old season due to “a minor bit of a weight issue” and being hot-tempered.

“At that point, he didn’t look like he had value as a stallion,” Pentland said. “And they’re happier when they’re gelded… I don’t have any regrets, but I hope by the end of next year that I do.”

Pentland confirmed that Redland Rocket Man would be supplemented to the Little Brown Jug for $45,000 (U.S.); he had not been sustained at age 3 because of a schedule conflict with a sires stake.

“I couldn’t have imagined a scenario that would’ve prompted me to go to the Jug,” he told HRU. “Obviously he’s in great shape and he loves to race… This guy here, you’re in a back-alley fight when you come first-up on him.”

Arnold Hagen watched Redland Rocket Man’s latest win from a few provinces away.

“It’s pretty neat to watch the little bugger, how he’s maturing and really coming into his own,” said the Bible Hill, NS breeder. “John [Pentland] has done a tremendous job with him. He’s not someone that pushes them real hard and he’s really patient with them.”

While Hagen is the president of Truro Raceway and owns a Truro, NS hardware business, he has roots in the province of Redland Rocket Man’s birth.

“I have been living in Truro for the last 21 years or so, but I’m born and raised in PEI, both my wife and I,” he said. “I saw the opportunity to buy this place [in Oyster Bed Bridge, PEI] eight years ago or so, [PEI Hall of Fame horseman Harold] ‘Clarkie’ Smith’s old place. Horses have been on this property for a long time.”

The owner/operator of Redland Farms grew up on a mixed farm and became interested in harness racing as a teenager, going to the races at Charlottetown and Summerside with his uncle. He later attended the Nova Scotia Agricultural College, a short distance from Truro Raceway, and got into buying horses with a friend. Today, Hagen has four broodmares and three foals at Winbak Farms’ Inglewood, ON location, plus 16 mares with foals at foot and 11 yearlings in PEI. He has consigned 11 yearlings to the Atlantic Classic Sale in Crapaud, PEI; four to the London Select Yearling Sale; and two to Harrisburg, including Redland Rocket Man’s full brother, Redlandshananagins. The latter “came out with muscles” at birth, recalled Hagen.

“He’s a good-sized lad,” he said. “Hopefully he garners a little bit of attention.”

Reflecting on Redland Rocket Man’s achievements, Hagen was humble about his role as the breeder.

“Genetics is very much a gamble, no matter what you’re doing,” he said, adding that he used Norman Hall’s Pedigree Matching system to help him select Bulldog Hanover as consort for Granny Hanover. “I liked the way he lined up with ‘Granny.’ She’s probably the biggest, tallest mare I have… I thought I’d give [Bulldog Hanover] a shot for $5,000.”

Redlandshananagins is only the third foal and second colt out of Granny Hanover. The unraced Captaintreacherous mare lost her Bulldog Hanover filly this spring, which Hagen said he had hoped to retain, race, and breed. Granny Hanover was bred back to Bulldog Hanover again this year.

“Norman Hall sent me a note [Sept. 13] and he was quite complimentary, saying about [Redland Rocket Man] being the only Maritime-foaled horse to ever have a world record,” Hagen said. “I’m not really up on those stats, but you start thinking about that, and the success John [Pentland] and company are having with him, and it’s great. I’m tickled pink. Now, I’m just looking to repeat that.”