Kentucky Futurity, Part 2

by Bob Heyden

Part 1 is here.

The Triple Crown is now history for 2026 as Nix Nacken got the job done in the Kentucky Futurity for Red Mile first-timer Bjorn Goop driving for Marcus Melander who sent out six of the 11 entrants. Marcus had won this previously with Greenshoe in 2019 and was second and third last year with his two stars Maryland and Super Chapter. Eighteen of the 21 entered in the combined 2026 Filly Futurity and Kentucky Futurity were conditioned by a Swedish born trainer. Nancy Takter had four in the filly division and went 1-2 with She’s Moni and Madam Cheval.

Here are the standout numbers from Futurity Day — 20 of them — as we put a bow on the 525th Triple Crown event ever held.

1. Mr Mouton earlier on the card joined Six Pack as the only two Red Mile track record holders to appear twice on that list, and both did it at 3 and 4.

2. All three Triple Crown legs this year went to a sub-35 year-old conditioner. Marcus Melander, 34, won the Hambletonian (Apex) and now the Futurity, and Lucas Wallin, 33, with Inexpressable, won the Yonkers Trot.

3. The Futurity was the first Triple Crown race of the season that had participants in the previous Triple Crown race in it. Six of 10 Hambletonian finalists competed in the Futurity.

4. Brandon Boulevard and Beau Jangles each won in 1:47.2 on Futurity Day. Sound familiar? Tall Dark Stranger and Party Girl Hill in 2020 did the same, in the same exact time, in the Tattersalls en route to going 1-2 in the HOY balloting.

5. The Futurity time of 1:50 was four-fifths-of-a-second off the stakes 1:49.1 mark, set by Six Pack, which has stood the past eight years. Keep in mind that the Hambletonian record has been re-established in each of the last two editions.

6. The Kentucky Futurity is the race where the youngest driver and oldest has won a Triple Crown event: Peter Haughton, 22, in 1976 with Quick Pay and Bi Shively, 74, 1952 with Sharp Note.

7. Marcus Melander with Apex and Nix Nacken joined Jimmy Takter who last won the Hambletonian and the Futurity with two different sophomores: Trixton and Father Patrick in 2014.

8. Nix Nacken is a gelding, and if history repeats itself, will have a wonderful career. Previously in 1971 Savoir won this and was HOY four years later; Mr Muscleman in 2003 surged well past $3 million before the decade was out; Pinkman in 2015 completed the richest season by any Jimmy Takter trainee at $1.9 million, and the 2020 winner Amigo Volo is still going strong closing in on $3 million.

9. Muscle Hill is now retired. But the only representative he had in either Futurity came through in a big way. Nix Nacken is now the fourth Muscle Hill winner of this leg in the last decade with only Father Patrick doubling up in that time frame with Greenshoe (2019) and Amigo Volo (2020).

10. Jimmy Takter drove his final Triple Crown race here in 2018 with Tactical Landing second best to Six Pack. Tactical Landing has since sired Allegiant — 1:48 in the Elitlopp this year — as well as back-to- back Hambletonian winners from his first two crops in Tactical Approach and Karl.

11. Three Swedish born drivers got money in the Futurity. Goop followed by Ake Svanstedt (second) and Orjan Kihlstrom (fifth). If you are scoring at home that is an astounding 10 Elitlopps right there: five for Kihlstrom, second all-time to Stig Johansson’s six, three for Goop who actually won three years apart with the same Timoko 2014 and 2017, and a pair for Svanstedt.

12. Bjorn Goop won his first Triple Crown race four decades after dad Olle won the first of a pair of Breeders Crowns (1987 and 1989) with the outstanding trotting mare Grades Singing. Bjorn won this year’s Futurity giving himself an early 50th birthday present just 10 days before he hits the big 5-0!

13. Walner went 1-2 in the Filly Futurity but was unable to extend his streak to four in Triple Crown events with the boys. He won the Futurity last year with Emoticon Legacy, then the 2026 Yonkers Trot with Inexpressable and the Hambletonian with Apex.

14. Marcus Melander fell a touch shy in the Filly Futurity (fifth, eighth, and 10th) of trying to duplicate what Jimmy Takter did in 2014, by winning the Hambletonian and the Oaks and then the Futurity and Filly Futurity with four different horses: Trixton and Lifetime Pursuit followed by Father Patrick and Shake It Cerry. Melander took three of the four with the Filly Futurity eluding him.

15. Tim Tetrick once again had the odds-on favorite in a Triple Crown Grade 1 event with Big Ranger, but this time it wasn’t a nose defeat it was a sixth-place finish.

16. When the dust cleared on the day Ake Svanstedt’s stable was No. 11 all time at 6,827 starts with 1,418 wins good for $71,644,749. Melander is No. 20 with 4,219 tries with 880 of those victories for a grand total of $53,926,462, and Nancy Takter’s stable is No. 24 in history with 4,531 starts, 955 wins, and earnings of $49,273,833.

17. Tim Tetrick’s runner-up finish in the Filly Futurity has him inching to near $3 million of John Campbell’s No. 2 spot on the all-time list. Campbell has $299.8 million with Tetrick at $296,734,782.

18. With Super Chapter winning later that night at Dayton, he reclaimed the 2026 money title that Brandon Boulevard took away during the daylight. They ended the weekend with Super Chapter at $1,196,797 and Brandon Blvd at $1,175,195.

19. Marcus Melander finishes his under-35 Triple Crown career with more than any other conditioner ever at six: the Hambletonian (Apex) and Futurity (Nix Nacken) this year which followed last year’s Yonkers Trot (Super Chapter), the 2022 Yonkers Trot (Joviality S), and in 2019, the Yonkers Trot (Gimpanzee) and Kentucky Futurity (Greenshoe).

20. What a Triple Crown season this has been for Spencer Hanover. The 2025 Breeders Crown winner had the second tier in the Yonkers Trot (ninth) and the Kentucky Futurity (eighth) with a post 9 thrown in the mix in the Hambletonian (sixth).