The rambunctious one

An exceptionally fast trotter with soundness problems and chronic mental issues, Arndon sometimes posed a huge challenge to his legendary trainer. But when he did what he was supposed to he was a terrifyingly good trotter – and the first three-year-old to trot in 1:54.

An American star, the history of Arndon is also a story of great New Zealand breeder and stud farm. Back in 1927, John McKenzie had founded the Roydon Lodge and named it for his sons Roy and Don. The purchase of U Scott in 1935, as well as Light Brigade five years later, established the farm as the best in the southern hemisphere. John McKenzie passed away in 1955, when one of his sons, Roy took over Roydon Lodge.

In The Roydon Heritage, published in 1978, Roy MacKenzie wrote that (note: keep in mind that Roydon Gal was then in foal) “At the 1976 Adios there was a yearling sale which featured a Super Bowl filly I was keen to secure. My aim was to help breed good young trotters. This was not a very attractive financial investment, but probably necessary long term. As well as driving her before the sale, I drove Noble Victory colt who impressed me as an ideal cross for our Game Pride mares and as a result, I had a difficult decision to make between the filly and the colt.

The sales area was crowded but my wife and daughter Robyn got seats and shortly before the filly came in, I gained one in front of them. There was some quick and frantic bidding, but I finally secured her, though my family didn’t think so. She had cost more than I bargained for. The colt, Noble Art, sold for $4,000 less later in the sale. He was purchased by Del Miller and the Grants and he became the top money-winning two-year-old of 1977. He had earned over $100,000 and he will have a 2:00 (1.14,6) record any day.

We named the filly Roydon Gal and she trained really well as a two-year-old but showed some soreness when due to race at that age. We later qualified her in 2:10 and she has now been bred to Arnie Almahurst to whom she is in foal.”

An early talent

On Mar 17, 1979, Roydon Gal gave birth to a colt who was named Arndon. Assigned to Delvin Miller, the colt was a star from the get-go. He took his first win at Vernon Downs on Jun 9, 1981, defeating Sacramento and Speed Bowl in a two-year-old trot in 2:04.2 (1.17,3). The following week he was third in the Harriman Challenge Cup, behind Spirits Supreme and Summit Hill. The colt underscored his early credentials as one of the best in the crop by winning the Skyline series at the Meadowlands on Jun 23. In that race, Arndon took the lead before the half and gamely held off Self Confident at the end to win in 2:03 (1.16,4), while second favorite Crowntron finished fourth.

A week later it was role reversal as Crowntron won ahead of Self Confident and Scottish Wind, while Arndon finished far back after making a break at the quarter-pole. Arndon was one of the favorites in his division of the inaugural Peter Haughton Memorial on Aug 4, 1981. However, another early break ruined his chances to win, but Arndon showed a lot of ability when he recovered to finish fifth, Incredible Nevele winning the division ahead of Crowntron. This tendency to break was something Arndon never grew out of.

Winning eliminations to the Walnut Hall Cup and International Stallion Stake, both at Lexington in October, he was unable to compete in finals, won by Incredible Nevele and Jazz Cosmos, respectively. His 1:57.2 (1.13,0) winning time in the International Stallion Stake elimination was a Red Mile track record as well as a seasonal record.

A Hambletonian contender

On the back of his promising freshman season, Arndon was seen as one of the Hambletonian contenders and in the experimental ratings he was ranked fifth with a 1:56 rating, behind Self Confident, Incredible Nevele, Speed Bowl and Jazz Cosmos. Delvin Miller was even more positive, and In the March the Daily News wrote, “Harness racing great Del Miller, 67 years young, thinks he has a potential Hambletonian winner in Arndon, training at Pompano Park.”

The Arnie Almahurst-son started his 1982 campaign in perfect fashion by easily winning the Florida Breeders Stakes trot on Mar 24, trotting in 2:02.3 (1.16,2) and finishing three lengths ahead of Front Page Lady after being the front-running for the entire race. Letting the colt race in a few overnight races, Arndon then easily brushed off Crowntron in a race at the Meadowlands in mid-May. It seemed easy, but in an interview after the race, Miller revealed he was forced to send Arndon into the lead after the quarter-pole to avoid the horse acting up, “I don’t like to race him out in front all the time the way he’s been going, but this time he started acting up a bit when I put him in the whole – and when you’re a 3-5 shot you don’t want to start practicing with him out there.”

In his fifth race, again the the Meadowlands, it looked like he was finally going to lose when he made a break at the start and lost 14-15 lengths. However, there was something special about Arndon, who just breezed by his competitors and won by almost four lengths in 2:01.1 (1.15,3). After the win, Miller stated that “This horse went more than a half mile on the outside when he took his 1:57.2 (1.13,0) record at Lexington last year as a two-year-old. He’s mighty frisky. He might be the best I’ve ever trained.” However, he was quick to add that the horse was his own worst enemy, “He’s got a mind of his own. He’ll just take off and go on you. I’d have to say we have a pretty good shot at the Hambletonian if he stays as sound as he is right now.”

It was never entirely smooth sailing, though. After six straight wins, Arndon was an overwhelming favorite in the final of the Weequahic Park Trotting Series, but was scratched as he caused two recalls, both by breaking before the starting pole. The judges, not impressed, demanded that the colt had to qualify twice before racing again.

Miller then decided on the Dexter Trot at Roosevelt, but admitted prior to the race that he was unsure how his young star would negotiate the turns on a half-mile oval. “Arndon’s a darn good trotter. I don’t konw how he’s going to be on a half-mile track. But I’m paying a $3,000 starting fee to find out. We’ll know Saturday night if it was worth it.” As it turned out, it wasn’t worth it as Arndon threw as he near the start and broke stride in his elimination. In the next start, at the Meadowlands on Jun 18, he returned to his winning ways when taking home his division of the Historic Cup in 1:57.2 (1.13,0) ahead of Incredible Nevele and Messerschmitt.

Multiple records

Going to Canada, Arndon first knocked almost three seconds off the stakes record when winning the General Brock Stakes at Greenwood in late June. A week later, Arndon set a world, Canadian and track record on Blue Bonnet’s five-eights track when winning the Montreal Trot in 1:57.2 (1.13,0), again ahead of Incredible Nevele and Messerschmitt, erasing Speedy Somolli’s 1:58.1 (1.13,5) record from the books.

Two weeks later, in the Founders Gold Cup at Vernon on Jul 18, Mystic Park and Arndon met for the first time that season. The two horses had stellar starts to the season and were touted as early Hambletonian favorites. However, the eagerly anticipated duel didn’t happen since Arndon returned to his old ways. Arndon set a track record when winning the his elimination in 1:56.4 (1.12,6) on a sloppy trat, while Incredible Nevele and Mystic Park, the latter in 1:59.1 (1.14,1), won the other two. In the final, however, Mystic Park went straight to the lead while Arndon broke stride.

While Mystic Park and Incredible Nevele went to Yonkers for the Yonkers Trot, Arndon, as well as Speed Bowl, decided to skip the first leg of the Triple Crown. Del Miller was clear in the press that he was not going to start Arndon as the trotter “can’t handle a half-mile track.”

Instead he chose the Beacon Course, at the big M one week prior to the 1982 Hambletonian, as next task for the super-fast trotter. “If I can keep him from being rambunctious he could be the best of his age group”, Miller said prior to the race. However, Arndon was his rambunctious self and the legendary trainer couldn’t keep Arndon on the straight and narrowed. The colt got off to a bad start and then broke while flying in the homestretch, finishing ninth in a race won by Self Confident.

His own worst enemy

Despite his sometimes erratic behavior, Arndon was the slight favorite in the Hambletonian. Miller again repeated his words about Arndon, “he is the fastest trotter I have ever driven and he is capable of winning the Hambletonian. But his temperament works against him. He tries too hard. He is not a mean colt or anything like that. But he wants to go right to the front and you just can’t control him on ce he gets there. If you are trying to pass a horse, he will try to do it all at once. I don’t know if he will ever be a finished horse.” As Miller feared, Arndon’s antics ruined it all for himself – again – in the Hambletonian.

“Arndon joined a vanguard four wide entering the first turn and pushed 1 1/2 lengths ahead, running his own trot, pulling Miller along. Orr and the other grooms crowded along the railway, rubbing shoulders and straining to see. Arndon clung to the rail, too, a length ahead at the half-mile mark and still up at three-quarters. ‘Delvin’s running him,’ said one of the boys. The suddently, almost every horse was running by him. Arndon watched his rivals pass by, gave a start, and broke a step. Jazz Cosmos finished first. Arndon minced home eighth.

Miller could only guess at what happened. ‘He was making bad steps,’ Miller said, pawing the air with one hand. ‘He never had his trot.’ Later he added, ‘He was relaxed until Glen [Garnsey, driving third-place Incredible Nevele] came by. I would have been better off if Glen wasn’t there, but that’s no excuse. I don’t make excuses.” Arndon thus missed out on the final in which Tommy Haughton became the youngest driver of a Hambletonian winner when he guided Speed Bowl to victory.

The legendary time trial

While most of the top three-year-olds was in Lexington for the Kentucky Futurity, Miller instead opted to time-trial his superspeedy colt. On Oct 6, 1982, Arndon became the fastest trotter in history when he went a time trial at the Red Mile in 1:54 (1.10,9). The fascinating part, however, was the the Arnie Almahurst son was far from 100 percent. From the Lexington Herald, “‘I know he’d trot in 1:52 (1.09,6) if he was right, if he was sound’, Miller said after driving Arndon through fractions of 29.1, 56.2 and 1:24.4. Miller said it took all the strength he had to hold the colt in through the mile.

Arndon’s sore hind end caused him to bear out badly on the turns and in the stretch. Miller was pulling desperately on the left line, but was not having a lot of succes. He could not keep the colt close to the rail.

‘I thought being out from the rail in the two turns cost me 2/5 to 3/5 of a second. I didn’t hit him in the stretch. There was no sense in hitting him because he was giving me everything he had.’

As a result, Miller said last night that he will give the trotter a chance to trot in 1:52 (1.09,6) during time trials at the Red Mile on Sunday afternoon.
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Arndon’s hind-end problem, specifically his stifles (similar to knee joints), developed when he raced in the mud in upstate New York in July. But this isn’t the only problem he has had to overcome. Early in his juvenile season, the colt developed a phobia of starting gates and harrows. He would even shy from other horses at the track. Once, when he spotted a harrow during a time trial at Springfield, the colt turned around and went the other way. For some time, Arndon had to wear a special hood to deaden racetrack sounds, which seemed to frighten him.

Arndon also had a bad habit of making breaks in his races.

‘He’s the kindest horse in the world to train and warm up,” Miller said. “But when he gets other horses around, he wants to beat them so badly that he gets overanxious and goes off stride.’

Miller never lost his patience despite many discouragements. ‘I know this’, he said last year. ‘I’ve never been behind a cold with so much sheer trotting speed.’

Arndon was showing every bit of that speed here last Thursdag, when he trained a mile in 1:57.3 (1.13,1).

‘When I trained him, I wanted to go in 1:59’, said the Hall of Fame driver, who is 69 years old. ‘I went over to the half in a minute and had a prompter pick me up. When he heard that prompter, he just took off.’

Arndon used only one prompter yesterday when setting his world-record mile.”

That Sunday, Arndon tried to lower his fresh 1:54 record in another time trial, but broke stride. After that, Arndon was retired to stud at Miller’s Meadow Lands farm in Western Pennsylvania. At the end of 1982, Roy McKenzie syndicated Arndon for $1,650,000.

A mixed bag at stud

At stud, he had around 1200 foals, first in the US. By far his best get was Pine Chip, the world champion who became a top stallion, first in the US and then in Sweden. Pine Chip sired two Hambletonian-winners in Scarlet Knight and Chip Chip Hooray, but his long-term impact seems to come through his Italian-born son Infinitif, the sire of Ecurie D.

Another son of Arndon who left a huge legacy was the New Zealand-exported Sundon, who won 27 races Down Under, including several big races. He was the New Zealand Two Year Old Trotter of the Year in 1987/1988, the Three Year Old Trotter of the Year in 1988/1989 and Trotter of the Year in 1990/1991. After retiring in 1992, Sundon then went on to be champion stallion 14 years in a row and possibly the best trotting stallion ever stood in the Southern hemisphere.

Overall, Arndon was at best only an average sire. Only four of his get even started in the Hambletonian, Petri Kosmos and Rising Chief both finished out of the money in 1988; Tarport Mark did not progress from his elimination in 1992; and Pine Chip was second to American Winner in the 1992 final.

He had a bit more success as a damsire. His good daughter Kindava Hush 3,1:56.1 (1.12,2), $224,183 produced the excellent Hellava Hush 1:51.0 (1.09), $1,140,974, and Arndon was also the damsire of the excellent Georgia Limited 1:54.1 (11,0), $1,119,777. Breeders eventually learnt that doubling up on Arndon meant doubling up on his unique mental characteristics – which tended to be negative. From more than 200 trotters closely inbred on Arndon (3×3 or closer), only the New Zealand star Stent can be said to have been truly excellent, while there are a few good ones bred less closely.

Sold to Italy, Arndon passed away in November 2000, 21 years old.

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