In 1938, Good Time Stable owner William Cane sold McLin, shortly after renamed McLin Hanover, just one week prior to the Hambletonian. In 1946 he repeated that by selling Chestertown to Walter E Smith of Los Angeles, president of the Western Harness Racing Association, just three days prior to the biggest race. Both horses, of course, went on to win the Hambletonian.
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He was the unlikeliest of Hambletonian heroes. His breeder felt forced to buy his dam despite not wanting her, and also felt cheated when he first saw his new broodmare. His trainer cheered for another horse. His driver felt so sure he couldn’t win that he didn’t even invite his family. But in the 1992 Hambletonian final, Mickey McNichol and Alf Palema found the tiniest of openings to sprint to victory.
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A supremely fast trotter, he is most famous for stumbling shortly ahead of the wire in the Hambletonian with victory within reach. Sold to Europe not long after equaling a world record at 4, Brown Berry later likely became a clandestine stallion in France.
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From humble beginnings she rose to be one of the best broodmares in history. An ordinary racehorse, as a broodmare Amour Angus defied all expectations and is now considered one of the best in history.
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Grey trotters have always caught the attention of the public, Greyhound naturally being a big reason. Of the thousands of stallions which were at stud before 1900, very few were successful sires of speed – and almost no grey ones. One exception, though, was Pilot Medium who sired Peter the Great. Pilot Medium’s grey coat is inherited from his damsire, Pilot Jr, who was a famous horse in his time and widely acknowledged as the best horse in “the Pilot family.”
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When Googoo Gaagaa burst onto the Maryland scene many didn’t know what to think. A world record for 2-year-olds on a half mile track was impressive, but could he really be that good? As it turned out, at his best he was even better. Persistent injury problems caused an early retirement, but the hybrid-bred trotter then went from impressing on the track to impressing at stud.
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When Juhani Lagerstam started the Laukko trotting stud farm at Vesilahti in Finland he needed a few stallions to use on his many broodmares. The first stallion bought was Super Male, a very average stallion, but the second purchase, Choctaw Brave, imported to the land of the thousand lakes in 1981, changed absolutely everything.
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She had a questionable pedigree, was difficult to handle, didn’t trot well and didn’t even start a single race. However suspect and hopeless the mare and her background appeared, Santos produced two of the best horses of her day and was a remarkable broodmare.
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The only horse in history to set world records at 1, 2, 3 and 4 before eventually becoming one of the great stallions in history, Peter Volo was a champion both on and off the track. He was not a friendly horse, though, and had a terrible temperament. Though considered one of the pillars of harness racing history, Peter Volo was on track to be forgotten as a stallion given his poor production. One man, however, refused to give up how in the foul-tempered stallion and persisted in his efforts to buy him – a purchase which would change history.
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The Franco-American cross is more popular than ever, and many in the US have also recognized the benefits of such a breeding. It’s often said the cross created a new breed (figuratively, not literally) in the 80s and 90s. Though there is some truth to that, the Franco-American cross was very popular much earlier than that. In fact, more than 100 years ago the French trotter (Trotteur Francais) could not compete with neither the American standardbreds nor the Russian orlov trotters. Then came a French-American cross to establish himself as the first French international star.
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