Greenshoe Bay horse, 3 by Father Patrick – Designed to Be by Donato Hanover

OWNER: Courant Inc, FL, Hans R Backe, SD, Lars I Grangvist, SD & Morten Langli, NO BREEDER: Al J Libfeld, ON & Marvin Katz, ON ​ SALE INFO: Purchased for $330,000 under the name Rifleman at the Lexington Selected Sale. TRAINER: Marcus Melander ​ DRIVER: Brian Sears

YEAR STARTS 1ST 2ND 3RD EARNINGS MARK ​ ​ 2019 5 4 1 0 $326,500 1:50.1 M 2018 4 2 0 0 $76,723 1:53.3 M LIFETIME 9 6 1 0 $403,223 3, 1:50.1 M

● Won the $153,000 Stanley Dancer Memorial at the Meadowlands on July 13 in a lifetime mark of 1:50.1.

● “All along he’s been a really talented colt, has a really high turn of speed, and he showed it tonight,” Sears said. “He’s done everything we’ve asked all year long and he’s done it pretty easily, pretty in hand, so we’re real happy with where we’re at right now.”

● Greenshoe won his Beal Elimination at Pocono Downs before finishing second behind Marseille in the final.

● Started his three year old season with wins in a leg of the New Jersey Sire Stakes and the $200,000 Final.

● “Talent and ability are not the issues that’s for sure,” said Greenshoe’s regular driver, Brian Sears. “He showed a lot of speed last year, but he’s maturing every start behind the gate; every time we get a good experience it’s a plus. Hopefully we get some more good trips in him and keep him on schedule. He just needs experience. He’s a smart horse, he’s just a little anxious at times, but he’s definitely starting to grasp it.”

● As a 2 year old Greenshoe won two of four races despite going off stride in each start.

● Brian Sears, 51, is a three-time winning driver in the Hambletonian and two-time winner of the .

● He won both the Hambletonian and Oaks in 2009, earning his Hambletonian victory with and Oaks triumph with Broadway Schooner. He became the first driver to win the Hambletonian and Oaks in the same year. In 2013, he repeated the double, winning the Hambletonian with Royalty For Life and the Oaks with Bee A Magician.

● In 2015, Sears won the Hambletonian with Pinkman. Yannick Gingras drove Pinkman to victory in his elimination, but opted to drive filly Mission Brief, also an elimination winner, in the final.

● Sears is among five drivers to win the Hambletonian three times. John Campbell holds the record, with six, and there are four drivers tied for second place, with four. They are Ben White, Billy Haughton, Stanley Dancer, and Mike Lachance.

● In July, Sears won his third , guiding Best In Show to victory for trainer Linda Toscano, who had been inducted into the Hall of Fame six days earlier.

● For his career, Sears has won more than 10,100 races and $192 million in purses. He ranks 17th in North American history for wins among drivers and fifth in purses. He led the sport in earnings in 2005, with a then-record $15 million, and has finished among the top 10 in purses 13 of the past 15 years.

● In 2018, Sears ranked 13th in purses despite having the fewest starts of any driver in the top 45. Sears won nine races worth at least $250,000, including the million-dollar Yonkers International Trot and three finals. Five of his top victories came behind McWicked, who was named 2018 Horse of the Year, and he also was the regular driver of undefeated 2-year-old male trotter Gimpanzee.

● Sears has driven four Horse of the Year award winners: Rocknroll Hanover in 2005, Muscle Hill in 2009, Bee A Magician in 2013, and McWicked in 2018.

● He received the 2009 Driver of the Year Award from the U.S. Harness Writers Association and was the 1991 Rising Star Award recipient from the same organization.

● A native of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Sears is a third-generation horseman, following in the footsteps of his grandfather Gene and dad Jay. Both are in the Florida Hall of Fame.

● Sears was inducted into the Harness Racing Hall of Fame in Goshen, N.Y., in 2017.

● “I’m always nervous when he races,” Melander said. “Even if he’s behaved in all his starts this year, I still don’t trust him because you know one little misstep can cost you the race.

● Marcus Melander, 27, made his Hambletonian debut in 2017 and saw Enterprise win his elimination and then finish fourth-placed-third in the final. Melander’s Long Tom also raced in an elimination, leading through three-quarters of a mile before going off stride and failing to reach the final.

● In 2018, Melander-trained Evaluate finished fourth in his Hambletonian elimination and fifth in the final.

● Melander received the 2018 Rising Star Award from the U.S. Harness Writers Association. He joined Nancy Johansson as the only trainers to receive the honor in the past 20 years. His stable earned $2.86 million in purses in 2018, good for 15th among all trainers in North America, despite having the fifth-fewest starts among all trainers in the top 50.

● The Melander-trained colt Gimpanzee received the Dan Patch Award for best 2-year-old male trotter after going 9-for-9 in 2018 at age 2. Other top wins in 2018 for his stable included the $1 million Yonkers International Trot with Cruzado Dela Noche and the Maple Leaf Trot with Crazy Wow.

● Melander came to the U.S. from Sweden less than five years ago and worked for four-time Hambletonian-winning trainer Jimmy Takter before starting his own stable in late 2014. He is based in New Egypt, N.J., at a farm that was home previously to each the legendary Stanley Dancer, a five-time Hambletonian winner, and Continental Farms stables. Melander has won more than 150 races and $6 million in purses in his career.

● Growing up in Sweden, Melander stayed up all hours of the night following the results of U.S. harness racing. He was making a name for himself as a driver in Europe but was always fascinated by racing in the States. At age 19, Melander won Sweden’s equivalent to the U.S. Harness Writers Association’s Rising Star Award. He had just more than 100 wins when the Melanders moved to America.

● Melander’s uncle, Stefan Melander, won the 2001 Hambletonian as trainer and driver with Scarlet Knight.

● The colt is owned by Courant Inc., Hans Backe, Lars Granqvist, and Morten Langli.

● The owners of Greenshoe include Hans Backe, the former coach of the New York Red Bulls in the MLS. Backe coached the Red Bulls for three seasons, from 2010 through 2012.

● His sire Father Patrick was the prohibitive favorite going into the 2015 Hambletonian. He was five-for-five that year and riding a 15-race win streak dating back to the previous year, he drew the outside post 10. Father Patrick became the shortest-priced horse to not capture the trotting classic when he went offstride for the first time in his 17-start career.

● Sire of dam Designed To Be is Donato Hanover, winner of the 2007 Hambletonian.

● Greenshoe was originally Rifleman but rebranded by Ström in a reference to a financial term related to an initial public offering (IPO).