DRF HARNESS HOME DIGITAL HARNESS EYE HARNESS PPS DRF BETS ENTRIES ARCHIVE THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2020 Tarport Hap: The maternal family NEW PLAYERS that has faded away with time DOUBLE YOUR FIRST DEPOSIT UP TO $250 JOIN NOW Inside this issue Derick Giwner: Facts do not support the fable of negativity, Page 4 Darin Zoccali: April was filled with BREEDERS CROWN PHOTO missed opportunity, Page 6 Call For Rain (4) bested Run The Table in the 1987 Breeders Crown 3-year-old Colt Pace. Papi Rob Hanover wins virtual Breeders Crown; Foiled Again, Sweet Lou lead It is hard to win an argument about who early in Battle of the Decade, Page 8 is the greatest horse of all time. When the parameters of the debate tend to fall in the JAYWALKING Holloway with ample talent in his lines of how many years one has been follow- 15-horse stable, Page 9 ing the sport, it is easy to understand why By Jay Bergman some focus on the last 10 years and others look @BergmanJay On The Backstretch: Profile of trainer further in time. The standards for which we Chris Beaver, Page 11 measure the caliber of horses have changed over time, just as the surfaces, the equipment, racing going forward. From the first crop of Industry Headlines: PA working to and the physical appearance of our horses. Most Happy Fella came Tarport Hap and Silk resume live racing; Tetrick joins USTA For me, it is necessary to go back nearly 50 Stockings. Despite the many years of history BOD; Camluck Classic canceled, Page 13 years, not just to identify the greatest of all to be written, I can’t think of any two fillies by time, but to recall two spectacular fillies that the same sire in the same year that had such Comments? Questions? debuted in 1974. They separated themselves an impact on the sport. Email the Editor [email protected] from the rest and expectations were that they would to change the course of harness CONTINUED ON PAGE 3 © 2020 Daily Racing Form, LLC - 10 Grand Central, 3rd Floor, NY, NY 10017 SUSTAINING PAYMENTS DUE MAY 15 Previous payments must have been made to be eligible Two-Year-Olds LIBERTY BELL 2020 Early Closing Events For Pennsylvania-Sired 2-Year-Olds BREEDERS CROWN No. 34 -$75,000 Est. in 2020- $600,000 in 2020 -$400- To race Friday, October 30, at Harrah’s Hoosier Park, Anderson, Indiana Colt & Gelding Trot/Pace to be raced Friday, Elimination heats, if necessary, will be raced Saturday, October 23 October 9 at Harrah’s Philadelphia -$600- Filly Pace/Trot to be raced Wednesday, Entrance Fee: $5,000 September 23 at Harrah’s Philadelphia Entrance Fee: $400 THE ELEVATION MATRON SERIES 2020 (for 2-year-olds) -$125,000 Est. in 2020- $692,200 total in 2019 -$500- -$500- Open. To be raced Friday, September 25 at Harrah’s Hoosier Park To be raced Thursday, November 5 at Dover Downs Entrance Fee: $750 Top 8 format. Entrance Fee: $1,000 FOX STAKE No. 94 $55,150 in 2019 RALPH WILFONG No. 83 -$450- $33,383 in 2019 Open. To be raced Wednesday, August 12 at the Indiana State Fair, Indianapolis. One -$400- heat only. Open. To be raced Wednesday, August 12 at the Indiana State Fair, Indianapolis. Entrance Fee: $1,200 One heat only. Entrance Fee: $600 HOOSIER STAKE No. 84 $91,400 total in 2019 W.N. REYNOLDS MEMORIAL EARLY CLOSER -$100- $246,100 total in 2019 To be raced Wednesday, August 12 at the Indiana State Fair, Indianapolis -$300- Entrance Fee: $200 All divisions to be raced Friday, August 28 at The Meadowlands Entrance Fee: $500 KENTUCKIANA STALLION MANAGEMENT PACE/TROT 2020 JOHN SIMPSON MEMORIAL EARLY CLOSER -$200,000 Est. in 2020- $442,400 total in 2019 To race Friday, September 25 at Harrah’s Hoosier Park -$400- -$1,000- Colt & Gelding Trot/Pace to be raced Friday, October 23 at Harrah’s Philadelphia Entrance Fee: $1,500 Filly Trot/Pace to be raced Friday, October 16 at Harrah’s Philadelphia Entrance Fee: $400 KEYSTONE CLASSICS 2020 TOMPKINS-GEERS EARLY CLOSER Early Closing Events For Pennsylvania-Sired 2-Year-Olds $260,700 total in 2019 $339,600 total in 2019 -$300- -$400- All divisions to be raced Friday, July 3 at The Meadowlands Colt & Gelding Pace/Trot to be raced Monday, September 14 at The Meadows Entrance Fee: $500 Filly Pace/Trot to be raced Tuesday, September 15 at The Meadows Entrance Fee: $400 Three-Year-Olds LANDMARK STAKE EARLY CLOSER SUPPLEMENTS (Early Closers) -$42,500 Est. total in 2020- -Colts & Geldings: $250- THE COURAGEOUS LADY FILLY PACE -Fillies: $125- -$125,000 Est. in 2020- To be raced Friday, July 3 at Goshen Historic Track -Supplemental Nomination: May 15 - $3,500- -Colts & Geldings Entrance Fee: $300- To race Saturday, October 17 at Northfield Park -Fillies Entrance Fee: $150- Entrance Fee: $1,500 Make checks payable and send all entries to: THE HAMBLETONIAN SOCIETY Cranbury Gates Office Park, 109 South Main St., Suite 18, Cranbury, NJ 08512-3174 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Where the pair stood in history is up for debate, but looking back from 2020, I would have expected Tarport Hap’s immediate mater- nal family to have branched out over the years and given the sport numerous horses that were at least up to their level and beyond. Tarport Hap’s dam, Tarport Cheer, has to rank up there with the greatest broodmares of all time. The daughter of Tar Heel had a long career and produced 10 fillies of her own, yet to my surprise, only her first foal by Meadow Skipper, named Tarport Mary Lou, was able to cultivate a family worth remembering. Her daughter, Rain Proof, by Abercrombie, would be mated with Storm Damage (a son of Bret Hanover who earned a reputation for being second to Niatross on numerous occasions) to produce the colt Call For Rain, a $22,000 year- ling that would make history. While nearly everyone would put trainer/driver Clint Galbraith’s Niatross at the top of the GOAT argument, it seems few remember the accolades of Call For Rain, who was a giant of a horse in his own Watch Call For Rain winning the 1987 Breeders Crown at right. Pompano Park. A New York Sire Stakes performer predominantly during his juve- nile season in 1986, Call For Rain would go on to capture the Breeders Crown for 3-year-olds in 1987 over pacesetter Run The Table and then nation to overcome obstacles, as all three of those Crown victories would follow up that effort as a 4-year-old taking down pacesetting suggest. At the same time, the group as a whole did not seem to evolve Jaguar Spur in the Aged Crown event. What is captivating about Call to the level of today’s Standardbred at the extreme nature of racing For Rain, looking back, was an incredible tenacity he showed while four fast quarters in succession. racing in what we would consider today compromised positions. One A year after Cheery Hello, Tarport Cheer’s connections appeared can argue that Clint Galbraith, who drove Call For Rain to both Crown to take a stab towards the future and skip a couple of generations victories as a driver/trainer, was at a disadvantage when competing to get there. By breeding the mare to Nihilator, they theoretically against Hall of Famer John Campbell and Run The Table in the 1987 bred an older mare to a horse that had transitioned the Albatross sophomore championship held at Pompano. Tactically, Campbell did line dramatically, at least on the racetrack. While Cheerful Earful everything right on that night and put Run The Table in position to proved an unsuccessful racehorse, her seventh foal and first filly win. But Call For Rain and Galbraith made up a significant amount of by Artsplace would prove to be the only extension that would ground late to wear down the pacesetter. drive this family near the 1:50 plateau. Advantest has produced In the 1988 Crown, Galbraith again had Call For Rain off the pace 1:50 speed, with Kenneth J at $1.5 million her top earner and Percy and this time Jaguar Spur and Richard Stillings would back the half Blue Chip, the 2018 3-year-old filly Breeders Crown upsetter, to her down to a very soft 58 fraction. This left Call For Rain tracking dull credit. cover as the pace picked up for the final half. While Call For Rain It is a family rich in history, while at the same time mired in its rallied wide on the backstretch, he still didn’t look to have a shot of inability to pass on the characteristics needed to prosper in an era victory with Jaguar Spur accelerating. Call For Rain and Galbraith that requires a different type of horse. looked beaten in the late stages, but still refused to lose. In both Crown victories, Call For Rain rallied into faster final halves for the victory and wore down horses that were clearly best-in-class caliber at the time. Call For Rain was one of only three horses by Storm Damage to earn $1 million during their careers and was the fastest, taking a 1:49 3/5 record at The Red Mile. It’s that 1:49 3/5 record that sticks out since it was taken in 1988. The 1:50 barrier continues to be shattered in this day and age, but in 1988 it meant something and was clearly special as well for Galbraith, who authored the first sub-1:50 performer in Niatross some eight years earlier.