For the most part, all of those who partici- pate in harness racing are risk managers. From those who breed horses annually, not knowing first whether a mare will get in foal, to waiting nearly a year for a live one, Everything for the Harness Player. All in One Place. TOP FEATURES • Player-centric homepage with everything at your fingertips • Real-time Harness entries, results and live odds • DRF Harness Live! Covering North America’s top stakes action • Harness Eye, Daily Harness Program & TrackMaster PPs • Digital Harness Eye at a low price • Free Harness Eye Past Performances Visit DRF.com/harness CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 The absence of live racing has not limited the training progress of Toscano’s top-rated 3-year-old trotting filly Senorita Rita. “I would say she’s the least impacted by this,” said Toscano of last year’s Goldsmith Maid champion. “We had planned to get her ready for August.” On the other side of the fence are returning 3-year-olds that showed promise last year but didn’t get the experience necessary for Toscano and ownership to pursue extensive staking. For those youngsters, a few races in March and early April would be key towards making critical April 15 stakes payments with at least some knowledge. “We had six or seven that were ready to qualify and we were hoping to get one or two races into them just to see where they were going,” said Toscano. “We just had to make staking decisions on those horses blindly.” Perhaps going forward those same horses will be found in diffi- cult positions of playing catch-up when races actually begin and those with far more experience have a distinct advantage. Yet Toscano also saw a bit of a silver lining in the timing of the shut- down. “At least I didn’t qualify them and was able to back off with them,” said Toscano. Thus there’s a chance to preserve their long- term viability. Toscano recognizes that the 3-year-old stakes season is likely to have a lot of different looks to it with the spring schedule already decimated. “I think we can go longer into the year,” Toscano said, indicating that some of the races that have needed to be postponed could be re-spotted and thus we might see some significant stakes races in November or even December of this season. A pair of 3-year-old pacing fillies enjoyed plenty of success last year and both Rocknificent and Baby Your the Best are coming back quite nicely. “Rocknificent is more mature and easier to handle,” said Toscano of the Captaintreacherous-sired filly that closed out her juvenile campaign with an impressive second-place finish in the Three Diamonds from post 10. Rocknificent was just a neck shy of J K First Lady in the 1:49 2/5 mile in November at The Meadowlands. The placing pushed her seasonal bankroll to $281K DERICK GIWNER in 13 starts, all of which came in stakes races. Rocknificent put together a strong 13-5-2-4 record while earning Toscano noted that last year’s Meadowlands Pace upset winner $281,506 in 2019 as a rookie pacing filly. Best In Show was returning on schedule before the schedule changed. “We had him right at 2:00 when racing stopped,” said There are 26 2-year-olds in training right now for Toscano. Toscano. “He’ll be ready.” “We’re in the low (2:) 20s with them. I’ve got some really nice trot- Best In Show, a homebred son of Bettor’s Delight from the $2.4 ting fillies and some really nice pacing fillies,” Toscano said. million winning Put On A Show, stunned the racing world when Toscano noted that like all trainers, nothing has changed for he captured the Meadowlands Pace last July in a personal-best her when it comes to the care and conditioning of her horses every 1:48, taking the measure of divisional champion Bettor’s Wish and day. Like most, she has done a masterful job over time, manag- favored Captain Crunch in the process. ing horses and the risks that come with them. It’s that experience On the trotting side of the equation, Toscano could have a poten- that’s likely to see her and most of this industry better equipped to tial star in the New Jersey-bred Play Trix On Me. Is he a Grand handle whatever the next phase turns out to be. Circuit horse? “I think he is,” Toscano said. A New Jersey Sire Stakes cham- pion prior to joining forces with Toscano last summer, Play Trix On Me started but six times during a freshman campaign while Follow showing extreme speed and potential, with a 1:53 2/5 qualifier at The Red Mile in October. He’s a son of Hambletonian champion Trixton. With the limited experience last year, Toscano had hoped to have Play Trix On Me racing at this time. “He’s all dressed up with nowhere to go,” said Toscano. Advertise with MULTIPLE PLACEMENT DISCOUNTS For more information or to place an ad, contact Derick Giwner at [email protected] DRF Harness Weekend | 3 | April 23, 2020 Visit us online at drf.com/harness By Derick Giwner The results are in for the first round of the inaugural Catch Driver/Breeders Crown virtual 3-year-old pacing challenge, and it was a clean sweep. Papi Rob Hanover won more races in the digi- tal editions of the North America Cup, Max Hempt Memorial and Meadowlands Pace when played out over the Catch Driver gaming platform. The battle lines were established last week when fields for each of the stakes races were formed and virtual drivers were asked to pilot some of the best 3-year-old pacing colts in the sport. The Friday stake was the North America Cup and Papi Rob Hanover won 33% of the time, winning 96 of the 292 races run during a 24-hour period. Elver Hanover was second with 61 wins and Tall Dark Stranger finished third at 55 victories. Statistically, here is how it played out for 292 races: HORSE NAME WINS WIN % AVG. POST PAPI ROB HANOVER 96 32.99% 5.49 ELVER HANOVER 61 20.96% 5.60 TALL DARK STRANGER 55 18.90% 5.48 CAPTAIN NEMO 26 8.93% 5.04 CAPT MIDNIGHT 22 7.56% 5.60 ODDS ON OSIRIS 17 5.84% 5.23 CATCH THE FIRE 8 2.75% 5.38 FREEDOM WARRIOR 6 2.06% 5.70 CAPTAIN BARBOSSA 0 Betts is the heavy early In the Standardbred Racing game, there are no comparisons at THE track By Darin Zoccali AtTheTrack7 There has been a great deal of discussion lately regarding who would win a fantasy race, who is the greatest pacer, greatest trotter, or even the greatest horse of all-time. It’s always a fascinating topic, one that brings forth many different opinions, and is typically one of the more civil discussions seen on social media. I am a student of both Standardbred and Thoroughbred racing. I recognize myself as a student because I know I will always have more to learn and can learn from others that have more experience or are NIGEL SOULT (ABOVE) / DERICK GIWNER (BELOW) just more intelligent than I am. Snow White (above) was the fastest of her generation while When it comes to debates regarding the caliber of certain horses, Mission Brief broke records in the same division seven years admittedly, I have an easier time when it comes to thoroughbreds later. than standardbreds. That isn’t because I know more about one breed than the other. I believe I am fairly close to equally versed in the two. But, the breeds are very different from a historical standpoint. Harness Racing is speed-crazed. When comparing horses, refer- ring to a single race in which they broke a world record is common. It is also one of the first details about a horse that is referenced when comparing horses of different years or even generations. “He trotted 1:49; he’s better!” Not too long ago, a post about being the “O.G.” of social distancing appeared on Twitter pertaining to Mission Brief’s romp at The Red Mile. I posted a screenshot of Snow White winning by a pole, hoping people would keep finding older races of horses winning by many lengths and posting them. Instead, you would have thought I walked up to Mission Brief and literally spit on her. Immediately references made to how fast she was, albeit seven years removed from Snow White, appeared. How dare I even broach the subject of anyone being better than Mission Brief (which was not at all what I was doing)! The differences between Standardbred racing and Thoroughbred racing begins with speed. Over the last 40 years, standardbreds have Derby in under two minutes. Before Monarchos in 2001, nobody had gotten significantly faster for a variety of reasons. Thoroughbreds done it since Secretariat. By the way, nobody has done it since. In fact, have not. Standardbreds are literally 30 to 40 lengths faster on aver- since Secretariat’s 1:59 2/5 performance in the Derby, only two horses age than they were in 1980. Thoroughbreds are not. have run a Kentucky Derby faster than 2:01 – Monarchos (1:59.97) and Take a look at the current world records for pacers and trotters. The Spend A Buck (2:00.2). Spend A Buck won the Derby in 1985. oldest record for a pacer is from 2006, as Holborn Hanover still holds So when I state that I believe Secretariat was the greatest thorough- the mark for an aged gelding (a narrow parameter).