Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

Bunny Lake Goes Hopping Down the Road
October 26, 2004

Racing fans have seen the last of this Bunny.

Bunny Lake, the six-year-old pacing mare who won 47 races, earned $2.8 million and was honored as Horse of the Year in 2001, raced for the final time Oct. 9 at Lexington's Red Mile. She will officially retire from her five-year career at The Meadowlands at a yet to be determined date late in November or early December.

"She didn't race well her last two starts," said Skip Spring of Johnstown, New York, whose wife Wendy and trainer John Stark Jr. own the mare. "She's just got some ongoing little problems that we probably could heal up with time and do a lot of vet work next year, but she's been too good to us. She's six years old; she's got some nagging little things and the last two races they showed up. She almost made a break and she did a bobble at Lexington and that's not her."

Bunny Lake won eight of 12 races, primarily on the New York Sire Stakes circuit, as a two-year-old in 2000. The following year, she was nearly unstoppable, winning 19 of 21 starts and earning $1.1 million. She won her final 18 races of the campaign, which included triumphs in the Breeders Crown and Mistletoe Shalee, and was voted Horse of the Year. As an older pacer, she staged numerous memorable battles with rival Eternal Camnation, who also retired this year and was honored at Woodbine Racetrack prior to last weekend's Breeders Crown.

Her final win came September 4 at Woodbine in the $289,905 Roses Are Red, which she won by a quarter-length over Please Me Please in a lifetime-best 1:49.

"That was very memorable," Spring said. "She got pressured to the half in 52.3 [seconds] and then just hung on with pure guts in the stretch and came home in 27 [seconds] flat. To me, that was awesome."

Another memorable race was the Mistletoe Shalee, which she won by a nose over Electrical Art after rallying in the stretch. "She was actually pressured, got hit with the whip, and gave up the lead," Spring said. "[Stark] tapped her once and she didn't like it and she quit. But when he put the whip away and urged her, she came back to win by a nose. That was a great race. That showed what heart she had."

Bunny Lake retires as harness racing's second highest money-winning female pacer in history, behind Eternal Camnation, and ranks eighth among all pacers.

"She is actually at John Stark's barn now, but she's coming over to my pasture on Monday. She'll be in my barn on Monday [at their home in Johnstown, NY]. I'll look out the window and see her. I think she'll adjust very well, because every time we turned her out, she kind of wants to be a broodmare. She puts weight on in a hurry. That's why we could never give her a lot of time off because she's just a good eater. She takes care of herself and she'll blow right up, I'm sure. "

Spring said no final decisions have been made as far as future matings. "Right now we're considering Artsplace, Western Hanover, Western Ideal, The Panderosa," he said. "I think one of those four will probably be it. We're going to sell the first two foals, that's been agreed upon. Colt or filly, they're going to be sold. After that, we'll play it by ear. I'd like to keep a filly."

One or more members of the Spring family has attended virtually every one of Bunny Lake's 93 races. "I missed maybe one or two," Spring said. "I missed one last year when I was at the sales and we missed one this August, the eliminations for the Roses Are Red, because we were at my daughter's horse show in Kentucky. Other than that, we didn't miss them. She was loved."