Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

$184,425 Dexter Cup at Freehold

Trainer Sends Out Three in Saturday Feature
Trainer Paul Doherty prepares to send out three horses in Saturday's $184,425 Dexter Cup at Freehold Raceway in New Jersey. Doherty's trainees are elimination race winner Lindy Five Hundred, Clearaway and Armbro Copenhagen. Driver Ray Schnittker shares ownership in the three finalists.

"There's power in numbers, that's for sure," said Doherty, who is Schnittker's assistant trainer. "But this is kind of like having a baseball team; at the beginning of the year you're high on them, then halfway through the season reality sets in. They've got a full season ahead of them, if they're good enough. They're in the game, anyway."

Lindy Five Hundred and Clearaway are both eligible to the Hambletonian, trotting's crown jewel, the first Saturday in August. Those two horses finished 1-2 in one of the two Dexter elims last weekend, with Lindy Five Hundred winning by more than four lengths in 1:58.4. Great George Two (see story below) won the other elimination race by nearly two lengths over Manopoly in 1:58.3. Great George Two, a $25,000 supplemental entry to the Dexter, is undefeated in four starts this season.

Doherty and Schnittker are no strangers to the Dexter, having teamed up to win the race with Armbro Trick in 2000 and with Armbro Plate in 1997. Both of those Dexter winners went on to finish third in the Hambletonian. Lindy Five Hundred was purchased as a yearling for $62,000 at Harrisburg while Clearaway went for $50,000 at the Kentucky Standardbred Sale.

"Clearaway is a big, good-looking horse," Doherty said. "He's by Yankee Glide, and we've had a little luck with some Yankee Glides. I think his best game will be on the larger tracks. He's got a lot of speed and is a bigger horse. But for his first time, he handled the half-mile pretty well in his elim.

"Lindy Five Hundred also comes from a good family. He's a good-looking colt. He had a knee problem last year, so we shut him down, but he's come back really well. He should get better every time he races. He's just getting into shape now. He's real handy on a half-mile track and has a lot of gate speed. He handles the turns real well."

Last year, Lindy Five Hundred had two wins and two seconds among his four starts, the last of which came on July 13. For his career, he has three wins and $61,531 in seven starts. Clearaway was winless in 2004, with his top money-earning finish being a fourth in a division of the Bluegrass at the Red Mile. This season, the gelding has won three of six starts, finished second three times and earned $31,834.

Armbro Copenhagen is a full brother to Armbro Barrister, the winner of $313,233 lifetime, including Zweig and Galt victories. Armbro Copenhagen, who is not eligible to the Hambletonian, was purchased for $25,000 at the Kentucky Standardbred Sale. He has won five of 15 lifetime races and earned $35,947.

"He's a pretty nice horse," Doherty said. "He's a better looking horse than his brother, and he did pretty well for us. We didn't wander too far off the beaten path."

Lindy Five Hundred is eligible to the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes while Armbro Copenhagen and Clearaway are eligible in New Jersey. "It all comes down to where they can make money," Doherty said. "We'll just have to see where that is. There are some nice horses (in the Dexter) but there are some better ones yet to come."

Manopoly, trained by Jimmy Takter and driven by Marcus Johansson, is the leading money-winner in the field with $86,355 in lifetime earnings. Last year, he was second in a division of the Champlain and won a Campbellville elimination race. He was making his first start of 2005 in the Dexter elims.

"The way we draw will be important," Doherty said. "Great George Two is the one to beat. He was pretty impressive."

Dexter Cup Elim Winner Great George Two
A glance at the pedigree of Great George Two, winner of an elimination of Saturday's $184,425 Dexter Cup at Freehold Raceway, might provoke the question: Great George Who? The three-year-old colt is by the North Carolina trotting stallion Hobokenbahamamamas (3, 2:03, $6,264), out of the pacing mare Within Reach (6, 1:56.2, $35,038).

"George" was born in Greenville, North Carolina, and may be the best Standardbred from that state since Tar Heel was born near Winston-Salem in 1948. Hardly seems like a mating that might produce a stakes winner, but trainer and co-owner William "Bib" Roberts knew what he saw on the track almost a year ago.

"I saw him first when he qualified (on June 16, 2004 at Rosecroft Raceway in Maryland). I had another trotting colt in with him and I said, 'Oh my God, look at that colt.' His manner and the way he looked, he just looked like a superior horse. He showed it that day. He went out there and qualified (in 2:03.1, winning by 4¼ lengths) and I asked Leon [Harris, his trainer/owner at the time] if he was for sale and he said, 'No, not right now, not right now,' and I think I asked him another time. They had some offers for him when they took him to the Meadowlands, (coming in second and third in two-year-old races), but he got sick [in mid July] and Leon just stopped with him. He called me up in September and said he thought he'd like to sell him. He brought him to Rosecroft and I trained him a trip and we bought the horse."

Roberts declined to name the price, but said it was less than $100,000. Roberts is a co-owner along with Graham Grace Stables (small animal veterinarian Dr. Ainspan and his wife Mary Beth Roberts) of Vienna, Virginia, along with M&W Stables (Thomas Lander of Burlington, North Carolina. Those two also own Thoroughbreds together, and for Lander, George is his first and only Standardbred. When it came time to put down the cash, Roberts was not deterred by the pacing blood in George's pedigree.

"Not really, not once you've seen the horse and seen him in a race," he said. "His sire is by Supergill [and he is out of the mare Ruby Crown, mother of Hambletonian winner Scarlet Knight] and Direct Scooter (sire of George's dam) does have some trotting blood in him, he's out of a Noble Victory mare. He doesn't want to do anything but trot. He's got very good manners and he feels good all the time -- that's how he is, playing. Yesterday, he was turned out in his paddock and we kicked an old basketball that was half deflated in with him. He thought that was the greatest thing he'd ever seen, he just grabbed it up played and ran around the paddock with it, he was so happy to have something to play with."

While Great George Two was not eligible to the Hambletonian when Roberts bought him, and was supplemented to the Dexter at a cost of $25,000, he is eligible to other major stakes.

"He's eligible to the Dancer at the Meadowlands (July 15), Good Times (June 18) at Woodbine, Canadian Trotting Derby (September 24 at Mohawk). But the Hambletonian -- we can't get in that. Not eligible when we bought him."

So far, George has been perfect for Roberts, winning all but one of his 11 starts (including qualifiers) in his stable. The exception was a late fall race at Colonial Downs in Virginia.

"He got his tongue over the bit," recalled Roberts. "I thought that something was going on, because when I first took him over the track, he'd jump and play for about two miles. I thought, well maybe that's just him. He did get his tongue over the bit that day (he finished ninth), so the next time I tied his tongue and he's been a perfect horse. The only reason I didn't tie it before is that he'd never had it tied, so I thought maybe he didn't like that."

Roberts has no concerns about racing him over a half-mile track.

"I asked Leon how he was on a small track. He said, 'Heck, until he came here [the 5/8 mile track at Rosecroft] that's all he ever saw.' Leon said he'd raced him at Pocomoke (Virginia) Fair and Ahoskie, North Carolina Fair and those are small tracks."

Roberts' 23-year-old son Jonathan will continue to drive the horse.

"He gets along with him great, he knows him," Roberts said. "He really knows the horse and knows how to drive him."