Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

Donato Hanover is Horse of the Year

January 27, 2008

The record-setting trotter, who won his first 11 races last year before suffering defeat in the season-ending Breeders Crown, was named harness racing’s 2007 Horse of the Year by the U.S. Harness Writers Association at the Night of Champions at the Dover Downs Hotel on Sunday. Donato Hanover, who also received Dan Patch awards as Trotter of the Year and 3-Year-Old Colt Trotter of the Year, got 157 of 191 Horse of the Year votes.

Undefeated 2-Year-Old Colt Trotter of the Year Deweycheatumnhowe finished second with 13 votes while 2-Year-Old Filly Trotter of the Year Snow White was third with 11. Nine horses got at least one vote.

Tell All, a 3-year-old colt who won the North America Cup and Little Brown Jug, was named Pacer of the Year over 3-year-old filly Southwind Tempo, 95-36. Other pacers to earn divisional awards were 2-year-old colt Somebeachsomewhere, 2-year-old filly A And G’sconfusion, older male Mister Big and older female Moving Pictures.

Other winners among trotters were 3-year-old filly Pampered Princess, older male Vivid Photo and older female Mystical Sunshine.

Steve Elliott, who trained Donato Hanover and Southwind Tempo, was honored as Trainer of the Year for the second time in his career; he also received the award in 1988. Tim Tetrick, who set records with 1,188 wins and $18.3 million in earnings in 2007, was the Driver of the Year.

Donato Hanover, driven by Ron Pierce, won 11 of 13 races, including the Hambletonian, World Trotting Derby and Canadian Trotting Classic. He set a single-season record for trotters with $2.3 million in purses and equaled the fastest trotting mile in history by winning the Kentucky Futurity in 1:50.1.

Deweycheatumnhowe, named after a fictitious law firm in a comedy routine, won all 10 of his races. Snow White, who won 11 of 13 starts, became the fastest 2-year-old in history with her 1:52.4 stakes victory at Lexington’s Red Mile in October.

Pampered Princess won the Elegantimage and Delvin Miller Memorial against the girls and then faced the boys in the Hambletonian, finishing sixth, and the Canadian Trotting Classic, where she was second.

Mystical Sunshine set world records on five-eighths and half-mile tracks in addition to winning the Breeders Crown. Vivid Photo won the Trotting Classic and Titan Cup.

Southwind Tempo set the world record for filly pacers on a five-eighths-mile track in winning the James Lynch Memorial in 1:49.3.

Somebeachsomewhere won all six of his races, including a 1:49.3 victory in the Metro that made him history’s fastest 2-year-old pacer. A And G’sconfusion set the world record for 2-year-old fillies with her 1:50.3 stakes triumph at the Red Mile.

Mister Big won the William Haughton and U.S. Pacing Championship while Moving Pictures won the Breeders Crown, Milton, and Roses Are Red in Canada.