Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

Giggles The Clown Retires

Chicago's Great Pacing Mare Heads to the Breeding Shed

March 21, 2005

By Kimberly Rinker

Giggles The Clown
Giggles

with trainer Roger Welch

As the old saying goes, "all good things must come to an end," and so it is with racehorses and their careers. As the great Gallo Blue Chip—harness racing’s richest pacer of all time—was retired recently, so does a great Illinois-bred mare’s racing career also come to a close. Giggles The Clown, a terror at two and three, and a solid open mare in her later years, made her final start at Bamoral this past week, winning in 1:53.4 with Dave Magee at the lines.

The solid-built, chocolate-colored mare was foaled on April 12, 1997 at Cottonwood Farm in Big Rock, Il., the daughter of Sportsmaster, and the first foal of two out of the Incredible Finale mare Fancy Clown. She went on to earn $104,484 at two, pacing to winning mile of 1:54.2 at Balmoral that year.

"Giggles" returned at three to lower her career mark to 1:52.1—again in the fall at Balmoral—winning 12 of 21 starts and earning $240,942 for Welch and co-owner Mary L Gangloff of Logansport, Indiana. That year (2000) she competed against the likes of Incredible Tillie and Apple Of My Eye consistently, winning the $50,000 Spring Championship and the $115,000 Maywood Filly Pace. She also captured two $10,000 legs and the $50,000 Final of the Genesis Series at Hoosier Park that summer, and finished second by a head to Apple Of My Eye in the $200,000 Grandma Ann at Balmoral on Super Night.

At four the hardy mare began competing in the open and invitational classes in the Windy City, lowering her lifetime mark to 1:50.3 on May 17, 2001 at Balmoral with Dave Magee at the lines in a track record time that still stands today. She would go on to set two more track records during her career at Maywood, her best of 1:53 came on September 25, 2002 in a front-stepping win in a $15,000 Filly & Mare Open for driver Ken Holliday. Those victories and many others at Chicago’s in-town half-miler earned her the appropriate title of "The Pacing Queen of Maywood Park."

Throughout 2003 and 2004 she added another 50 starts to her lineup, scoring a 15-7-6 record and adding $142,728 to career account.

With this chapter of her life closing and another opening, Giggles The Clown has amassed $653,756 in her seven years as a racehorse. She’s had a total of 137 career starts, with 44 wins, 21 seconds and 18 thirds on her slate. Upon her retirement, "Giggles" will be shipped to Walker Standardbreds, where she’ll be bred to Richess Hanover.

"I want to keep the first foal out of her and train it myself," Welch stated. "It’s so important that the first foal out of a mare makes it to the races. We’re hoping for an April or early May foal next year. If by some chance she doesn’t catch this spring, then we may bring her back, but it’s unlikely."

Besides the money that Giggles The Clown brought to Welch and Gangloff and their families, Welch also credits the big mare with providing his son Ryan with hope when the youngster was stricken with a brain tumor five years ago.

"That was a very tough time for all of us," Welch remembered. "Ryan was eight-years-old when it happened initially, and this mare kept him focused, and was an incentive for him to get better. I think having her there was a big plus for him at the time. She still is."