Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

Chocolatier Heads List of Hambo Eligibles

March 22, 2006

Chocolatier, voted the Dan Patch Award as the Two-Year-Old Colt Trotter of 2005, heads a list of 141 trotting colts eligible to the 81st Hambletonian, the richest and most prestigious event in harness racing. The $1.7 million Hambletonian and the filly companion race, the $850,000 Hambletonian Oaks, will be contested Saturday afternoon, August 5, at the Meadowlands Racetrack and televised live on CBS.

The Hambletonian Society, which has owned and serviced the race since its inception in 1926, registered 265 payments for the 2006 Hambletonian and Oaks events, an 11 percent increase from last year.

Chocolatier, a $50,000 yearling purchase by Doug Ackerman, represents the culmination of a lifetime dream for the Ackerman family. The Credit Winner--Maple Frosting colt is owned by Doug and his wife, Ada Jean, trained by the senior Ackerman and driven by their son, D.R. At two, Chocolatier posted eight wins in 10 starts, a Breeders Crown title and $508,250 in earnings. He would be the first divisional champion to win the Hambletonian sinceMalabar Man in 1997. Despite a dozen starters in the Hambletonian, beginning with Lemans Chip in 1974, the best Ackerman finish has been a third place with Noble Hustle at DuQuoin, Illinois, in 1980.

Also among the eligibles are two more sons of Credit Winner ranked near the top of the 2005 class: Valley Victory winner RC Royalty, who banked $474,478 for owner Ray Campbell and trainer-driver Dan Daley, and Here Comes Herbie, a reported $700,000 purchase last year by a partnership headed by Ontario breeder Peter Heffering. HereComes Herbie is now being prepped for the Hambletonian in the Trond Smedshammer barn at White Birch Farm in Allentown, New Jersey, alongside another expensive stablemate, Mr. Pine Chip. Last month owner Joe Sbrocco sold half of his Hambletonian contender, Mr. Pine Chip, to Southwind Farm for an amount in the high six-figures, and sent the son of SJ's Caviar to Smedshammer, who won the 2004 Hambletonian with Windsong's Legacy.

Second to Credit Winner in the stallion standings last year was the red-hot Yankee Glide, still seeking his first Hambletonian sire credit. He has the most sons nominated to the 2006 race with 19, including a top trio of Glidemaster, Global Glide and Peter Haughton winner Keystone Savage. Should Keystone Savage win the Hambletonian, he would be the first Peter Haughton winner to do so in the 25 years of the Meadowlands' premier event for freshman trotters.

The Hambletonian is the first leg of the trotting Triple Crown, which includes the Kentucky Futurity at Lexington's Red Mile on Saturday, October 7 and the Yonkers Trot at Yonkers Raceway, scheduled for Saturday, November 25. There are no supplemental entries permitted in the Hambletonian. This is the second year of a two-tiered starting fee for the race, which calls for a starting fee of $12,500 at declaration time and an additional fee of $12,500 for the final. A complete list of eligibles and more information on the events
surrounding the Hambletonian Festival can be found at www.hambletonian.org and on the Meadowlands' website at:
http://www.thebigm.com/sharedimages/Hambletonian%2081(1).pdf