Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

Nuclear Breeze has won 11 of 13 races dating back to last April, and has won 25 of 43 races and earned $331,432 for owner-breeder Thomas Cooke of Maryland. Most recently, he captured the $116,000 Presidential Final at The Meadowlands on January 27 in 1:49.2--his fifth sub-1:50 mile. He had an eight-race winning steak snapped the previous week, and by virtue of his Presidential victory, returned to the winner’s circle for the ninth time in his last 10 tries.

“We’re going to sit down tonight and go over what’s out there moving forward,” Cooke said. “We’re tossing and turning over the Isle of Capri, looking at all the positives and negatives. I’d be really excited to go to the Isle of Capri, but he’s shown he loves the cold weather and we have no contacts in Florida and we’re in no position to go ourselves. He’s got his winter coat on and you have to consider whether you should leave an environment when you’re doing so well.
“We certainly want to go back to the Meadowlands; he loves that track and the people there from top to bottom have been fantastic to us. My trainer is very conservative and takes one day at a time. There’s no solid course I can tell you today.”

Nuclear Breeze was injured last year while breeding to one of Cooke’s mares and missed more than six months of action. When he returned in November, he started an eight-race win streak that ended January 20 in the second leg of the Presidential Series. Cooke believed the horse was not at his best that night because of a shoeing incident prior to the start of the race, plus a battle with Roddy’s Bags Again for the lead into a strong wind down the backstretch.

“I figured that if we bought a new pair of shoes and checked the weather, we had a shot at it,” Cooke said about the Presidential final. “It’s been incredibly exciting because this has all been so unexpected. We never really knew how well he recovered from his injury when he came back to racing. He won his first time out at Rosecroft, then at Chester, and the rest is history.”

Because of the uncertainty surrounding Nuclear Breeze’s return, he wasn’t heavily staked. In fact, other than being nominated to the Isle of Capri, he has no other events on his calendar, yet.

“Back in the fall, we had no idea where we would be,” said Cooke, who has been a member of the faculty at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University since 1976 and has been named a distinguished teaching professor. He specializes in the legal environment of business and federal taxation.

“We might look at the Classic Series, the Haughton, the U.S. Pacing Championship; there are still things available to us. He’s in good shape now, the best he’s ever been. He’s unbelievable.”

Nuclear Breeze is the second foal out of the Falcon Seelster mare Radiant Breeze, herself a winner of $158,431, with a sophomore marek of 1:54.1f, and is a half-brother to the mare Glowing Breeze (by Glowing Tribute) p,2, 1:58.3F, 3, 1:58.2F 4, 4,1:57.2 F and to Mymymylookatherfly (by Real Artist) p, 3, 1:57z.

Nuclear Breeze's Career Statistics as of February 1, 2007
Year  Starts/Wins/2nds/3rds  Earnings     Record       Venue/Date of Record
2007      3      2        0      1      $89,300       5, 1:49.2M      M 01/27/2007
2006      16      11     0      2      $142,890      4, 1:49.0M      M 12/16/2006
2005      13      8        3      1      $61,245       3, 1:50.4F      RcR 07/30/2005
2004      11       4        1      2       $37,997       2, 1:56.0F       RcR 10/02/2004
Totals   43      25      4      6      $331,432       4, 1:49.0M