Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

Standpoint Seeks to Create his own "Legacy"

June 12, 2007

In 2004, Trond Smedshammer sent a lightly raced 3-year-old named Windsong’s Legacy to the Goodtimes off a season-opening victory at the Meadowlands Racetrack. Windsong’s Legacy won his Goodtimes elimination race, and a week later the final, on his way to claiming the Hambletonian and Trotting Triple Crown.

This year, Smedshammer’s Standpoint is following the same path; only time will tell whether it will produce the same result.

Standpoint opened this season with a victory at the Meadowlands on May 30 and followed with a triumph in his Goodtimes elimination race at Mohawk Racetrack over the weekend. Standpoint won by 1¾ lengths in a career-best 1:55.2 over Arsenal Hall.

“He came out of the race very good,” Smedshammer said. “The sky is the limit for him; there’s tons of potential there.”

The top two finishers in four elimination races, plus two third-place finishers drawn randomly, advanced to Saturday’s C$334,600 (U.S. $315,300) Goodtimes final. Other elim winners were Chelemark Porter, Xactly Hanover, and Quite Easy. Xactly Hanover and Quite Easy, like Standpoint, are eligible to the August 4 Hambletonian at the Meadowlands. Other Hambletonian hopefuls in the Goodtimes field are Arsenal Hall, Cayenne Turbo, Celtic Warrior, Hallo, and Monkey Bones.

Standpoint, a son of Andover Hall-Universal Victory, was purchased for $40,000 as a yearling at the Lexington Selected Sale in Kentucky. Standpoint was Universal Victory’s first foal; the mare is a full sister to 1995 Hambletonian Oaks winner Lookout Victory. Standpoint won one of five races as a 2-year-old, same as Windsong’s Legacy.

“He didn’t race much at all,” Smedshammer said about Standpoint, who he owns with Ted Gewertz, Willow Pond and Sampson Street Stables. “He was a big, gangly colt and he had a little problem putting it all together; he was making breaks in the turns. We knew the ability was there, so we just let him mature. A lot of 2-year-olds are that way and should get the chance to develop more. He’s kind of a big gaited horse, but he’s grown into himself.”

Standpoint is among a handful of trotters Smedshammer is pointing toward the Hambletonian. Following the Goodtimes, Standpoint has the Stanley Dancer Memorial on his schedule as he preps for the Hambletonian – same as Windsong’s Legacy in 2004.

“It’s exactly the same path as Windsong; they’re very similar types,” Smedshammer said. “Of my horses, he’s probably the best mannered one and the handiest one right now. There’s no limit to what he might do.”