Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

Vivid Photo Sets New World Record

Saturday, October 15, 2005

Vivid Photo set a new world record in a division of the $130,956 Currier & Ives for 3-year old trotters Saturday night at The Meadows, besting his rivals by nearly 12 lengths in 1:54.1---the fastest mile ever for a 3-year-old gelding trotter on a 5/8-mile track, bettering the time of 1:54.4 that the son of S J's photo recorded earlier this year at Pocono Downs.

The win pushed Vivid Photo's career earnings past $1.3 million, but trainer/driver Roger Hammer was as concerned about Vivid Photo's physical condition as he was about tonight's competition. Following Vivid Photo's three-heat effort in the Kentucky Futurity—he lost a race-off with Strong Yankee—Hammer ordered a medical work-up.

“We did a scan on him in Kentucky,” Hammer said. “All his joints were good, but he had a little heat in one ankle behind. So we worked on that. He was better today than he was at Lexington. Tonight I just clucked to him at the 3-4 pole and I tapped him with the whip and that was it.”

The Big Cat finished second, with Alpha Entura third. Hammer said he and his co-owner, Todd Schadel, plan to supplement Vivid Photo to the Breeders Crown. Hammer joked that the sizable fee would be no problem.

Smooth Muscles, a gelded son of Muscles Yankee, won for the fifth time in 14 seasonal starts in 1:55.4 in the other Currier & Ives division. Whosethemaster was 2-3/4 lengths back in second, with Lonestar Kosmos finishing third.

Dave Rankin, who trains the $17,000 yearling acquisition for David W. Miller, said Smooth Muscles has several engagements in Virginia before the connections make a decision on the Breeders Crown, for which Smooth Muscles is eligible.

“He can go the route,” Rankin said. “I figured he'd trot in 1:55 or 1:56, and I didn't really think there was anything else in there that could do that. We don't know if we'll go for the Breeders Crown. If he's still good, we might.”