December 22, 2000
Gallo Blue Chip, the overwhelming favorite for Horse of the Year honors, will try to cap off his phenomenal three-year-old season with a win in the $100,000 Rambling Willie Invitational on Saturday night, December 30, at the Meadowlands.
The Meadowlands resumes harness racing, starting on Friday, December 29. First race post time is 7:30 p.m.
Trainer Mark Ford has the gelding ready to tangle with a field of horses that may include Time Share N, Color Me Best, Red Bow Tie, PB Bullville and Camotion.
"He'll race opening weekend and then will get some time off until April, when he'll start getting ready for the big races," Ford said.
In 2000, Gallo Blue Chip won the $1 million North America Cup and Meadowlands Pace, launching an assault on Cam's Card Shark's single season earnings record. His storybook season thrust Ford into the national spotlight and helped propel the 30-year-old conditioner to his best season yet at the Meadowlands. Ford finished the Harness 2000 meet with $1.37 million in earnings, a total better than the previous three years combined.
"Even without Gallo's earnings, this would have been my best year ever," he said.
While Gallo Blue Chip receives some rest and relaxation, Ford looks forward to beginning the Meadowlands meet, which opens December 29, with some familiar equine faces, such as Bad Bert, whom Ford and owner Martin Scharf claimed for $200,000 last spring.
"I'll have 15-20 horses to start the Meadowlands meet," he said. "I'll stable at both my farm near Goshen [New York] and Big Z Farms in Montague, New Jersey. I'm leaving five or six horses in Canada with trainer Steve Surett. Bad Bert got sick over the summer and was slow coming back. It might still take him a while racing in the high claimers at the Meadowlands at the start of the meet. But we're just about out on him."
Gallo Blue Chip's success has brought with it offers from many new owners, but Ford plans to keep his stable small.
"I really don't want a lot of horses," he said. "The opportunity is there, and I've made a lot of new contacts. It's probably more of a case of the people already with me have more."
Gehrig, who handed three-year-old pacing star Gallo Blue Chip one of his few losses in 2000 in Windsor Raceway's Provincial Cup on December 10, finished second in his qualifier on Friday morning at the Meadowlands. "If I'd known he was going to beat Gallo Blue Chip, I would have made him eligible to the Presidential," said one of Gehrig's owners, Craig Lipka, referring to the free for pacing series at the Meadowlands on January 6, 13 and 27. "But he's not. He'll go in the Aquarius [February 10, 17 and 24] and the Four Leaf Clover [March 3, 10 and 17]. He's already earned his way out for us. We got him just after the Holmes [on August 5]. In his three biggest races, he drew post eight on the half miler in the Confederation Cup [finished fourth], won the New Jersey Sire Stakes at Garden State beating Aces 'N Sevens and won the Provincial Cup beating Gallo Blue Chip." The three-year-old has finished in the money in seven of 12 starts and earned $264,000 since the partnership of the MJG Racing Stables of Annandale, New Jersey and the Hill View Enterprises of Cresskill, New Jersey turned him over to trainer Luca Derrico. Overall, the pacer has six wins, eight seconds and four thirds from 35 starts for earnings of $369,490 and a mark of 1:50.2.
Messenger winner Aint No Stopn Him, according to Lipka, is "doing fine and expected back around March. He was a little sore at the end of the season but is perfectly clear now. I'll also be racing Motor City Smitty and Swingin Glory."
Howard Parker, who has been racing in Maryland and Delaware, expects another tough driver colony at the Meadowlands in 2001. "With Eric Ledford coming here, it's going to be better," he said. "The fans want to have all the best drivers. If you win 650 races in one year, this is the only place where that doesn't mean anything. You have to do it here. Thomas Jackson, who is right there with Jim Morand at Rosecroft at the top of the standings, is going to come up here with a few. He's a really good horseman who trains, too. I was leading driver at Harrington and the handle was up 15 percent while I was there. Now I'm at Rosecroft, and I'll be driving there this weekend. This is their last weekend of racing until February."
Dan Zarillo hopes to be heard from in the mid-level claimers this meet. One of his horses, Johnwaynes Brother, finished third in his Friday morning qualifier and another, Bobbycrombie, was fourth in his qualifier. "We claimed Bobbycrombie for $15,000 a while back, and will be racing him at the Meadowlands in the $40-60,000 range," Zarillo said. "I think he'll fit fine there. I also have Johnwaynes Brother, who is about to turn eight, and I am looking to claim a few."
Mark Jordan is prepping 1999 Older Trotting Horse of the Year Supergrit for the Su Mac Lad Series at the Meadowlands on February 11, 18 and 24. "He raced four times in the fall with one win and one second. He was getting a little off up front so I stopped with him. As for his hind leg, which has been his problem for a while, it's fine now, super, really. He's aged up a little bit, but he's very good right now. He'll be ready by mid-January, and he'll go in the Su Mac Lad."
Joe Hunderpfund Jr. is pointing his three-year-old filly Shakey Future for the Tender Loving Care Series on January 9, 16 and 26 at the Meadowlands. "She's two-for-two and won by open lengths in her last start," he said. "I think she'll do fine here. She's a daughter of Falcon's Future. Most of my barn is young. I have eight horses turning three."