Longshot breaks record in $700,000 Breeders Crown

23-1 longshot Gem Quality (Captain Crunch) flew by heavy favourite Captain Albano for a track record-breaking harness racing upset in the $700,000 Breeders Crown Two-year-old Colt Pace on Friday (Oct. 27) at Harrah’s Hoosier Park.

The colt was fastest away from the gate and led into the first turn for Dexter Dunn with Legendary Hanover (James Macdonald) driving on to his outside. The latter assumed full command at the quarter in :26 and led until the midway point when 2/5 favourite Captain Albano (Andrew McCarthy) went by with a backstretch brush.

Gem Quality was locked in third as the field rounded the final turn and through three-quarters in 1:23. Dunn found the colt a seam as the field straightened for home, and Gem Quality gathered a head of steam as Captain Albano dashed for home on top. Gem Quality hit full speed in mid-stretch, and he powered past an all-out Captain Albano to capture the Breeders Crown in 1:50, a new track record.

He beat Captain Albano by a length-and-a-quarter. Storm Shadow (Bob McClure) got up in a blanket finish for third.

GEM QUALITY REPLAY

It was Gem Quality’s fourth win in seven starts and his first in the Grand Circuit. The Chris Ryder-trained colt was a narrow second in his elimination with Dunn. He has now earned $442,710 for Boca Raton-based barns Let It Ride Stables and Bottom Line Racing, Brad Grant of Milton, and Enviro Stables of Sunny Isles Beach. The freshman is from the first crop of Captain Crunch and is the stud’s first Breeders Crown winner.

The new record of 1:50 beat the 1:50.2 standard for a two-year-old pacing colt set by Perfect Sting in 2020.

For complete race results, click here: racing.ustrotting.com/goto.aspx.

by Nicholas Barnsdale, for Harnesslink