Periculum aiming for International glory

The most recent horse to represent the U.S. and win the MGM Yonkers International Trot, Resolve in 2016, captured the million-dollar race in his first start after winning the Maple Leaf Trot. Periculum (Muscle Hill-Amour Heiress), one of two harness racing horses representing the U.S. in Saturday’s edition of the invitational event, will attempt to do the same.

Periculum rolled to a 1:50.4 victory in the Maple Leaf Trot this past weekend at Woodbine Mohawk Park and will look to add the International Trot to his résumé this weekend when he visits MGM Yonkers Raceway’s half-mile oval to meet nine rivals at the distance of 1-1/4 miles. The 5-year-old stallion will start from post 10, in the second tier, with Scott Zeron driving for trainer Marcus Melander. He is 5-1 on the morning line.

Melander won the 2018 International Trot with Cruzado Dela Noche.

“Hopefully, we can get it done again,” Melander said. “It’s very exciting. When they’re going for a million dollars and you get invited and the horse is in good form, you’ve got to say yes and give it a shot. I’m very happy that they wanted us in the race.”

Periculum has won six of 10 races this season and earned $293,522 for owners Brixton Medical Inc. and Holly Lane Stud East LTD. Out of the family of Hall of Fame broodmare Amour Angus, he was a multiple Grand Circuit winner at ages 2 and 3 in North America before racing overseas last year. He set his mark of 1:50.3 as a 3-year-old, which tied for fourth fastest among sophomore male trotters in 2022.

For his career, Periculum has won 11 of 43 races and banked $752,834.

“He’s always been a good horse, but now that he’s 5, he just feels so much stronger,” said Melander, who also trained Periculum prior to his year abroad. “It feels like his body has developed even more, and he’s been racing good all year.”

Periculum heads to the International Trot off back-to-back victories at Mohawk, where he won his Maple Leaf Trot elimination by 4-3/4 lengths in 1:51.2 and won the final by 2-1/4 lengths with a time that missed the Canadian record by only two-fifths of a second.

In his start prior to visiting Canada, Periculum finished third in the Sebastian K Invitational at Mohegan Pennsylvania’s Pocono Downs, where he started from post eight and was beaten by three-quarters of a length by Jiggy Jog S — a 5-year-old mare who is the 5-2 morning-line favorite in the International Trot.

“This will be his fourth week in a row, so he’ll just have an easy week,” Melander said. “It feels like he can handle it. He’s very easy on himself and he’s a good traveler.”

Periculum has raced from off the pace in all but one of his 10 races this year, which made the post-10 draw less of a concern for Melander.

“It could have been better; it could have been worse,” Melander said. “He’s not that big of a leaver, and I think some drivers will leave in that race, so I think he’ll be OK. We’ll need some luck, of course, from there. We’ll just hope they go at it a little bit on the front and Scott can find a spot. Scott knows the track well, so he knows where he needs to put him and when he can pull the right line.

“Hopefully, the horse will be racing as good as he’s been racing lately.”

Zeron has appeared in the International Trot on three occasions, all with Marion Marauder. They finished second to Twister Bi in 2017, third in 2019 and fifth in 2018.

The MGM Yonkers International Trot is race five on the 11-race program and has an estimated post of 2 p.m. (EDT). The full field, with country represented plus listed driver, trainer and morning line, is as follows.

$1 Million MGM Yonkers International Trot – 1-1/4 miles – Race 5

1-Eclat De Gloire (Tiego d’Etang)-France-Loris Garcia-Loris Garcia-20-1

2-Ideal San Leandro (Timoko)-France-Bjorn Goop-Richard Westerink-20-1

3-Castor The Star (Maharajah)-Sweden-Mats Djuse-Jorgen Westholm-10-1

4-Jiggy Jog (Walner)-Sweden-Dexter Dunn-Ake Svanstedt-5-2

5-Logan Park (Archangel)-Canada-Doug McNair-Rob Fellows- 8-1

6-It’s Academic (Uncle Peter)-USA-David Miller-Ron Burke- 8-1

7-Hail Mary (Googoo Gaagaa)-Sweden-Orjan Kihlstrom-Daniel Reden-9-2

8-Vernissage Grif (Varenne)-Italy-Alessandro Gocciadoro-Alessandro Gocciadoro-7-2

9-Get A Wish (Wishing Stone)-Denmark-Johan Untersteiner-Johan Untersteiner-15-1*

10-Periculum (Muscle Hill)-USA-Scott Zeron-Marcus Melander-5-1*

*Get A Wish and Periculum start from the second tier.

For complete race entries, click here: US Trotting entries.

by Ken Weingartner, for the USTA