Voukefalas poised for the Breeders Crown

Voukefalas, another in the extensive line of brilliant pacing sons by the standout New Zealand import Lazarus N, has been nothing short of exceptional throughout his $864,786-earning harness racing career. Now 4, the winner of 11 starts lifetime appears poised for a solid effort in his Breeders Crown Open Pace elimination on Saturday, Oct.19 at The Meadowlands.

On October 10, he qualified handily with Jordan Stratton at the lines for trainer Michael Russo in 1:52.4, pacing his final last panel in :27.4 despite a strong headwind turning for home.

Voukefalas is the second foal out of the Cams Fortune mare Inittowinafortune p, 5, 1:49.3 ($698,002) and is owned and was bred by Michael Pagonas of Saddle River, NJ. Pagonas got into the Standardbred business in 2013 and to date has owned 14 horses and bred five, purchasing Inittowinafortune p, 5, 1:49.3 ($698,002) in July 2013.

Besides Voukefalas, Pagonas has bred Inittowinaforutne to Always B Miki, producing the as of yet, unraced 2-year-old Alexandros; and the 2024 filly Krystalia, by Lazarus N. The hardy broodmare was bred back to Always B Miki this past Spring.

“Inittowinafortune was a top open mare at the Meadowlands—a big money earner,” said Russo, who trains a stable of seven horses at Gaitway. “Her first foal was an American Ideal filly (Artemida p, 2, 1:58.3h $18,292), who was small; she didn’t have the body and stamina to be super competitive, so we bred her. Inittowinafortune has a 2024 Lazarus filly on the ground, and Artemida also has her first foal, a colt named Atromitos by Lazarus that was born this spring.”

Russo said that he and owner Pagonas have utilized the nearby New Jersey-based farms of Heritage Hill and Blairwood for both their broodmares and their racehorses who need extended turn-out time.

“I have always turned horses out at Blairwood, and Inittowinafortune is now at Heritage Hill Farm with her foal,” Russo offered. “Both farms do a great job with the horses.”

It is obvious that owner Pagonas has a penchant for giving his horses Greek monikers—Voukefalas for example, was the name of Alexander the Great’s prized steed (also known as Buchephalus); Alexandros, is the Greek origin of the English name Alexander and is also the name of a village on the Greek island of Lefkada; Artemida is an Eastern suburb of Athens and also refers to the mythical Greek goddess Artemis; Atromitos—meaning “fearless”—is a Greek-based soccer club; and finally, the name Krystalia refers to the ancient Greek word meaning “ice,” or “crystal.”

Russo began training in 1991 and to date has brought home 446 winners, 404 second-place finishers, and 418 third-place finishers from 3,236 starters who have earned $5,859,666 in career earnings. The 56-year-old trainer says that when Voukefalas first came into the barn as a baby, his name initially stumped some of his fellow horsemen, and enlightened others.

“When he came in, his was a funny name, something most of them had never heard before,” Russo said. “And so, everybody got to using his name as a salutation, instead of saying hello in the morning, they’d just say ‘Voukefalas,’ and it became kind of a funny thing in the barn.”

As most in the harness racing world would soon find out, there was nothing remotely funny about the talent possessed by the rangy colt.

“As a baby, he looked awful, and I was not encouraged,” Russo offered. “He initially looked kind of misshaped, like half-grown on one side. But then I started thinking about it, and he was a homebred, and not a horse that had been prepped like most yearlings are who are going to be run through the bigger sales. He didn’t have the kind of muscle tone of a sale-prepped horse. But he was smart right from the get-go, and very trusting, and took to the breaking process easily.”

There was a small catch, however. Voukefalas refused to pace.

“He wasn’t ignorant about it,” Russo said. “He just wouldn’t pace to save his life. He wasn’t out there galloping around like a lunatic or anything, but he refused to pace until early February of his 2-year-old season. It was like a switch went on in his head overnight, and all of a sudden, he started pacing and he became this muscular, full-formed, beautiful horse. He seemed to change overnight, and I knew that wasn’t really the case, but that is the way it seemed. I was just about to pull his shoes and then all of a sudden, he just paced a quarter of a mile. The next day he went further on the pace, and then the next day even further. Eventually he started pacing all the time free-legged.”

Voukefalas began the training process, and his works did not go unnoticed by other horsemen at Gaitway.

“People I had never spoke to started coming up to me and mentioned that they heard I had a really nice colt,” Russo said. “He turned a lot of heads initially and was the kind of horse that forced me to be more of a manager than a trainer in some regard. Anything I asked him to do, he did easily and without a problem. Honestly, I could have trained him at any speed at any time. He didn’t want to drag me around the racetrack, but it was like he could turn on the speed—no matter how fast—whenever you’d ask him to do something.”

Voukefalas hit the racetrack officially for the first time on June 6, 2022, in a Gaitway qualifier, finishing second for Yannick Gingras in 1:54.2, and then again on June 13, this time winning by 7½ lengths for Jordan Stratton, who would become his regular pilot, in 1:56.1. He was then third twice in a pair of $30,000 NJSS legs, before capturing the $240,000 Final at The Meadowlands in a seasonal best 1:50, by 2¾ lengths on July 22. A week later he won a $20,400 Arden leg at The Meadows in 1:53.2, and then took the $150,000 NJ Classic on Sept. 16 in 1:53.4,pacing his final panel in :26.2.

“He hadn’t been showing any soreness in his feet or legs, but at the end of that season, it was clear something was bothering him,” Russo said. “He was second (in 1:53.3 by a nose) in the $40,000 Home Grown at The Meadowlands (on Nov. 11), and right after that we found an abscess in his foot, and we had to scratch him from the Governor’s Cup.”

That ended Voukefalas’ 2-year-old campaign. He wrapped up the season with three wins, one second, and two thirds in seven starts, with earnings of $241,088.

“I remember being a little bummed at the time, because of the way that year finished up for him, but then after thinking about it, my attitude changed,” Russo said. “I started thinking that, hey, I have a homebred Lazarus colt that likely wouldn’t have brought much at a public sale—his dam isn’t well bred, even though she was a freak on the track. To be racing against people who have unlimited funds to purchase extremely well-bred yearlings is a gift. And I really believe that this colt would have been an extremely easy horse for a big stable to ruin, and that’s not to downplay the bigger stables, but I think he would have overdone it on his own, in a bigger stable. He would never have been thought of in the same way by a trainer who has a lot more stock in their barn to consider.”

At three, Voukefalas began the season with a pair of Big M qualifiers (on April 15 & 22), winning the latter in 1:52.2, before churning out a trio of victories at the East Rutherford facility, including a sweep of the NJSS elims and $240,000 final, clocked in 1:49.4 on May 27, when he drew off by five lengths for Stratton. He was then second in his $37,500 NA Cup elim (timed in 1:48.4) and fourth in the $760,000 Final at Woodbine on June 17 (clocked in 1:48.2) and beaten by the winning It’s My Show by a little less than three lengths.

“He kept proving himself time and time again last year,” Russo confirmed. “Those NJSS races come up fast and he raced in there like a champion. He proved then and there just how good he was.”

In the $668,00 Meadowlands Pace, Voukefalas had to battle the likes of the winning Confederate and Christchurch, finishing a tired eighth.

“He had a hiccup in the Meadowlands Pace, and I was little concerned that night because he warmed up on the left line, but then Jordan (driver Stratton) said he was fine in the race. For someone like me, a small guy (trainer) in the big pond, I tend to overthink things in a race like that. He never wore a boot in his life, but he hit his knee in the last turn in that race.”

Voukefalas went on to have creditable showings in both the $33,200 Tompkins Geers (second in 1:48.2) and the $315,700 Cane Pace (fifth in 1:48.3), and after several qualifiers and a bit of rest, returned to the Big M to take the $150,000 NJ Classic for the second straight season in 1:49.2, a seasonal best, on Sept. 9.

“I don’t think he needs an exorbitant amount of training,” Russo said. “He’s never really raced consistently week to week, and I don’t want to push him and push him and hope nothing goes wrong. If I raced him through the heat of the summer, if he were coming back the next week, I’d jog him and not train him. He is the type of horse that seems to do better missing a week after a back-to-back schedule. He’s not a big horse, but he’s a heavier built horse now than he was as a youngster.”

Voukefalas finished fifth in his Little Brown Jug heat at Delaware, and after another qualifier on Oct. 17, was a disappointing seventh in his $25,000 Breeders Crown elimination at Hoosier Park on Oct. 21. He finished the season with four wins and three seconds in 12 starts, adding another $330,162 to his bank account.

“This year started out well,” Russo said. “He got a virus at the end of last year and came up empty in the Breeders Crown, and this year he’s kind of adopted a different way of doing things. He always loved to go out in the paddock, but didn’t care to be out there too long. It wasn’t a big deal to him. He didn’t really seem to do as well if I turned him out before jogging him. Now, he likes to be turned out before he jogs. As soon as I get to the barn in the morning, he wants to go out to the paddock. That’s what he does this year. I don’t know, it might just be a maturity thing.”

After a pair of Meadowlands qualifiers in early April of this year, Voukefalas got down to business, finishing first in a dead heat in a $12,500 NJ Maturity contest, and then taking the $30,000 final in 1:50.4 on April 27. He put in a trio of sub-par efforts before bouncing back to winning a $18,000 Big M overnight in 1:48.4 in front-stepping fashion on June 8. He was second and then third in two $50,000 Graduate eliminations, before scoring a lifetime best mark of 1:47.3 in the $230,000 Graduate Final on July 6.

Voukefalas followed that impressive triumph up with a second place, 1:48 clocking in the $480,000 Haughton to the winning Abuckabet Hanover, and was seventh after starting from post ten, beaten only three lengths, in the $222,000 McKee Memorial. He was then second in a $100,000 Pocono Invitational to Ruthless Hanover on Aug. 17. His next two efforts—in the Canadian Pacing Derby at Woodbine and in an aged open at Yonkers—saw him finish out of the money.

“He’s never been handed anything,” Russo said. “He’s always had to work for his achievements, and once he gets himself in gear, he can really stay good and race anyone on the planet. I’m usually laid back and find it easy to take wins and losses without getting too high or low, but overthinking is something that I struggle with. There isn’t one single horse I’m concerned about in this Saturday’s Breeders Crown elim—I’m concerned about all those horses. They’re all standouts, but especially, outside of Bythemissal, the main threat is Its My Show.”

Voukefalas qualified on Oct. 10, pacing to a winning 1:52.4 with Stratton sitting chilly in the sulky. The 4-year-old has already added another $293,536 to his coffers in 2024 from four wins, three seconds, and a pair of thirds in 14 starts, and has drawn the five hole in Saturday’s Breeders Crown elimination that includes some of North America’s best aged pacers. Post time for that eighth event on The Meadowland’s card I 9:15 pm. Russo says he has his own routine at work to keep Voukefalas sound and in shape, and ready for Saturday’s test.

“He goes into the saltwater spa twice a week after he trains and the day before he races,” Russo explained. “I don’t think it would hurt him to swim because he does have tender feet, but I’m not a big proponent of it overall. He went into the hyperbaric chamber when he had that foot abscess, but I have a small routine that I use to help with his feet now. We do an assortment of treatments, the magic cushion, poultice, and some other things. He’s such a heavy-footed horse who hits the ground really hard, but otherwise, he’s pretty sound.”

Like any great horse, Voukefalas has plenty of personality to go along with his talent.

“He’s kind of a bully with me because he knows he can be,” Russo said. “But anyone who comes into the barn he’s really kind too. He’ll let you know, if you’re another horse, to stay away from him. He has a window in his stall and is nose-to-nose with another horse and is fine, but I never put him out with another horse. He’s surprisingly good and never acts silly around a mare.

“He can’t get enough carrots and treats, either,” Russo added. “He also has to investigate every blade of grass before he can eat them. Overall, he’s kind of up front with his chest out and is very strong. If I’m walking him and he wants to go somewhere, he herds me to where he wants to go. But he is truly an incredibly good-mannered horse with a great temperament with other horses and people.”

by Kimberly Rinker, for Harnesslink