Bombs away in trotting colt Breeders Crown elims

MILTON, October 22, 2022 – Double-digit dividends paid off the winners of each $33,750 harness racing elimination for the Breeders Crown 3-Year-Old Colt Trot on Saturday night (Oct. 22) at Woodbine Mohawk Park, with King Of The North (Walner) delivering at odds of 28-1 and Double Deceiver (Cantab Hall) scoring at 7-1.

Leaving from post 9, driver Mark MacDonald hustled King Of The North off the wings and kept him flat to lead to a :26.4 first quarter with Twin B Archie in the pocket and Pretender racing third. King Of The North continued to roll on the lead through a :55.4 half while readying for a first-over challenge from Pretender. MacDonald then uncorked the Ray Schnittker trainee to three-quarters and widened to an open-length lead to three-quarters in 1:23.

Clear coming for home, King Of The North soon faced a diminishing lead with Branded By Lindy closing ground from a second-over trip. Branded By Lindy loomed nearer with each stride, but King Of The North clung to victory by a half length in 1:51.1. Fast As The Wind closed for third with Hambletonian champ Cool Papa Bell and Twin B Archie rounding the finalists.

“He’s a super sure-footed horse, he just kind of touched his knee a little bit and put a bobble in,” Mark MacDonald said after the race. “I was ready for him; he’ll do that sometimes, so I had a good hold of him and he just came right back trotting. He was still wanting to get into gear, so I kept going forward.”

“He’s a good horse,” MacDonald also said. “I think I read his obituary in August on the USTA, but we started the year off and were just trying to target him… and unfortunately, he made a break in the Hambletonian. We were targeting him for the later races. If we come out of here with a Breeders Crown ‘W’, it’d still be a successful year.”

King Of The North added to an account now worth $829,255 with his seventh victory from 22 starts. The colt, from the Donato Hanover mare Check Me Out, races for owners Schnittker War, Arden Homestead Stable, Nolamaura Racing LLC and Steven Arnold. Steve Jones and Ray Schnittker bred the colt who paid $59.20 to win.

A lane opened at the pylons for ground-saving Double Deceiver to dash through and outsprint Slay to the finish of a 1:52.4 mile in the first elimination.

World At War Deo darted from the outermost post in the octet to lead the field by a :28.1 first quarter before Temporal Hanover swept to the front up the backside. Temporal Hanover then coasted around the final turn as Golden Wall As pushed uncovered along the rim with Slay in tow and Double Deceiver sticking to the cones in the rear of the field.

Past three-quarters in 1:25.1, the field swarmed Temporal Hanover as he drifted and soon retreated through the pack. Golden Wall As surged to a narrow lead in midstretch until Double Deceiver accelerated through the gap developed at the pylons for a near-last to first blitz in the stretch. Slay slung off Golden Wall As’s cover to give chase but only gave pursuit to take second in a 1:52.4 mile, beaten a head. Golden Wall As finished third with Keg Stand and World At War Deo completing the finalists.

“I never used him, stayed to the inside and when we got room, he exploded,” winning driver David Miller said after the race. “If he’d had gotten room [in the Kentucky Futurity], he would’ve been real close. In hindsight… yeah, it didn’t hurt him. But I’m just glad to see him get into the final and actually win. Now we’re looking pretty good.”

Double Deceiver, a gelding from the Donato Hanover mare Sarcy, collected his 10^th win from 23 starts and has now earned $568,354 for owner Pinske Stables. Carter Pinske trains the gelding bred by Steve Stewart and Oakwood Farms who paid $17.90 to win.

With their elimination victories, King Of The North and Double Deceiver earned a protected draw between posts 1 and 5 for the $675,000 final next Saturday (Oct. 29) at Woodbine Mohawk Park.

To read all the coverage of the 2022 Breeders Crown eliminations, click here.

For complete race results, click here.

by Ray Cotolo, for Woodbine Communications