Eight to battle in $134,900 Dexter Cup

Eight horses were entered Wednesday for the Dexter Cup, the first Grand Circuit event of the harness racing season for 3-year-old male trotters, making eliminations unnecessary Saturday at Freehold Raceway. All eight horses advance directly to the Dexter Cup final, which will go for a purse of $134,900 on May 4 at the half-mile track in central New Jersey.

Headlining the octet is Thinker Monkey (Chapter Seven-Steamy Windows), who was purchased for $500,000 at the 2022 Lexington Selected Yearling Sale and is a full brother to 2020 Trotter of the Year Gimpanzee. Thinker Monkey is the only Dexter Cup participant eligible to the $1 million Hambletonian Stakes on Aug. 3 at The Meadowlands.

The remaining seven horses are, in alphabetical order: Blackhawk Zette, Casanova Hall, Chaplind, Inflation, Jakey Jumpup, Sir Pinocchio, and Stockholm Hanover. The draw for the Dexter Cup will be May 1.

Thinker Monkey, won the $100,000 consolation division of the New Jersey Classic last year. He hit the board four more times in his 12 starts, including in divisions of the Bluegrass Stakes and Kindergarten Classic Series, and earned $120,440.

The Marcus Melander-trained colt is owned by Judith Taylor, Daniel Plouffe, and breeder Order By Stable AB.

“He got a little tired at the end of the year; he had a long season and raced all over the place,” Melander said about Thinker Monkey, who competed in New York, New Jersey, Canada, Indiana, and Kentucky. “Of course you want to win more, but he was doing good work and had a good year overall.”

Thinker Monkey will make his sophomore debut in the Dexter. He will head to the race off a third-place finish in a qualifier this past Saturday at The Meadowlands, where he was timed in 1:56.2 with a :27.4 last quarter. Scott Zeron was in the sulky.

“He’s coming back good,” Melander said. “He grew a lot and filled out nicely. Hopefully this year he’s a little bit more mature and he’ll have another good season. He’s a good half-mile track horse, so I think he’ll do good at Freehold. We’ll start him in the Dexter and then probably go to New York after that. We’ll see where it takes us.”

Thinker Monkey’s brother Gimpanzee was a Dan Patch Award winner at ages 2 and 4 and three-time Breeders Crown champion (sharing the record with Mack Lobell for the most trophies for a male trotter). He made $2.7 million lifetime.

Iteration, Thinker Monkey’s full sister, also was a Grand Circuit winner and a two-time New York Sire Stakes champ.

“It’s always hard to compare the siblings,” Melander said. “(Thinker Monkey) is good gaited and will go around any size track, which both of them did as well. But there will be just one Gimpanzee. It’s always hard to live up to that.”

Thinker Monkey’s rivals in the Dexter will include last year’s New York Sire Stakes champion, Chaplind (Chapter Seven-Lindys Head Nurse), who is trained and driven by Trond Smedshammer. He had two victories and a third in six races last season and banked $172,030 for owner Purple Haze Stables, making him the top money-earner in the Dexter Cup final.

Blackhawk Zette (Cantab Hall-Zette Starlet) is 4-for-4 this year for trainer Robert Baggitt Jr. and owner J L Sadowsky. He had one win in four starts last year and has three victories this season in the Bobby Weiss Series at Mohegan Pennsylvania’s Pocono Downs. The $50,000 Weiss final is Monday (April 29).

Sir Pinocchio was a New York Excelsior Series champion last year after hitting the board three times in the preliminary rounds of the event. The son of Met’s Hall-Lady Cromwell is owned by breeder Carolyn Atherton.

Casanova Hall was a two-time winner in the Pennsylvania Stallion Series last year and finished second in the final. The son of Greenshoe-Caterina Hall also was second in the final of the Kentucky Commonwealth Series. He is owned by David McDuffee and trained by Nifty Norman.

Inflation, a son of Chapter Seven-Fraulein Blucher, won twice last year in the New York Sire Stakes Excelsior Series and finished second in a division of the Simpson Memorial. The Lucas Wallin trainee is owned by Shermay Stables, Mal & Janet Burroughs, and Wallin Racing Stable.

Jakey Jumpup, a son of E L Titan-Richesse Oblige S from the stable of trainer Todd Buter, won a Landmark Stakes last year for breeder/owner Kiefer Elite Bldstock. Stockholm Hanover, a son of International Moni-Summers Windsong trained by Karen Garland, won two conditioned races last season for owner George Bullukian.

by Ken Weingartner, for the USTA