Jiggy Jog dominates in $1 million MGM Yonkers International Trot

Jiggy Jog (Walner), a familiar face to the North American harness racing scene but representing Sweden, where she was bred, improved from second in last year’s MGM Yonkers International Trot to first in this year’s $1 million edition on Saturday afternoon, prevailing for driver Dexter Dunn and trainer Ake Svanstedt in 2:25 flat for the mile and a quarter distance.

Canadian representative Logan Park, driven by Doug McNair, got away well from post five, but Dunn wanted the front with Jiggy Jog and moved her out of second to take over the lead beyond the 29.3 opening quarter. Jiggy Jog was well-rated and didn’t face any outside pressure through a sensible tempo of 58.2 and 1:27.2 while Hail Mary (Orjan Kihlstrom), another Swedish representative, went first-up from fifth on the way to three-quarters, giving cover to the U.S.’s Periculum (Scott Zeron).

Hail Mary couldn’t really make any progress on the rim towards the 1:55.4 mile marker, and that allowed Jiggy Jog to get separation on the others as Periculum went three-wide early on the last turn. There was no catching Jiggy Jog, though, as she kept clear and allowed Dunn to raise his whip in celebration through the stretch. Periculum, coming off a victory in the Maple Leaf Trot a week ago, was a good second, 3 1/2 lengths behind Jiggy Jog, and France’s Ideal San Leandro (Bjorn Goop) got third. Logan Park held fourth from United States representative It’s Academic (David Miller).

“She’s an amazing mare. It’s always a pleasure to sit behind her. For her to win a race like that just adds to her great career,” Dunn said following the race. “She’s been in such great form. I talked to Ake and Sarah before the race, and they were confident that she could go on the front today against these ones, but it was always going to be up to seeing what happened early. There was a bit of speed from outside and a little bit from inside, but she left so well herself. Once the option was there to re-move and go to the front, we took that chance. We got pretty good fractions after that. I was sort of waiting for a bit more pressure the middle of the race, but she was strong.

“She was a good and clear second last year, but she was only a 4-year-old mare then. It’s always a big step up when they finish their 3-year-old year and in their 4-year-old year they’ve got to race the open horses. She’s just got so much stronger and bigger and mentally tougher this year. You’ll see she’s been raced pretty lightly so far. Ake and Sarah have been taking their time and not racing her too much to make sure she’s there at the end of the year for the Breeders Crown. It’s a fun ride to be on. It’s always fun to sit behind her, and we’ll be looking forward to that for the rest of the year.”

JIGGY JOG REPLAY

A 5-year-old daughter of Walner bred by Vestmarka AB, Jiggy Jog S is co-owned by Svanstedt in partnership with Steve Stewart, John Lengacher and Hickory Hollow Stables. She has a summary of 23-10-2 from 40 starts, has put away $2,970,391 and paid $3.70 to win as the favorite. She was atop a $16.00 exacta and a $316 trifecta.

“Those races are never easy. She has kind of peaked the last couple of days,” remarked Sarah Svanstedt. “She was a little bit tired after the Cashman and the Pocono race, too, actually. It’s tough when you have those kind of plans you have to follow and you can’t really give a week or two more off –  it’s tricky. I was so satisfied with her in the last turn. She’s tremendous.

“Maybe the Caesar’s Classic or Lexington (are next). We’ll have to see how she gets out of this race to start with.”

While Stewart is known more on the breeding side of the sport through his Hunterton Farms, he said that he hopes Jiggy Jog has plenty of more racing to do before she becomes a broodmare.

“I told Cindy (his wife) that I hope three years from now people come to us and say ‘will you please take that damn filly and breed her?’ I told all of our partners we have enough broodmares. We don’t need another one at the moment, as long as she can compete at this level, and she appears to have a lot of fun with it,” Stewart stated. “Ake and Sarah, I think, don’t own a lot of broodmares, and so I think that their dream is to probably race her for many, many years, and that’s our dream, is to continue racing. What an opportunity and I think it’s good for the sport.”

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

From Yonkers Raceway