Macomber’s top trotter going on eight-race winning streak

“He’s a cool horse.”

That’s how harness racing trainer Jamie Macomber describes her top trotter, Dover In Motion (Dover Dan), who has now won eight trotting races in a row for the Hoosier Park-based conditioner.

The burly brown gelding has career earnings of $575,670 and took a mark at 4 of 1:52.1f for owners M&M Racing of Shipshewana, IN and Macomber Racing of Fishers, IN. Jamie and her husband, driver Ricky Macomber, train a stable of 26 at the Anderson, Indiana racetrack.

“We had his half-brother, Swan In Motion,” Jamie said. “So, we really wanted him.”

Foaled April 6, 2019, at Topeka, IN, Dover In Motion was bred by Lyle Dean Slabach, and was a $50,000 yearling purchase under the name of Kwik Kramer at the 2020 Hoosier Sale. He is the fourth of eight foals out of the Yankee Glide mare Keystone Sadie 4, 1:56.1 ($54,289) and is a half-brother to Swan In Motion 6, 1:62.1 ($695,161); Skyway Kon Man (Conway Hall) 4, 1:53.1s ($341,654); and a full brother to Kruise On Dover 4, 1:55.1s ($44,326).

Dover In Motion’s sire, Dover Dan 3, 1:51.3 ($523,470), is an Andover Hall 3, 1:51.3 ($870,510) son, out of the brilliant CR Kay Suzie 4, 1:52.3 ($1,611,131), so he has the credentials to be a top contender on a national level.

Dover In Motion was nothing short of spectacular as a freshman, winning all eight of his Hoosier starts for Jamie, and finishing off the board only once, when he raced for the first time away from his home track, earning $309,400 that season.

“The only race he lost that year was in Canada,” Jamie recalled. “It was the first time he had shipped away from home and the whole experience might have been too much for him. I think he was sick, too.”

While Dover In Motion was sixth, trotting in 1:55.2 in the $790,000 Mohawk Million on Sept. 25, 2021, he quickly rebounded to win his final two starts of the season—ISS Leg 6 in 1:54.2, and the $270,000 ISS Final on Oct. 15 in a seasonal best clocking of 1:53.2 with Ricky at the lines.

“After his final start at two, I shut him down and turned him out, and then, when I brought him back at three, he was not the same horse,” Jamie offered. “We battled soreness that entire year and couldn’t find anything anywhere. It seemed like the horse had a different problem every day, and we could never find the solution for it. In his last start at 3, he made a break in the stretch, and I think that’s where he really hurt himself. Afterwards we found a suspensory issue in his right hind leg and were able to work on that.”

During his sophomore campaign, Dover In Motion scored two wins—the first in his 3-year-old debut on May 30, 2022, in a $50,000 ISS contest, where he won by 5½ lengths with Ricky at the lines, timed in 1:52.4. The next came on Sept. 5, when he won another $48,500 ISS leg in 1:53.4, drawing off by just over five lengths at the wire. Despite being plagued by breaks and sub-par performances that season, Dover In Motion still earned a healthy $129,510 for his connections, with two wins, one second, and five thirds in 16 trips postward.

“We gave him a lot of time off, to make sure the suspensory issue was solved,” Jamie stressed. “So, he came back super sound at 4, and qualified at Hoosier in 1:54 really well, and then had to go right into the sires stakes.”

Dover In Motion was second in his first pari-mutuel start of 2023, on Oct. 6, trotting in 1:53.3 for Ricky, then was third in 1:52.2 a week later in a $50,000 ISS Aged test. When Jamie shipped the trotter to Cumberland Run for a $30,000 Open, he made a break at the start as the favorite and finished sixth. However, he returned to his home track and promptly captured a $22,000 Hoosier Park Opena, trotting in 1:53.1 with Ricky at the lines on Nov. 11.

“I couldn’t have asked for him to be any better,” Jamie noted. “He just got tighter and tighter, and then, once he got that first win at Hoosier, he remembered how much he liked it, and just kept on going.”

Dover In Motion did just that. After Ricky injured his shoulder in a race in mid-November, Jamie paired the trotter with driver Lewayne Miller and then with reinsman John Delong.

Miller scored a pair of Hoosier Park $22,000 Open triumphs with Dover In Motion—on Nov. 25 in 1:53.1 and on Dec. 9 in 1:53.2 at Hoosier, and Delong followed, winning a pair of $25,000 Dayton Opens, the first on Dec. 16 in a career best 1:52.1 and the second on Dec. 30 in 1:53.1.  These four wins, his last four starts of 2023, set the state for his current, eight-race win streak. He wrapped up his 4-year-old season with five wins, a second, and a third in nine starts, earning $70,760.

Dover In Motion won his first four starts of his 5-year-old campaign, all Miami Valley Opens, trotting to a 1:52.3 triumph on Jan. 8, 2024; a 1:53.1 score on Jan. 22; a 1:52.3 win on Jan. 29; and a 1:53.3 triumph on Feb. 12. Thus far he’s amassed $66,000 this year.

“He’s turned out now at Spring Station Farm in Midway, Kentucky, for 20 to 30 days,” Jamie offered. “I’ve staked him to some major age stakes: the Cutler, Maple Leap Trot, Dayton Trotting Derby, and the Hoosier Trotting Classic, so I wanted to give him a break before he started racing hard.”

“Both LeWayne and John got along great with Dover,” Jamie offered. “Ricky’s recovering and back working in the barn now since mid-January. Dover is extremely fast so as long as a driver knows how to manage his speed, they can do well with him. As a driver, you have to listen to what the horse is telling you and then you’ll get along great with him.”

Like most good horses, Jamie says Dover In Motion is great to work around, both on and off the racetrack.

“He’s perfect in the barn, and he eats and sleeps perfectly,” she said. “He loves his apples and eats anywhere from three to five pounds of them a week. The funny thing is, as a young horse on the track he was perfect, but this year at five, he’s a little full of himself and wants to race everyone, every day. But otherwise, he’s still perfect.”

by Kimberly Rinker, for Harnesslink