Post Position: 7
Standardbred Canada TrackIT Link:
Click Here
Brown colt by Artsplace – Asleep Onthe Beach – Beach Towel
BREEDERS: Steve Stewart, Paris, KY, Frank Cannon, Longwood, FL & Jeffrey Langfelder, Atlanta, GA
OWNER: Tom Hill, Lancashire, Great Britain
STATISTICS:
2009 3 1 2 0 $52,500
2008 7 4 3 0 $423,750
Totals 10 5 5 0 $476,250
LIFETIME MARK: 3, 1:51, Mohawk
2, 1:51, Woodbine
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS & NOTES:
Purchased for $157,000 at the Lexington Select Sale in KY in October of 2007
• Will be driven by John Campbell, who has won the Cup a record six times (Precious Bunny, 1991; Cams Card Shark, 1994; Davids Pass, 1995; Arizona Jack, 1996, Gothic Dream, 1997; The Panderosa, 1999)
• Has not been worse than second in 10 career starts (five wins and five seconds)
At two:
• Banner two-year-old season, winning four of seven starts, with three seconds, for earnings of $423,750
• Began his career with a victory at Mohawk on September 14 in 1:56.4
• Proceeded to win his next three starts, including a Governor’s Cup elim October 18 at Woodbine in a career best 1:51
• Finished second, beaten a head by Nebupanezzar in the $820,000 Governor’s Cup, October 25 at Woodbine
• Finished second in his Breeders Crown elimination November 21 at The Meadowlands, a nose behind Captain Sir
• Finished second, a length behind Well Said, in the Breeders Crown final on November 29
At three:
• Opened with a conditioned win, June 6 at Mohawk in 1:51, equalling his career mark
• Finished second, a neck behind Carnivore in a $100,000 Burlington division, June 13
• Finished second, three-quarters of a length behind Mr Wiggles, in fourth Cup elim, as the 9-5 second choice
ELIMINATION QUOTES:
Casie Coleman, Trainer
“Right now, (driver) John (Campbell) thinks he cheated on us a little bit. He said he had a tonne of horse in the hole but when he pulled him out, he just didn’t really want to go by. He’s had sickness problems lately so I’m going to scope him to see if that’s what it was or not. But I thought the horse should have paced around and he didn’t, so we’re going to have to maybe change his bridle up a bit and just try to wake him up a bit. He’s sound and he looks great, but he’s had a sickness issue going on that we’re still dealing with.”
“Anything inside about six (hole) would be good (for a post position). He’s best off a helmet, second or third-over.”
“We’re stabling at Classy Lane (this week).”
“There were some nice horses there tonight. That horse Keep It Real, he looked good, and Well Said. It’s going to be a tough final. It’s unbelievable to be in a $1.5 million race.”
“You have to back him out of the paddock pretty much because he won’t go out forwards. I could write a book about his quirks! He’ll eat pizza, dill pickle-flavoured chips, whatever you feed him.”
Trainer – Casie Coleman
Age: 29
Career wins through June 21, 2009: 1,143
Career earnings through June 21, 2009: $19,913,790
The two-time O’Brien Award winner capped off another strong season in 2008 with an O’Brien nomination as Canada’s Top Trainer, although she finished runner-up to Bob McIntosh in that category.
She once again finished in the top three in the WEG trainer standings with 80 wins and more than $2.6 million to her credit. That stat was made more impressive by the fact she split her stable between the WEG circuit and The Meadowlands. Coleman continued to enjoy more prominence on the Grand Circuit with top performers like Art Colony, Lucky Man and A And Gs Confusion leading the way. Overall, her stable earned just over $5.1 million - a personal best for the Cambridge resident.
In 2006, her stable star American Ideal was retired to stud after sustaining a career ending injury. He helped her land her second consecutive O’Brien Award that season as Canada’s Trainer of the Year.
In 2005, Coleman was thrust into the North American spotlight when American Ideal raced in the Pepsi North America Cup and the Meadowlands Pace, making Coleman the first female trainer in Harness racing history to enter a horse in two $1 million races in one season. After another stakes win in a division of the Oliver Wendell Holmes, American Ideal became the fastest three year old pacer in history via his wire to wire win in 1:47.4 in a division of the Bluegrass Stakes. Coleman was rewarded for her standout 2005 campaign by receiving an O’Brien Award as Canada’s Trainer of The Year (the first time a female had earned the award).
In 2004, Coleman rose from relative obscurity and made an instant impact in her first season as a regular trainer on the local circuit. In December of that year, Coleman passed 100 wins and $1 million in total season’s earnings, and in the process became the youngest female trainer in Canada to reach such milestones.
A native of British Columbia, Coleman re located to Ontario a few years ago when her parents, Linda and Phil, moved their stable to the Flamboro Downs area. The stable star was the talented open class pacing mare, Fast Lane Cruizin. After doing some of the driving for the family operation, Coleman started her own stable and has since concentrated on training.
In 2001, Coleman suffered serious burns in a fire that required her to get skin grafts on roughly 22 per cent of her body.
Driver - John Campbell
Age: 54
Career wins through June 21, 2009: 10,148
Career earnings through June 21, 2009: $265,173,065
John Campbell’s list of accomplishments in harness racing is legendary. He lives in River Vale, New Jersey, but the superstar linesman was born in Ailsa Craig, Ontario on April 8, 1955 and maintains close ties with the Ontario racing circuit.
He returned to racing in April, 2007, after recovering from a serious leg injury sustained in an accident at Woodbine in October, 2006, during a Breeders Crown elimination. Campbell immediately returned to his superlative form, finishing the year with 166 wins and more than $10 million in purses – ranking sixth in North America -- despite having sat out the first quarter of the year.
Campbell was behind the wheel for Snow White, the outstanding two-year-old filly trotter who captured the Goldsmith Maid Stakes, the Champlain, Oakville Stakes, and the Breeders Crown in 2007 en route to earning numerous accolades and $1.25 million in purses. He also steered A And Gs Confusion to an O’Brien Award as Canada’s top two-year-old filly pacer of the year, and sat behind Pampered Princess in the majority of her starts at two and three as she earned her way to a $1,740,605 bankroll. In addition, he drove three-year-old trotting colt, Flirtin Man, to a solid place showing in the Breeders Crown.
Last year, he won 165 races and over $9 million in purses, ninth overall in North America, helped by two-year-old trotting filly Honorable Daughter and older trotter Corleone Kosmos, both Breeders Crown champions.
He is the youngest individual, at 35, to have been inducted into harness racing’s Living Hall of Fame, and has racked up 44 Breeders Crown victories, six Hambletonians, seven editions of the Meadowlands Pace, three Little Brown Jugs, and six Pepsi North America Cups: 1991 (Precious Bunny), 1994 (Cams Card Shark), 1995 (Davids Pass), 1996 (Arizona Jack), 1997 (Gothic Dream), and 1999 (The Panderosa).
Other champion performers over the year include the brilliant four-year-old Real Desire, who won the $845,500 Canadian Pacing Derby and was named 2002 Horse of the Year. In 2003, Campbell drove Bunny Lake, one of the greatest pacing mares the sport has ever seen, to victory in the Roses Are Red at Woodbine. The sport’s all-time leading money winning driver eclipsed the $200-million mark on 2001 Breeders Crown night at Woodbine, a night in which he won three BC races.
In 2006, before his accident, Campbell had won the Hambletonian (in stakes and Meadowlands track record 1:51.1) and Kentucky Futurity (1:51.3 second heat victory at The Red Mile) with Blair Burgess-trained Glidemaster, who would end up winning the trotting Triple Crown (via the Yonkers Trot victory) with substitute pilot George Brennan.
In 2001, he became the first driver in history to win more than $13-million in a single-season. He also received Canada’s Meritorious Service Medal that year, the first driver to do so. The award, created by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, recognizes a deed or activity performed in a highly professional manner or to a very high standard that brings benefit or honour to Canada. Later this year, he will be inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame for his accomplishments in Harness racing.