Post Position: 3
Standardbred Canada TrackIT Link:
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Bay gelding by Western Ideal – Smart Dialing – Abercrombie
BREEDERS: Arlene & Jules Siegel, New Hope, PA
OWNERS: Arlene & Jules Siegel, New Hope, PA
STATISTICS:
2009 5 3 1 1 $212,850
2008 12 8 0 1 $429,740
Totals 17 11 1 2 $642,590
LIFETIME MARK: 3, 1:50.1, The Meadowlands
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS & NOTES:
• Driver Brian Sears won 2005 Cup with Rocknroll Hanover
• Cup field’s leading money winner with $642,590
At two:
• Won his career debut, July 3 at The Meadowlands in a NJSS elimination in 1:53.4
• Won $175,000 New Jersey Sires Stake (NJSS) final on July 10 in 1:51.4
• Won two legs of NJSS at Freehold on August 9 and 16
• Finished fourth as the 1-5 favourite in the $156,940 Battle of Freehold on September 1
• Won next four starts - $85,000 NJSS at Freehold, $85,350 Bluegrass division at Lexington, $89,320 division of International Stallion Stakes at Lexington and Governor’s Cup elim, October 18 at Woodbine
• Finished fourth, four and one-half lengths behind Nebupanezzar in the $820,000 Governor’s Cup final, as the 7-5 favourite
• Finished fourth in Breeders Crown elim on November 21 at The Meadowlands, before finishing third, two and one-quarter lengths behind Well Said, in the final on Nov. 29
At three:
• Finished second in elim, then won $200,000 New Jersey Sires Stakes final at the Meadowlands on May 30 in a career best 1:50.1
• Won New Jersey Classic elim on June 6, the finished third to Passmaster Hanover in the $500,000 final, June 13 at the Meadowlands, as the 3-5 favourite
• Won his Cup elim by one length over OK Boromir in 1:50.2 at Mohawk
ELIMINATION QUOTES:
Jim Campbell, Trainer
“We’re going to see how he comes out of the race. He’s not going to need a lot of training (at Stutzman Farm) because this was his fifth start in a row. We trained him light this week because he had to ship to come up here. He raced well off that, went a tough trip tonight. We’ll play it by ear, see how he acts beginning of the week but he’s not the type of horse that needs a lot. He’s got to have all systems on ‘go’ from here on in, at this level there’s no room for error.”
“I didn’t see all the other divisions, but Well Said looked good. But I’ve always said, anytime you’re in a final, all 10 horses did something to be in there, and especially in a race like this where you have to be first or second, it’s going to set up to be a very competitive race. Any one of the 10 might have a shot. You have to be on top of your game just to get qualified and all the better ones are going to be there.”
“The only thing is when he gets turned out, he likes to roll in mud – and unfortunately there’s been lots of that lately! He’s an ideal horse to train, he really doesn’t do anything wrong, he’s just a perfect horse to be around. He loves carrots.”
“To race in the richest race we have anywhere and be associated with a horse who can race at this calibre, it’s an honour. As a trainer, it’s what I strive to do, and it’s not easy to get there. It’s a privilege to be associated with a horse of this calibre and a race of this calibre.”
Trainer - Jim Campbell
Age: 46
Career wins through June 21, 2009: 676
Career earnings through June 21, 2009: $23,160,172
Although he has had to live in the shadow of a famous brother, Jim Campbell has more than held his own in the sport of harness racing. While older brother John has racked up numerous records as one of the greatest drivers to ever handle a Standardbred horse, Jim has made his mark as a top flight conditioner of young talent.
In the late 1980s, Jim was enjoying a very successful period in his career. He trained the outstanding pacer Run The Table, who as a sophomore in 1987 won 14 times and earned $904,022. The son of Landslide retired at the conclusion of the 1988 season with 20 lifetime victories and earnings of $1,171,053. In 1989, he was the leading trainer at The Meadowlands, when he sent out 79 winners for earnings of $1.3 million. But in the early 1990s, Jim thought about getting out of the sport and even obtained a real estate licence.
However, racing was still in his blood so he joined forces with Arlene and Jules Siegel’s Fashion Farm and this combination enjoyed many successful campaigns.
The best horses produced by this team were the trotting colt Tagliabue and the pacing female Galleria. In 1995, Tagliabue, a 3-year-old son of Super Bowl, had five wins and five seconds in 13 starts, banking $869,600. Tagliabue’s biggest moment came when he scored in 1:54.4 in the $1 million Hambletonian Final. What made that moment even more special for Jim was that brother John was in the sulky on that afternoon. Galleria earned Dan Patch Awards in both 1998 and 1999 as the top distaffer in her class and retired with $1,814,453 in career earnings.
Campbell stepped away from the sport in 2006 to operate his own pizza café, Jimmy C’s, in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey, but decided to get back into harness racing in the fall of that year. “After being away from racing for a while, I really missed it,” Campbell said. “Horses are a lot of work, but it’s a different type, and it’s what I’ve been used to. I had the chance to get a couple of yearlings and I didn’t want to miss that opportunity.”
Other stars trained by Campbell over the years include In The Pocket, Southern Gentleman, Indian Alert, Merger, Money Lender, Park Place, Ramses Two, Real Artist, 2002 Dan Patch Award winner Broadway Hall, Whatanartist and Armbro Animate.
Driver - Brian Sears
Age: 41
Career wins through June 21, 2009: 6,777
Career earnings through, June 21, 2009: $96,420,957
Hailing from Secaucus, New Jersey, Brian Sears is one of harness racing’s leading drivers. In 2005, the third-generation horseman broke John Campbell’s record for single-season earnings, racking up $15,085,992 in purses - a mark only recently eclipsed by Tim Tetrick.
Last season, Sears posted career best numbers with 447 wins and $16,890,484 to his credit.
Sears won his first pari-mutuel race while he was still in high school, behind a horse named Alicia Blue Chip in 1:58.2. He began his professional career at New York’s Vernon Downs, where he won the Dick Mumpton Memorial Award in 1990 for most promising driver. The 1991 season marked the first of three consecutive years that Sears topped the UDR standings at Vernon and also earned him the United States Harness Writers’ Rising Star Award.
In 1994, Sears made the move to The Meadows and quickly became one of the leading catch drivers at the western Pennsylvania oval, finishing second behind perennial champion Dave Palone in both wins and earnings in each of his nine campaigns there.
Sears decided to base himself at The Meadowlands in 2003, after picking up driving titles at Pompano Park and Pocono Downs. By 2004, he was one of the Big M’s leading linesmen and has remained at or near the top of the standings every year since.
In 2008, he ran away with the Meadowlands’ driving title, racking up an impressive record of 259 wins and more than $7-million in purses. That was nearly double his nearest rival in both wins and purses.
Rocknroll Hanover is one of the top horses Sears has driven in his career. The pacing colt won both the $1 million Metro Pace as a two-year-old in 2004 and then captured the $1.5 million Pepsi North America Cup the next season at age three.
Sears was also the regular driver of top Free-For-All pacer Lis Mara, who won over $2.2 million in his brilliant career while taking a mark of 1:47.3.
A winner of 15 Breeders Crown titles in his career, Sears also handles three-year-old trotting phenom Muscle Hill.
He finished second in last year’s North America Cup to Somebeachsomewhere with Badlands Nitro.