Meadowlands Racetrack

"Whether I would have gone by or not, we’ll never know, and the record is his. But my horse was going to trot 1:49 too.”

Take a closer look at the maternal side of this year's Hambletonian contenders and a strong representation of the Canadian breeding industry is revealed.

The lone Ontario-sired horse competing in Saturday’s Hambletonian, Harper Blue Chip, will be racing for glory for himself as well as Mark Steacy, his Landsdowne, Ont.-based trainer.

“This is four weeks [of racing] in a row and he’s never done that before. It’s very different for him. But I’m not worried because he felt so good in the last race.”

“We’re both very competitive. I think deep down inside, if somebody beats him he would want it to be me. But it’s really deep down because he really wants to win first himself.”

If all the pieces fall into place, the connections of Western Vintage could be sipping champagne on Saturday.

"Sweet Lou has been very good, but I don’t fear him. My feeling is that 'Captain' is improving in each race and will continue to improve. He needs to get lucky at the draw and you always need racing l...

“They are going much faster and I don’t take much stock in that. I like the fact that he’s a horse that’s very willing and wants to go."

“I ain’t going to be here forever; this might be my last shot for the Hambletonian. We got the right draw, we got the right driver on him, we got the right trainer. It’s a win-win situation. So I’ll s...

"I’m sure Ronnie is going to come to me one of these days under the right conditions and say to go ahead and shatter the world record. And then I will.”

Saturday’s 15-race Hambletonian Day card at the Meadowlands Racetrack is loaded with lucrative stakes dashes worth nearly $3.6 million in purse money, including the $225,000 Anthony Abbatiello New Jer...

“At the start of this year, we didn’t really know how good he would be and every week he got better. He’s earned his way there; you don’t get too many opportunities like this.”