'Dewey' Named NJ Horse Of The Year

Deweycheatumnhowe, the trotting powerhouse who won the Hambletonian and all but three of his 25 career starts, has been named New Jersey Standardbred of the Year for 2008.

Dewey, as he is known, will be honoured at the 52nd New Jersey Equine Breeders Awards Dinner, sponsored by the New Jersey Equine Advisory Board, on January 25, 2009 at the Radisson Hotel in Freehold, New Jersey.

The three-year-old trotting colt, sired in New Jersey by Muscles Yankee, completed his career with earnings of $3,155,178 of which $2,218,987 was earned in 2008.

The unbeaten divisional champion at two, Deweycheatumnhowe’s three-year-old campaign was equally dazzling.

Dewey thrived in the care of trainer-driver Ray Schnittker and enjoyed a conditioning schedule that included swimming in a pond and exercise under saddle.

Even when he was defeated, he raced impressively and finished in-the-money, handling bad luck and, in the case of his last start, a week-long illness.

The only time he appeared upended was when he literally was. On the ride from Schnittker’s farm in Middletown, New York to the stallion barn at Walnut Hall in Lexington, Kentucky on December 17, 2008, the van carrying him skidded on black ice, slid off the road and flipped over on an embankment. Dewey and Schnittker avoided injury, however, Schnittker’s wife, Dr. Janet Durso, suffered a shoulder separation. The colt arrived a day late but apparently none the worse for it.

Dewey’s instinct for survival began shortly after he was foaled on April 12, 2005 at Steven Jones’ Cameo Hills Farm in Montgomery, New York. His mother, the Speedy Somolli mare Trolley Square, died six weeks later, a setback which the orphaned bay colt overcame.

At two, he won the Harriman Cup, two legs and the final of the New Jersey Sire Stakes at the Meadowlands, a pair of stakes at the Red Mile and the elims and finals of the Valley Victory and Breeders Crown at Woodbine and the Meadowlands, respectively.

Dewey opened his sophomore season five straight victories at the Meadowlands, beginning with the Dickerson, the elim and final of the Stanley Dancer Memorial, his Hambletonian elim and, to make it 15 straight wins, the $1.5 million Hambletonian Final on August 2. He was the only Hambletonian winner to enter the event unbeaten.

He extended his winning streak to 17 in the World Trotting Derby in DuQuoin, Illinois, but the streak would come to an end a week later in the elim for the Canadian Trotting Derby at Mohawk when he was caught by Crazed. But Dewey overcame Post 10 to win the final by two lengths.

After winning his first heat of the Kentucky Futurity at Lexington’s Red Mile, he finished third in the second split. He gutted out a race-off win over Celebrity Secret in the third heat to win the event.

A throat abscess plagued Dewey prior to the $500,000 Breeders Crown at the Meadowlands on November 29, his final start. He was cleared to race but clearly not his best, fading to third after cutting much of the mile.

Deweycheatumnhowe, named for the shady lawyers in a comedy skit made popular by the late Johnny Carson, raced in the name of Schnittker, Ted Gewertz of New York, New York; Charles Iannazzo of Tappan, New York and the Deweycheatumnhowe Stable of Lexington, Kentucky.

He will pick up his second divisional Dan Patch Award, is the likely Trotter of the Year and a strong contender for Horse of the Year honours, which will be announced in February.

(SBOANJ)