Glidemaster: 2006 Hambletonian
"He had some notoriety for that recall in Lexington when Trevor (Ritchie) couldn't stop him. And he still raced that day. He had a ton of ability but was just hard to manage.
"Blair asked me to drive him in the first stake at Woodbine as a three-year-old, and right away I could see what Trevor was dealing with: it was a thin line between jogging slow and going in :27. He just didn't have a middle gear. I was able to race him from off the pace that night and I spoke to Blair about him. Blair changed the driving bit on him and he just continued to get more manageable as the year went on.
"Both Blair and I knew his best race was when you took him off the gate and let him come at horses with a big last quarter. And once we got him to come off the gate and relax, that's where his success was and that's exactly what happened in the Hambletonian.
"I was a little concerned going into the first turn that we were a bit too far back but the outer tier continued to move up, and when I moved him over at the head of the stretch he just exploded. As soon as I moved him, I knew I was going to win -- which is rare for a driver -- he just felt that strong and was eating up ground that quick."