The Nancy Takter-trained Tall Dark Stranger was voted the 2020 U.S. Horse of the Year, and when balloting was announced earlier this week for the first Hambletonian Society/Breeders Crown poll of 2021, Takter proclaimed, “And I’m starting off with the No. 1 horse this year!”

This year’s initial top-ranked horse for Takter is Manchego, who wasn’t even supposed to be on the racetrack after owner Barry Guariglia announced last November that the daughter of Muscle Hill would be retired. But a change of heart over the winter led to the $2.7 million-winning Manchego returning to the track this year as a six-year-old — and if her first effort is any indication, the correct decision was made.

Despite battling sickness that kept her from a scheduled first start in the opening round of the Miss Versatility Series on May 8 at The Meadowlands, Manchego was at 100 per cent for her season’s debut in the $141,250 Arthur J. Cutler Memorial against male peers on May 15 at the Big M. Leaving from post nine with driver Dexter Dunn, Manchego was parked every step of the mile but was still game enough in the stretch to put her nose in front in 1:51.1.

“She was really good,” understated Dunn. “She’s a major force, but that was a tough run her last start.”

Manchego will attempt to make it two-for-two in 2021 when she starts from post five in Sunday afternoon’s (May 30) $100,000 Maxie Lee Memorial Invitational Trot at Harrah’s Philadelphia. The race is one of a trio of $100,000 contests on the 15-race card, joining the Betsy Ross Invitational for older pacing mares and the Commodore Barry for older male pacers. Also on the program are a pair of Pennsylvania Sire Stakes divisions for three-year-old male pacers, with the first including a rematch between Perfect Sting and Abuckabett Hanover, who handed the former his first career defeat in the Sires Stakes opener two weeks ago.

Manchego capped off her 2020 campaign with wins in the $300,000 Breeders Crown and $320,000 TVG Open, paving the way for her to earn Dan Patch Award divisional honours, the second time she took home top honours (she was also the Two-Year-Old Filly Trotter of the Year in 2017).

Those races were to be her career finale efforts, until the reversing of the retirement decision. Manchego then finished third in her first qualifier on April 10 at The Meadowlands, timed in 1:52.3 (last quarter :25.3). After a fifth-place finish in an April 24 qualifier, Takter had planned to drop Manchego in the box for the May 8 Miss Versatility.

“I was planning on racing her in the first week of the Miss Versatility, but after the second qualifier, she was no good. I scoped her afterward and she was full of mucus,” said Takter. “I put her on antibiotics, and then the following Monday, I trained her at the farm in the race bike and she was really good. I went a quick back half in :54 with her and she felt awesome.

“I was going to put her in the box on Tuesday for the Miss Versatility, but on Monday afternoon, Katie (caretaker Katie Remmerswaal) called me and said Manchego had a 103.5 (degree) fever. So there was no dropping her in the box then.”

Takter, the 2020 Trainer of the Year, didn’t train Manchego too hard prior to her May 15 Cutler debut, and was going to let Dunn know of the situation prior to the race.

“I was driving to The Meadowlands that Saturday, and I thought to myself that I had to tell Dexter that she might be a little bit short, and then I remembered that the last time I told him that was when she had messed up her foot after the (2019) Maple Leaf Trot and she hadn’t raced in three weeks, and she was going to (Hollywood) Dayton (for the Dayton Trotting Derby). She broke the world record, so maybe she likes a three-week layoff. Three weeks might be her thing,” Takter said with a laugh.

Takter also thought about giving Dunn directions in the Cutler when Manchego drew post nine, but she had second thoughts in speaking to the 2020 Driver of the Year.

“I told Dex that, ‘I’m not going to give you driving directions. I’m trainer of the year and you’re driver of the year; you need to figure it out,'” she remembered. “‘But you can’t get away ninth or 10th because you are not going to make up that much ground on the best horses in the country at this point.'”

In the race, Dunn left from the outside post but decided against dropping in a hole as he believed he would have been caught locked in.

“Before the race, I thought it would be a tricky race because there would be a lot leaving,” said Dunn. “There was a hole, but there were horses outside on my back and they were going to go forward.”

The Tim Tetrick-driven Guardian Angel As set all the fractions, reaching the respective stations in :26.3, :54.4 and 1:23.2. Dunn said the :28.3 third quarter worked to his advantage with the first-over Manchego.

“We got lucky the third quarter wasn’t too hard when we were first-over,” he said. “It wasn’t too fast, so I was able to sit there and save a little for later in the race. And she was doing it so nicely.”

Takter agreed with Dunn’s assessment as she watched from The Meadowlands’ paddock.

“Dex was just sitting outside and not pushing the pace; Dex did a good job,” she said. “He rated her on the outside. And she still had enough in the tank when he asked her to go.”

With a last quarter of :27.4, Manchego was able to score by a nose over the late-closing Majestic Player A, with Guardian Angel As a neck behind in third.

“When she’s feeling good she does not like to lose,” Takter said of Manchego, whose 1:49 win in 2019 at Red Mile is the fastest ever by a female trotter.

Takter and Dunn will also team up with JK First Lady from post three in the Betsy Ross. The four-year-old daughter of Western Ideal is out of the Art Major mare JK Shesalady, who Takter trained to Horse of the Year accolades in 2014.

A winner of nearly three-quarters of a million dollars, JK First Lady has a second and fourth in a pair of top-class overnight events at The Meadowlands this year. Takter admits the races went a little tougher than she had hoped for her newly-turned four-year-old.

“She’s been racing really well, but she’s been racing a little tougher than I would have wanted her to race,” she said. “It’s not how I would have scripted her four-year-old season — to begin with those two tough races that she had.

“She has a good post this week, and I’d like to see her race off the pace. She’s better off the pace, but she keeps ending up on the front. Every race but one that she won she came from off the pace.”

Takter said she plans on a pair of equipment changes for JK First Lady for the Betsy Ross.

“She raced with a lip cord all of last year and so far this year, but I think I’m going to take it off this week,” said Takter. “And she’ll race with a pull-down bridle. She used to get very grabby last year and she’s a sweetheart to drive this year.”

Racing begins at 12:40 p.m. Sunday at Harrah’s Philadelphia.

(USTA)