The first round of the Horse & Groom Series got underway on March 7 at the Meadowlands and it was a real looker. Among the more impressive performances of the three divisions was that won by the five-year-old son of Muscles Yankee

, Looking Hanover.

Owned by trainer Ed Gannon and his wife Dawn, along with Yannick Gingras, who also is the gelding’s driver, Looking Hanover took command just before the homestretch in the $20,000 preliminary series leg and won by a length and a quarter in 1:54.4. While that race was only a mile, it has been a long road for Gannon to get a modestly priced horse to the sport’s upper echelon.

“I went to the sale (the Standardbred Horse Sale in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in November 2008) and we were looking for a trotter; my wife (Dawn, a radiation therapist), loves trotters,” Gannon said. “I am more of a pacing person, but I had one or two trotters prior, so I don’t mind them. We said we’d try to find a trotter because you have more options to race sometimes.

“We went to Harrisburg looking for a trotter and bid on a couple but we were unsuccessful. My wife is not a sale person; she likes to go, buy and come home, but sometimes you have to wait until the right one comes across. I kept looking at different ones that came in the back of the arena; finally I was looking at the lines on this trotter and thought there’s got to be a reason why this horse is not racing better. As a two-year-old, he raced real well and showed a lot of promise (winning three of five races and $26,385), but his three-year-old season, at that point, was just terrible (winless in 12 starts).

“I saw he wasn’t on Lasix, he doesn’t show breaks, there’s something just not right. I went out back and looked at him and he didn’t have big legs or bumps or bruises. I thought he’s not a bad looking horse, he’s a Muscles Yankee and they are known for being nice gaited trotters. I thought this horse has got to be worth trying. I went back to the ring and my wife asked what I looked at; I told her I am buying this horse, regardless of price, I’m going to buy this horse.”

Gannon got the then-three-year-old for $10,000, which prompted his wife to remark, “I can’t believe you bought this horse, he doesn’t show anything.”

Gannon brought the gelding back to the Churchill, Maryland farm he shares with his mother, Barbara and father, Ed Gannon, Sr. The farm has half-mile stone dust track and 65 acres. Gannon the younger and his wife have bought a 20-acre farm in Dover, Delaware and are preparing to move their horses there soon, including her riding horses.

“When we purchased him, we pulled blood and he showed signs of tying up,” said Gannon, who is a distant cousin to Rich Gannon, the former NFL quarterback. “He’s a horse that likes a steady routine. If you take him out of his routine, he gets very nervous. He wants to do the same thing every day, same time, same schedule. As long as you can keep him on that plan, he’s good. He goes out in the field for about an hour every morning. He comes in and jogs three to four miles a day and then maybe two or three days prior to the race, he’ll train a trip in 2:25. The day of the race, if it’s convenient and I have time, I will jog him in the morning. He’s very nervous and he knows if he doesn’t go out on the track, he thinks he might have to race. I got psychological and I go out and jog him and as far as he knows, he’s not racing that day.

“He’s a people person, he’s got personality. In the race paddock, he’s just ornery, he kicks the wall, he’s rearing up. What you have to do with him at the track is walk him between races, a lot of walking. The very first week I raced him (a win on November 24, 2008 at Harrah’s Chester) I noticed if I kept him moving he relaxed and didn’t tighten up. After we warm him up, we make sure he gets walked between races and he stays a happy camper and it’s worked for a year and a half.”

Gannon says that driver Gingras, who bought half of Looking Hanover in the fall of 2009, has been an important part of Looking Hanover’s transition to successful older racehorse.

“The very first week I raced him after I bought him, Yannick drove him and he won in 1:57. He got off and said, ‘This is a nice horse. He’s going to be a nice horse, he has a lot of speed and desire; you just have to tweak him a bit here and there, get him so we can control him.’

“Yannick’s driven him in 85 to 90 percent of his starts. He’s really done a great job with the horse. He’s educated him to race any which way; the front, from behind. You could see him progressing each week; he just got better and better. Towards the fall of 2009, you could see he was getting stronger and could race faster.”

Over the course of 2009, Looking Hanover worked his way up from lower level races to the invitational and open levels at Chester and the Meadowlands, and returned almost $150,000 on the $10,000 purchase price. He won’t be in the Su Mac Lad Series.

“When I looked at the horses (the competition), I knew he could race with them, but I knew Lucky Jim would be in there,” Gannon said. “I don’t want to have to chase Lucky Jim if I don’t have to, because he’s a great horse. Being second or third is great, and after I sent the payments in, he came back and won the next week. I thought I should have put him in the Su Mac Lad, because it’s a race and you want to race every week. But he’s in the Cutler at the Meadowlands, so we’ll have a shot to race against the top trotters. He’s sound, clean legged, needs minimal vet work.”

This year, Looking Hanover has won once and finished second three times. Since joining Gannon’s stable, he has won nine times and earned $193,920.

This story courtesy of Harness Racing Communications, a division of the U.S.
Trotting Association. For more information, visit www.ustrotting.com.