While two of his superstar pacing mares have retired this year, Eric Cherry still has a lot to smile about with Laughandbehappy

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His contender in the $32,000 mares invitational Friday night at Meadowlands Racetrack has proven to be a solid investment. Cherry purchased the five-year-old mare for $55,000 in late November 2009 and she earned just under $150,000 during her prolific 2010 campaign. The daughter of Badlands Hanover won eight of 17 starts last year, including the White Ruffles and Night Styles Series finals at the Meadowlands. Laughandbehappy, trained by Jeff Webster, is rated as the 7/2 second choice in the tenth race Friday night. David Miller has the driving assignment.

Cherry has campaigned some of the top female racing talent in recent years, including Southwind Tempo (1:48.2, $2,396,362) and Tug River Princess (1:49.3, $1,830,155). He has a keen eye for value, and Laughandbehappy was no exception.

“Originally, horse agent Jerry Glanz, who knew how I like fillies, thought he found something special in Laughandbehappy,” Cherry said. “He had heard about her. She was winning a lot of races in Iowa, and she was by Badlands Hanover, the sire of Tug River Princess. Every Saturday morning Jerry and I chat at my training center and he tells me what he sees out there.

“I wasn’t about to send Ross Croghan to Iowa to look at a filly, but I was willing to pay for her to be shipped to Lexington [in the fall of 2009]. I said that we would train her, vet her out and maybe buy her. If not, then I would pay to ship her back. Well, her connections wouldn’t do it. Yet a few months later, she shipped to Yonkers and qualified. They called, I looked at the line, and I said ‘I’ll buy her for $55,000.’

“We first thought she was a nice filly, but we certainly weren’t sure how nice. It was a good four-year-old transitional season. I didn’t stake her to any of the bigger races. We had Southwind Tempo and Tug River Princess, so we figured we’d just race her moderately.”

Laughandbehappy racked up seven wins, two second and two thirds in 15 starts from January-August before Cherry and partners Robert Cooper and Jerry Silva decided to turn the mare out for the balance of the season.

“She took a mark of 1:49.2 in an open [May 21 ,2010] at the Meadowlands, and eventually got a little sore,” he said. “So, we stopped with her early, with an eye on the winter series at the Meadowlands. She showed a few flashes of potential greatness and we didn’t want to push her too hard.”

In her second start off the layoff, Laughandbehappy romped to a 1:51.2 victory in a conditioned race at Harrah’s Chester on December 22.

“She’s obviously got some big shoes to fill,” he noted. “One thing about the Badlands Hanovers, they all have desire. Even if they’re roughed up, they always come back the next week.

“We’ve just retired two great mares at the same time, Southwind Tempo and Tug River Princess. I would’ve loved to get another year with Tug River Princess. She had certain soundness issues, and post positions and brutal trips were tough on her last year. Southwind Tempo went out with a world record of 1:48.2 in her last career start, which was pretty incredible. Tug River Princess is being bred to Bettors Delight and Southwind Tempo to Rocknroll Hanover.

“We’re also bringing back Ticket To Rock as a four-year-old, probably in March or April. My big hope is Drop The Ball. We think she will be a special three-year-old in 2011. She won a division of the Countess Adios in 1:50.4. She would have been the Sweetheart favourite before she got sick.”

Cherry, of Delray Beach, FL, has been racing and breeding horses since the late seventies. Originally from Long Island, NY, the 57-year-old entrepreneur operates the South Florida Trotting Center in Lakeworth, Ongait.com, a website for buying and selling horses, and National Raceline, a race results hotline.

“I started National Raceline back in 1989, but the biggest problem we’ve had is that you can’t call a 900 number on a cell phone,” he said. “So, we’re changing it in a month to a toll free local number and we’ll have it sponsored upfront.

“I bought into the training center in 1982, and I bought out the remaining shareholders in 1997. We have as many trainers as ever, there are 400 stalls, but with the economy everybody has cut back, so were short about 100 horses. It’s still one of the best tracks to train on.”

(Meadowlands)