A season that started with a 68-1 surprise over eventual Hambletonian winner Karl came to a close on Saturday, Oct. 26 at The Meadowlands with Sig Sauer surging to the lead right as the curtain fell in the $833,333 Breeders Crown Three-Year-Old Colt & Gelding Trot to retire a champion with a 1:50.4 win.

Driver Andy McCarthy asked Sig Sauer for speed out of post eight but was outhustled to the first turn and settled into sixth. Tony Adams S (James MacDonald) forged forward out of post 10 and landed on the point after a :27.1 first quarter before relinquishing control to 4-5 favourite T C I (David Miller) marching up the backstretch.

T C I strode to a :55 half readying for pressure to the far turn. McCarthy pulled Sig Sauer off the cones and fished a live tow from Amazing Catch (Dexter Dunn) out of fifth, as he then powered forward but stalled as T C I accelerated to three-quarters in 1:22.4. Sig Sauer launched three wide rounding the bottom corner, and McCarthy implored the Muscle Hill colt to reach forward. T C I held his ground in the stretch, but the chalk could not stave Sig Sauer’s closing sweep over the top. Sig Sauer crossed the beam a scant nose better than T C I while Amazing Catch finished between horses in third, Highland Kismet (Tim Tetrick) took fourth off a third-over trip and Private Access (Louis-Philippe Roy) finished fifth.  

“It’s been a front-end night, you had to be up close – even second-over, I haven’t been noticing them win,” trainer Noel Daley said after the race. “But Andy [McCarthy] pulled him a little early to get him up there, and he does dig in so that’s one good thing.”

Sig Sauer, a Southwind Farms-bred colt out of the Donato Hanover mare Sigilwig, collected his fifth win from 10 starts this season and his ninth victory from 15 starts in his career. The Kentucky Futurity champion has $1,476,270 in the bank for owners Patricia Stable, Joe Sbrocco & JAF Racing, Allister Stables LLC and Caviart Farms.

“To me, there hasn’t been a better three-year-old all year, I don’t think,” Daley also said. “A sound Sig Sauer – he’s right there with them. They’re a good bunch there, tonight; Karl wasn’t there, [but] it’s a good group. And he showed it: he doesn’t have to be lucky. He just needs to be there.”

Daley, who last won in the Three-Year-Old Colt Trot in 2003 with Mr Muscleman, confirmed after Sig Sauer’s crowning moment that the colt will head to stallion duty at Hanover Shoe Farms in Pennsylvania. Sent off the 7/2 second choice, he paid $9.20 to win.

(Breeders Crown)