Trotter Flanagan Memory is headed back to trainer Rene Dion’s winter digs in Quebec after a productive campaign that got a little better this week with his belated promotion from third to second in August’s $273,600 Cashman Memorial at the Meadowlands Racetrack after winner Resolve got disqualified for a positive test.

It boosted Flanagan Memory’s earnings for the 14-race campaign to almost $700,000. His lifetime earnings now exceed $1.6 million.

“We’ll take it, for sure, but you don’t wish that on anyone. Mistakes happen,” said Dion. “My horse doesn’t need that to earn his money.”

Dion said Flanagan Memory, who capped and ended his year with a victory over Resolve in the $500,000 Breeders’ Crown at The Meadowlands on Oct. 28, “raced awesome all year. A few trips he wasn’t lucky, but I certainly couldn’t ask for more. Every race he comes to the plate and finishes strong. The Breeders Crown was special – I was still pinching myself days after – but he also raced so tough in the International Trot (at Yonkers, where he finished third to Resolve), never quitting.”

The six-year-old son of Kadabra missed the season’s last major stakes event for older trotters, the TVG final at the Meadowlands, “because he got a little sick on me and there wasn’t time to get him back. If he’s not right, I’m not going.”

Dion, who co-owns Flanagan Memory with Liette Flanagan, daughter of the breeder, said the plan now is to bring him back next year at seven. “He raced so good in 2016, making good money, so why not? Eventually, I can see him as a sire.”

(A Trot Insider Exclusive by Paul Delean)