Trainer Noel Daley expects three-year-old trotter Explosive Matter to skip the Breeders Crown later this month at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto in favour of the
Gran Premio Orsi Mangelli on November 1 in Italy.
Explosive Matter is coming off a win over Swan For All in a $102,000 division of the Bluegrass Stakes on October 10 at the Red Mile in Lexington. Driven by Ron Pierce, the colt won in 1:52.4 for the Adam Victor & Son Stable.
For the year, Explosive Matter has won five of 12 races, including the $500,000 Colonial, and earned $1.1 million. He has five second-place finishes, all against Muscle Hill, harness racing’s No. 1-rated horse. He also finished second to Muscle Hill in last year’s Breeders Crown, which was the only blemish on his record last season.
“We’re 90 percent sure he’s going to go to Italy. It looks like that’s going to happen,” Daley said on Monday. “There are only two Group I-type races left for three-year-olds anywhere in the world. One of them is the Breeders Crown, which we probably can’t win, and the other one is that race over there. It will give him a little bit of European exposure. He’s the No. 2 horse, but he doesn’t have as much visibility to a lot of people.”
This year, Explosive Matter finished second to Muscle Hill in the Hambletonian, Kentucky Futurity, Canadian Trotting Classic and a division of the Stanley Dancer Memorial.
The Gran Premio Orsi Mangelli is a double-heat race contested around a five-eighths-mile track. Explosive Matter is 6-for-6 lifetime on a five-eighths oval and raced heats in the Futurity, where he was timed in 1:51.3 in the second heat and covered the final quarter-mile in 26.4 seconds.
“He was better the second heat when we raced him in Lexington, and the five-eighths won’t bother him,” Daley said. “I’ve asked around and people have said there are a lot of good horses overseas, but the three-year-olds are not a stellar crop. We’ll see what we’ve got when we get over there.”
Daley expects Explosive Matter to begin his journey to Italy on October 22.
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This story courtesy of Harness Racing Communications, a division of the U.S.
Trotting Association. For more information, visit www.ustrotting.com. *