Stablemates Earndawg and King Of The Swamp head up a field of seven freshman pacing colts and geldings in Friday’s $57,100 Abe Lincoln Stakes, and these two have a lot in common.
Both are trained by Roger Welch and both are by top Illinois sire Sportsmaster. As well, both are owned by William C (Bo) Delong and William (Pat) Delong of Wisconsin and Illinois, with Earndawg also being co-owned by EJ Miller of Mount Horeb, WI.
Both were purchased by Bo and Pat and taken to their Wisconsin farm to be broken and trained over the winter, before bringing them to Welch to prepare for their freshman summer contests.
Both have started 13 times in 2014 and both have competed against one another in eight contests, with Earndawg finishing higher than Kind Of The Swamp on six occasions. Earndawg has clearly surpassed King Of The Swamp in regard to earnings ($160,715 vs. $65,653) and wins (five vs. three).
Last week, they both competed in the $86,000 American National Two-Year-Old Colt Pace, with Earndawg second and King Of The Swamp fifth. The week before they finished one-two (Earndawg-King Of The Swamp) in the $43,350 Cardinal Stakes at Maywood. Earndawg captured the $186,000 Orange & Blue Colt Pace on Super Night in a career best 1:52.4, with King Of The Swamp fifth in that event.
Although, despite their racing abilities, both of the youngsters are equally important in the eyes of their trainer, Roger Welch, and both have very different personalities.
“Earndawg initially was very spooky—he was scared to death of everything and it took a lot of work to get him to go around the track and pace a flat mile,” Welch said.
Purchased for $35,000 at the 2013 Walker Sale, Earndawg wears a blind bridle with an elaborately-designed fly screen to help keep him calm. Welch jogged and trained the nervous gelding behind another horse every time he went to the track in the beginning, to get him used to sounds and dirt thrown up in his face.
Earndawg is out of the Western Hanover mare Pacific Sister K 4, 1:54M ($107,550) and is a full brother to Mystical MJ p,1:51.1 ($275,219) and a half-brother to Doubleshotascotch p, 4, 1:51F ($692,491).
King Of The Swamp, an $85,000 yearling from the 2013 Walker Sale, is out of the Broadway Express mare Shes Redhot and won both his $10,000 Mini Me elimination and the $48,000 final in 1:55 on July 26.
“’King’ is easy going in the barn, and that’s his attitude on the track, too,” Welch stressed. “He’s a very handy horse. He can leave like a rocket and then set in a hole with just two fingers.”
King Of The Swamp’s dam, Shes Redhot, finished on the board in Super Night Championships at both two and three. His granddam, Fox Valley Redhot, won the 1989 Orange & Blue Filly Pace. His full brother, Hot N Sporty p, 2, 1:50.2, a 34-race winner of $519,769, won an Orange & Blue elim; his half-sister Shes So Hot earned $238,501 with a two-year-old mark of 1:51.1m, and was third in both her Orange & Blue elim and final.
(Maywood)