Chapter Seven, the 8-5 morning line favourite in the $610,000 Breeders Crown for three-year-old male trotters on Saturday at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, is writing a new chapter in his story
. After all kinds of traffic problems en route to a fourth-place finish in the August 6 Hambletonian, he’s put together back-to-back stakes wins, one in a new lifetime mark of 1:52.4.
“After the Hambletonian, he was sick again,” said trainer Linda Toscano of the colt that was plagued with all kinds of problems including viral pneumonia leading up to the $1.5 million event. “He’s been one of those horses that’ll drive a person crazy. After the Hambletonian, I thought it was real important that he not start right back in the Colonial and he was actually very good in Canada the last time he was up there."
In his last Canadian starts, Chapter Seven finished fifth in his elimination for the Canadian Trotting Classic on September 10 at Mohawk Racetrack and was fifth in the $1 million final on Septemebr 17 from Post 9.
"Unfortunately, he was the victim of the post position gods. It was just one of those deals where he couldn’t have been in a worse spot."
Following his Canadian starts, Chapter Seven headed to Lexington, Kentucky for part of The Red Mile's Grand Circuit meet. Toscano decided to race Chapter Seven in the Bluegrass Series and skip the Kentucky Futurity, and she gives credit to the colt's owners -- Richard Gutnick, Gary Cocco, Southwind Farm, and Jerry Silva -- for supporting her decision.
“They wanted to supplement him to the Futurity and I just thought that it might fry him," explained Toscano. "He struggled this year with his strength because he was sick earlier. I know how it is down there [at The Red Mile]. There’s no greater race to win, but at the same time if you happen to get a hot day and with it being such a wide open group of horses this year, I was so afraid it could go three heats. They supported me on that and we were able to just take him down there and race him in the Bluegrass.
"I think it was exactly what he needed," she continued. "We qualified him [at the Red Mile on September 30], he felt real good about himself in the qualifier. We raced him in the Bluegrass, he was really good that day and he seems to have carried his form up to Canada."
In his $113,000 Bluegrass division on October 9, Chapter Seven romped to a four and a quarter length win in a career best 1:52.4. He followed up that win with a one and a half length victory in 1:53.2 (final quarter in :26.4) in his Breeders Crown elimination last Saturday back in Canada, at Woodbine Racetrack.
“I never worry about him on the racetrack because he kind of takes the track with him," said Toscano. "It didn’t matter if we were at Freehold or Dover or whatever. He’s never one that I had to worry about shoeing; he’s just been good that way. It’s always just been about his health and right now, knock on wood, he’s pretty much as good as he’s been going in to this race.
“He was never prone to anything [sickness] last year, only this year when he had a bout with viral pneumonia and he was lucky to have made it to the Hambletonian. We were playing catch up. We thought if he makes it [to the Hambletonian] fine, if not that’s okay, too. We just wanted to let the horse come into himself and I think he’s finally at point where the situation is reversed. Now I have the tight, fresh horse. We’ll see how it goes.”
Chapter Seven has drawn post position four for the $610,000 Breeders Crown final and will have Tim Tetrick in the sulky, who’s driven him in his two most recent stakes wins. Toscano thinks he just needs to stay forwardly placed to do well.
“As long as he’s within striking distance turning for home, he can make his own trip,” she said. “I’m not afraid if he’s on the lead, or first up, or following cover, he’ll finish good. That’s always been his greatest attribute; he doesn’t know the end of a mile and he always finishes strong. So many times this year, he’s been too far out of it. He can trot the fastest last quarter of the race, but he’s just been the victim of some bad racing luck.”
(With files from HRC)
In my opinion a large part
In my opinion a large part of the turn around for this horse is the driver switch from Lachance to Tetrick. Now Lachance is one of my all time favorite drivers and one of the all time greats in the sport and he has the stats to back that up but Tetrick has been much more aggressive with this horse and has had him in position and that could be the difference between winning and losing some of the big races