It has been announced that fans of McWicked will be able to watch the hard-knocking son of McArdle race in the month of November, and, if all goes according to plan, he will back at it in 2019.
Fresh off of his open-lengths win in the $430,000 Breeders Crown Open Pace this past weekend, McWicked is now being pointed to a November stakes engagement. Also, even though the call of the breeding shed is tough to turn down, it has been announced that he will return to the racetrack in 2019.
McWicked, pictured during his Breeders Crown win on Saturday, October 27, 2018 at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono
McWicked’s trainer, Casie Coleman, stated via social media today (Monday, Oct. 29) that there have been many offers to stand the $3.8-million career earner at stud, but that is not the plan at the moment.
“Thanks to all the breeding farms who have contacted us to stand McWicked [at stud],” Coleman wrote, adding that the connections really appreciate all of the offers that have been submitted.
“Owner Ed James (of SSG Stables) loves watching his horse race and has made his decision,” Coleman explained.
“We will first race the TVG (on) November 24 at the ‘Big M’ (Meadowlands Racetrack), then turn him out in Lexington, KY with Anvil and Lace (farm) to prep for his eight-year-old season in 2019! He’s coming back again.”
For a recap of McWicked's Breeders Crown victory this past Saturday, click here. To read Trot Insider's comprehensive coverage of the complete Breeders Crown card, click here.
News of McWicked’s planned return for the 2019 campaign is surely music to the ears of those that enjoy watching and wagering on the industry’s aged pacing ranks.
McWicked has compiled a very respectable resume this season in what is his seven-year-old campaign. He has won 10 of his 17 starts, has missed the board just twice, and has banked just under $1.5 million in purses. Most impressive is that McWicked lowered his career mark to 1:46.2 earlier this month at the Red Mile and is still quite sharp heading into November.
Coleman commented on McWicked’s remarkable season this past Saturday after his Breeders Crown win by saying, “I always think he’s going to be good, but to think he is going to do what he did this year... I think he is better now than he was at three.”
McWicked, pictured after his Breeders Crown win on Saturday, October 27, 2018 at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono
It's great to see Mcwicked
It's great to see Mcwicked return but as Trevor states horse racing is in trouble. The truth of the matter is not only would the average person on the street not know who SBSW is, there is very few if any people on the street that knows who the top Thoroughbred's are either. The race game does not matter to the average person on the street it only matters to the tiny fraction of people who either attend or bet the races. The race game does nothing to help itself. It is clueless when it comes to marketing and promotion. It does nothing to attract and retain the next generation of gamblers thru a reduced and more competitive take out. The tracks may say they can't afford to reduce it but the real truth is they can't afford not to. The length of race cards is ridiculous. They take between 4 to 5 hours. Young people won't put up with this they way us older folks who were brought up on racing will. Little things like making post time actually mean post time. Some tracks don't even bring their horses out of the paddock until it is zero minutes to post. It is the norm to go to the post 5 or 10 minutes after it has hit zero minutes to post. Let's not forget in harness racing about the "un"fair start pole. A great way to retain new gamblers. Have their horse 50 lengths off the gate and deem it as a fair start. Those in a position of power need to wake up before the game completely disappears.
Bravo Wicked the Messenger!
Bravo Wicked the Messenger!
Thank you Mr. James ! It will be a pleasure to follow his career again next year! In my humble opinion Wicked is not only an incredible athlete but also a messenger of better things to come for the business/sport of harness racing. He has shown that given the opportunity, the heart and the will of older athletes can grow!
It was a pleasure to admire a few others "oldies" on Breeder's Crown night.
Congrats to all the connections involved with Wicked and especially to Mrs Coleman-Herlihy. He absolutely deserves the award of horse of the year!
Also seeing the twinkle in FoiL's eyes in the winner's circle after the post parade, I hope that some kind of "honoris causa" award is given to him as a mark of esteem for his exceptional career.
Great to hear him coming
Great to hear him coming back. I hope the connections of Lazarus opt to come back again too as I don't think he had a fair chance. Give him the winter off, get him acclimated and get him here for a good year. I know the connections have huge money from the Thoroughbred part of racing so hopefully they see this as a better way to make him more popular on this side of the continent for the future breeding.
We need more owners like Ed James (watching them is as important as making more money) who opt to race. The breeding barn is truly where the money and less risk is but to grow this sport we need more stars sticking around. We can't do that without sponsors or an influx of corporate money. We need sponsorship and maybe it is a type of saddle cloth that a horse can always wear behind the number on their saddle cloth. Star power grows every sport.
Think how lucky we could be if next year McWicked, Lazarus and potentially Wiggle It Jiggleit all come back - not to mention the horses that get better and the 4 year olds now turning 5. Could be the best year of open racing.
Maybe what is really needed is a central marketing group similar to all other professional sports leagues. A board of Directors, central rules, huge marketing campaigns and sponsorships will start to come in. UFC used to be banned in America and now it is one of the fastest growing sports and has more marketing then horse racing which has been around for over a 100 years.
The Gural's and other trying to do their part and stepping up are great, but not enough. There are too many small tracks that are concerned with just themself... how are they going to survive without the idea of banding together to be strong together and work as one central group? And then GROW as one central group.
McWicked - HOTY, but does it really matter outside our industry? Except for SBSW, very little public knowledge and general awareness has come out of harness racing for 2 decades or more. Our audience is growing older and literally dying off. Many people on here will probably argue that there has been a lot of public awareness, and even quote situations --> But the general public can't quote them. How many people would know MIKI's world record time, or how fast McWicked went this year as the second fastest time. I would love to do a poll with the general public and ask them who holds the world record for the fastest time in a race? I bet SBSW is so far ahead of all others it would be silly, but the sad thing is he probably wouldn't be the top answer. That would lie with the response: I have no idea (I don't know)
To be such a fan and enjoy racing so much, it is sad to see harness racing not finding ways to promote our sport. We need to do more, and maybe fractional ownership is how we do it, but it has to be something. Once again, with a huge central brand, fractional ownership could be mainstream media. Huge - fans cheering, winning, exciting ads. The base is there for smart marketing but the Mr McDonald's and others that are out there can't advertise on mainstream TV so outside of the base of fans currently into harness racing or the occasional followers there is not enough new blood to replace the old blood.
Thank Mr James as at least you are doing your part bringing this great horse back for us remaining fans.
I would be very surprised if
I would be very surprised if McWicked is NOT named Horse of the Year in a couple months.
If the horse is happy, then
If the horse is happy, then why not let him continue to race :)