Trotting mare Elista Hanover, who flaunted her striking chestnut coat to Grand Circuit success throughout a million-dollar career, has been retired.
The daughter of International Moni-Evermore scored her career-defining victory in the 2025 Grade 1 Hambletonian Maturity, making two moves in the 1-1/8-mile race to defeat 12 four-year-old open rivals at The Meadowlands. After working her way to the top on the backstretch, she circled back to the lead with a give-and-go — all before three-quarters in a 1:49.3 mile — and extended away to win in a stakes-record 2:03.
“That is maybe the toughest I’ve ever had a horse race in my life,” said trainer Annie Stoebe. “She did not see the wood in a 1:49[.3] mile and beat the boys. I have goosebumps right now. You can’t ask for a horse to do that. That race, she was asked to do the impossible, and she did it.”
That year brought more success for Elista Hanover and Stoebe. Elista Hanover, who was second by a neck in the Graduate Series Trot final in her prior start, also took a victory in the Girl Power against top trotting distaffs at The Meadowlands, finished third in the Dayton Oaks Derby and missed by a head in second in the Breeders Crown Open Mare Trot at Woodbine Mohawk Park. A Pennsylvania champion, Breeders Crown show finisher and Hambletonian Oaks favourite at three, she hit the board 30 times in 51 career starts, winning 16, and earned $1,402,170.
Being a rare chestnut at harness racing’s highest level made the mare instantly recognizable on track — and, Stoebe said, has helped elevate the reputation of the colour.
“I truly feel like she has changed people’s opinions of chestnuts, from a colour they avoided to a desired one; now, if you have a chestnut, it’s going to bring more [at auction] just because of Elista Hanover,” said Stoebe, who co-owned her with Lynn and Philomena (Mimi) Curry. “So for me to be able to have been with that horse every day of her career, I am so glad to be a part of her story, and to be the one that got to experience that with her, because she’s a once-in-a-lifetime horse.”
In addition to her on-track exploits, the mare won hearts off the track and formed a deep bond with her trainer.
“It’s amazing, because once you get to know her, to know her is to love her,” said Stoebe,” because she just is so kind, she’s so sweet, she has an incredibly goofy side to her. She’s everything you could ever want in a best friend. And on top of it, she went out, made a million dollars, did all these amazing things, and looked gorgeous doing it.”
Retirement ceremony for Elista Hanover
After her standout four-year-old campaign, Elista Hanover struggled at five in a season that was predetermined to be her last. She broke stride in two of her first four starts before finishing 10th and eighth in her next two engagements. In her final outing, in the Miss Versatility final at the Delaware County Fair, she broke before the start and was a distant seventh. A sorrowful assessment by driver David Miller — her regular reinsman at three and four before he relocated to his native Ohio — dropped the curtain on the mare’s racing career.
“I knew around March that this was her last year, so it gave me all year to process that information,” said Stoebe. “We just took it race by race, and her last couple starts, we were kind of scratching our heads, and in the [Miss Versatility final], when she made a break behind the gate, David got off of her, and he was tearing up and said, ‘Annie, she doesn’t want to do this anymore.’
“It was a little bit poetic, because standing there it was her, David, me, Lynn and Mimi — it was the core team. I think it was Lynn that looked at him and said, ‘And you know what David? She’s never going to race again.’ And she hasn't had a harness on since that day.”
Elista Hanover heads to the breeding shed at Kountry Lane Standardbreds in Wakarusa, Ind. after a private sale. She joins a stacked broodmare band that includes her one-time rival M Ms Dream. While the end of the racing journey of a mare whom Stoebe said “has given me all of my dreams” and has “broken so many glass ceilings” weighed heavily on the trainer, she was buoyed by a meeting with the proprietors of Kountry Lane.
“In Lexington, I got to meet Ola [Yoder] from Kountry Lane in person, and I got to talk to Abby [Hope] and Duane [Miller], and how excited they are — they’re over the moon to have her,” she said. “Ola was telling me how he can’t wait to have her as his showpiece, because everyone knows who Elista Hanover is. So, for me, I’ve had much more peace — it was rough between the Jug and Lexington, but after that conversation in Lexington, I had so much peace.”
The trainer is pleased Elista Hanover's new home is befitting a horse that has meant so much to her.
“She did everything and more on the racetrack, and she’s earned an amazing retirement, and she’s going to go to a place where she’s going to be so loved,” said Stoebe. “She’s family to me, so knowing she’s going somewhere where she’ll be treated the same, I’m okay with it. Am I still going to bawl my eyes out and miss her every single day? Yeah! But that’s my job.”
(Standardbred Canada)