It is not news that the three-year-old pacing colt division has been a wide open category this season. Trainer Dave Menary, who has said that the coming days are “a big two weeks for everybody” in the division, has shed some light on Hes Watching heading into the upcoming Breeders Crown showdown.
On Saturday Hes Watching will return to the site of his biggest win, the Meadowlands Racetrack, and trainer Dave Menary is hopeful it will spark a return to winning form.
The colt, who captured the Meadowlands Pace in July with a world-record-equalling 1:46.4 performance, will try to snap a four-race skid when he competes in the first of two Breeders Crown eliminations for three-year-old male pacers.
“He’s undefeated at the Meadowlands, so he likes it here,” Menary said. “He seems fresh and happy. We’re just going to try to make sure everything is ironed out and hopefully get back on the right track.
“It’s a wide open (three-year-old colt) division.”
Hes Watching, who has won five of 12 races this year and earned $824,728, starts his elimination from post six and is 7-2 on the morning line. Supplemental entry Always B Miki, the winner of four races in a row and eight of his last nine, is the 8-5 choice from Post 4 followed by North America Cup champ JK Endofanera at 5-2 from Post 1.
Little Brown Jug winner Limelight Beach is the 8-5 favourite in the second elimination, followed by Adios winner McWicked at 2-1.
The top five finishers from each elimination advance to the $531,250 final on November 22. Elim winners will draw for posts one through five for the final.
Hes Watching last won on August 10, in the Empire Breeders Classic at Tioga Downs. In his most recent start he finished sixth in a division of the Tattersalls Pace won by Always B Miki. Afterward he was discovered to have suffered from atrial fibrillation, an electrical disorder of the heart rhythm, but has since been well.
“It’s something I’ve monitored, but I think it was a fluke thing,” said Menary, who owns the son of American Ideal-Baberhood with Brad Gray, Michael Guerriero and the Muscara Racing Trust. “If it had been a different horse, we probably wouldn’t even be talking about it. I was pretty disappointed that day, but we’ve regrouped and he seems fresh.
“Hopefully we’ll have a good couple weeks.”
The Canadian-based Menary skipped the Messenger and Matron stakes and prepared Hes Watching for the Breeders Crown with two qualifiers at Mohawk Racetrack in Ontario. He finished second in both, timed in 1:52.4 and 1:53.4.
“We bypassed the Messenger because that was rushing him,” Menary said. “I made the decision to skip the Matron just thinking it was a little less trucking and a little more time at home and I’d have him a little fresher.
“His qualifiers at home were better miles than they look. They were dirty, cold mornings. One morning it was a cold rain and the second qualifier it was snowing. We sat him pretty far back and the horses he missed getting up on are pretty decent horses.”
The Breeders Crown for three-year-old male pacers features eight of the division’s top nine seasonal money-earners. Wins in an elimination and the final could go a long way toward deciding which horse receives the Dan Patch Award as the group’s best south of the border.
“I guess it depends who it is (that wins),” Menary said. “You might end up adding another horse to the mix. This is a big two weeks for everybody.”
This story courtesy of Harness Racing Communications, a division of the U.S. Trotting Association. For more information, visit www.ustrotting.com.