While the 2015 Breeders Crown Finals at Woodbine Racetrack witnessed the dominance of a trainer and a driver, on this day in 1987 one horse's performance was the single most dominant in the history of the championship series.
Perhaps the horses entered against trotting star Mack Lobell on Friday the 13th felt their luck had run out. One trotter's connections were especially unfortunate: Mack Lobell's main rival, Napolitano, scored from the second tier in the twelve-horse Three-Year-Old Trotting Colt Final, while Mack Lobell had Post 5 in the lucrative $442,662 event.
Mack Lobell was sent to the lead by driver John Campbell and comfortably carved out fractions of :27.2, :57 and 1:26.1 without any sort of pressure from the backfield. Around the final turn, Mack Lobell kicked into another gear and began to open up serious daylight in a world record time of 1:54.1.
The victory by Mack Lobell was recorded as 12 3/4 lengths over Napolitano, who made a break on the backstretch and recovered well to close for runner-up honours.
"I can't take any credit for the race," stated Campbell in the winner's circle. "I was just sitting in the bike going along for the ride. He just jogged."
With 28 years of Breeders Crown Finals since this one, no horse has had a greater margin of victory in Breeders Crown competition. The next closest was also a victory with Campbell in the bike when two-year-old trotter Snow White won her 2007 Breeders Crown Final at The Meadowlands by 12 1/2 lengths.
Mack Lobell (Mystic Park - Matina Hanover) finished his season with a 13-1-1 summary from his 16 starts with more than $1.2 million in purse earnings en route to 1987 U.S. Horse of the Year honours for trainer Chuck Sylvester, Lou Guida's One More Time Stable and Ed Mullen's Fair Winds Farm. He finished the season as harness racing's fastest trotter, regardless of age, on a mile track (1:52.1), five-eighths mile track (1:54.1f) and half-mile track (1:57.2h). At the time no horse had turned that trick since pacer French Chef in 1980.
