Not only did Bob Johnson own, train and breed Cal Expo’s Invitational Trot dead-heat winners Franks Best and Inside Broadway last week, but these two top performers are half-brothers, as they are out of the American Winner mare Inside Edition. The pair is slated to square off again this coming Friday night.
“Inside Edition was an Open mare with a 1:57.2 mark at four, but she developed an ankle infection which ended her career,” Johnson related. “She was retired at the Desomer Farm and bred to Armbro Scribe.”
The resulting foal was Franks Best, who was an absolute terror in sire stakes competition in his younger days and has continued his winning ways under Johnson’s direction. He suits up Friday evening with $181,000 in his account and a 1:56.2 mark that was set last season over the Running Aces oval.
“Inside Edition was eventually sent back to Pennsylvania, and that’s where she was bred to Broadway Hall two years later,” Bob said. “Inside Broadway won a few stakes in Pennsylvania and took his mark of 1:55.3.”
Both trotters competed this summer in Indiana and have been putting on a pretty good show for barn bragging rights through the first couple of months of this meeting. “That last race was a real thrill,” Johnson explained. “To have these two horses dead-heat in an Invitational is a great feeling, especially having bred for both of them.”
(With files from Cal Expo)