World champion trotter Googoo Gaagaa is ready to step up his preparations for his four-year-old season and foray into older competition.
The pacing-bred trotter will qualify Tuesday morning (April 16) at Harrah’s Philadelphia with regular driver Corey Callahan at the lines for breeder/owner/trainer Richard Hans.
“We’re not going to do anything fancy,” Callahan said. “I’ll be happy to just get around (the track) in (1):57 or so. Then we’ll come back the next week and go a little stiffer, maybe in (1):55.”
Googoo Gaagaa’s first test is expected to be the $100,000 Meadowlands Maturity for four-year-old trotters on May 4 at the Meadowlands Racetrack.
Last year, Googoo Gaagaa won nine of 14 races and earned $624,700 and garnered national attention for his record-setting performances and unusual breeding. His father, Cams Rocket, was a pacer and his mother, Koras Trotter, a trotter.
Googoo Gaagaa won last year’s $500,000 Earl Beal Jr. Memorial at Pocono Downs in 1:50.4, which is the fastest mile ever trotted on a five-eighths-mile oval. A week earlier, he won his Beal elimination in a then-world-record 1:51.3.
He also won the $500,000 Colonial Trot at Harrah’s Philadelphia in a stakes- and track-record 1:52.1 and the Maryland Sire Stakes championship at Rosecroft Raceway in a stakes- and track-record 1:54.1.
In 2011, Googoo Gaagaa trotted the fastest mile ever (at the time) by a two-year-old on a half-mile track when he won the Maryland Sire Stakes championship by 41 lengths in 1:56 at Ocean Downs. He won all six of his starts that season.
“I want to see what the time off has done for him and get the year going,” said Callahan, who leads all drivers in North America in wins (257) and purses ($2.55 million) this season. “Richard says he’s even bigger than last year and has trained back really well. I’ve been driving some nice trotters lately, but I’m really excited to see him come back.”
This story courtesy of Harness Racing Communications, a division of the U.S. Trotting Association. For more information, visit www.ustrotting.com.