Who is the best Standardbred of the modern era to never win a Horse of the Year title? It could quite possibly be a horse born on this day 20 years ago.
Mr Muscleman was foaled on April 23, 2000 in Versailles, Ky. Bred by Brittany Farms and Spar J Stables, Mr Muscleman (Muscles Yankee - Meadowbranch Irene) was a $2,000 yearling purchase by Pamela Wagner of Fairfax, Va. at the Tattersalls Select Yearling Sale in September 2001. Wagner sold the rookie trotting gelding to Adam Victor & Son Stable just two starts into his 2002 freshman season.
Trained by Noel Daley and driven primarily by Ron Pierce, four-time divisional winner (three wins in the U.S. and one in Canada) Mr Muscleman raced from 2002 through to 2007. Taking into account international earnings and Canadian conversion Mr Muscleman is the fourth richest North American trotter of all time with $4,032,206 in purses, trailing Moni Maker, Arch Madness and Bee A Magician. He recorded 37 wins out of 69 starts, finishing off the board only eight times in six seasons of racing.
In 11 starts as a two-year-old in 2002, Mr Muscleman had five wins, including the Bluegrass and Harold Dancer Memorial. The following year, victories in the Breeders Crown, Canadian Trotting Classic and Kentucky Futurity contributed to Mr Muscleman being voted 2003 Three-Year-Old Trotting Colt of the Year in the U.S. His earnings of $1,350,917 were at the time the most ever by a three-year-old trotting gelding.
In 2004, winning the Maple Leaf Trot and American-National helped earn Mr Muscleman the title of Older Trotter of the Year in both the U.S. and Canada.
In 2005, five-year-old Mr Muscleman’s victories included the Breeders Crown, Maple Leaf Trot, Titan Cup and Classic Series, where he set his record 1:51.1s at Woodbine Racetrack. His season’s earnings of $1,528,900 were the most ever by an older Standardbred gelding and made Mr Muscleman the first Standardbred to earn $1 million in two non-consecutive seasons of North American racing. He was voted 2005 Trotter of the Year and Older Trotter of the Year in the U.S.
After being shelved for the majority of 2006, Mr Muscleman returned to the track in 2007. Seven-year-old Mr Muscleman finished a close second in Sweden’s Elitlopp and won all four of his North American starts. Persistent leg issues forced his retirement in 2008.
"He was the best horse I've ever driven,” stated Ron Pierce after Mr Muscleman's retirement. “The toughest, the classiest, the gutsiest. He had the manners and covered the ground so easily. He was very much like Moni Maker, a long striding, big powerful horse who needed three strides to get where all the other horses needed four.
“I have to give credit to Noel Daley and Mike Vanderkemp for all the good work they did with him,” Pierce added. “They are the ones who kept him going. The Victors are the ones who put me up. They deserve all the credit, not me."
Mr Muscleman has been a resident of the Kentucky Horse Park’s Hall of Champions since October 2009, the first Standardbred trotter to receive the honour. The members of the Harness Racing Museum elected him to harness racing’s Hall of Fame in the U.S. in December 2016.