The Empire Breeders Classic (EBC) for three-year-old colt and filly trotters will be raced on Friday, June 13 at Vernon Downs with a first post of 12:15 p.m. With 11 entered for each sex, the stakes was split into divisions for both with New York’s leading stallion Chapter Seven the sire of 19 of the 22 programmed.
The trotting colts in race eight are led by 2024 O'Brien and Dan Patch Award-winning freshman Maryland, who will be making his seasonal pari-mutuel debut in the $87,250 USD five-horse division with regular driver Dexter Dunn. The son of Chapter Seven was nearly flawless last year, earning $1.67 million for owners Anders Strom as Courant Inc., Pete Weisberg as PCW Racing, the Melander family as Holly Lane Stud East and Steve Stewart & Robin Thorn.
Maryland has caused a bit of a murmur among Hambletonian prognosticators with a pair of lackluster qualifiers at The Meadowlands, including going off-stride in the second, but trainer Marcus Melander is not concerned and is maintaining his course with the winter book favourite toward the 100th anniversary of the Hambletonian on Saturday, Aug. 2.
Maryland's main competition on paper is Kentucky Sire Stakes champ Super Chapter, another Melander trainee who could have been the top colt of his freshman class in many other seasons, converting in five of his 11 starts and earning more than $715,000 last year for Jeffrey Snyder and Arthur Pronti. Super Chapter does have a 2025 start, one over the course in fact, taking a New York Sire Stakes split at Vernon in a sharp 1:53.3 three weeks ago.
Interestingly, Dunn has been the regular driver for Super Chapter as well as Maryland. Dunn’s hand was forced a touch early here, to the delight of Scott Zeron, who will pick up the drive on Super Chapter in what could be considered an informal audition for the Hambletonian drive as the game of musical sulkies gets underway.
Race 10 has a field of six where Monserrate (Dave Miller) and Variegated (Dunn) will vie for favouritism in the $88,500 USD second split.
Monserrate found his best form late last season, winning three of four including the Valley Victory with his only loss during than span a short miss in the Kindergarten final to Maryland after a stretch-long battle. The son of Chapter Seven was second to Super Chapter in the above mentioned NYSS in his seasonal bow. Andrew Harris trains and shares ownership of Monserrate with Bill Pollock and Bruce Areman.
Variegated stayed on the NYSS trail last summer and won the rich final at two for Melander and owner Lennart Agren’s SRF Stable. The Chapter Seven colt kicked off his sophomore campaign with a win over Grand Circuit company in the Bunker Hill at Plainridge followed by an impressive 1:52.3 NYSS win at Vernon.
My Debt Collecter (Tyler Buter) leads the five-filly division in race seven, going for a purse of $87,750. This daughter of Chapter Seven is largely a homebred with breeders Mel Hartman and Dave McDuffee replacing co-breeder Herb Liverman with partner Jeff Gural as Little E LLC and she has been a model of consistency throughout her racing career. Nifty Norman trains My Debt Collecter, who comes in with three NYSS victories strung together after recently eclipsing the $500,000 earnings mark.
Royal Mission (Zeron) is the reigning queen of the NYSS filly trotters, having annexed last season’s final for owner Jeffrey Snyder, and is the lass to beat in the $89,000 USD six-filly division in race nine. The Chapter Seven filly was a NYSS winner at Vernon in a career-best 1:54 in May. She also hails from the powerful Melander barn.
The undercard is the NYSS for the glamour boy division with the sophomore colt pacers split into a pair of $59,100 USD divisions and four splits of the Excelsior Series.
(With files from Vernon Downs)