Behind every great champion is a compelling story. For JL Cruze, it started in the small community of Beeton, Ontario and a trip to Harrisburg.
Topcat Hall was among the group of broodmares Joanne & Larry Morrison carefully marked out in the 2008 Black Book mixed sale catalogue.
“We looked at a lot of mares and we knew her pedigree, I’ll admit it maybe could have been stronger, but with her conformation, we felt she would make a good broodmare," noted Larry. "She was built to be a broodmare, not a flashy racehorse.”
The Conway Hall – Trapeze Artist (King Conch) mare spent a year racing under Erv Miller’s tutelage, skipping her freshman season and debuting in January as a three-year-old. Making only ten starts in her brief career, she set a mark of 2:00 at Hawthorne Racecourse before being retired in September of that same year.
“She was a strong mare; medium-sized or a little bit bigger but a real strong mare,” recalled Miller, noting she had high speed, correct conformation and “a good mind about her” but wasn’t always the soundest mare during her racing career.
In foal to Chocolatier at the Harrisburg sale in 2008, Topcat Hall fetched a bid of $38,000. The final bidders were Joanne Morrison and Glengate Farms.
When the partnership considered who the mare should be booked to in 2010, they pored over the many possible crosses that would work well with a Conway Hall mare. Having bred to Credit Winner the year before, resulting in a barren mare, they returned to the drawing board.
“They were having all kinds of trouble getting mares in foal that year, so that wasn’t her fault at all.”
With Credit Winner’s lineage still the most favourable option, the group chose to look a little further into the family. The partners banked on Crazed, a $1.1 million winning son of Credit Winner, standing at Blue Chip Farms in New York at the time.
Fast forward to March 31, 2011 when their mare dropped a colt who would go on to be named Ja El Cruze. Sold in Harrisburg for $30,000, his new connections made a slight tweak changing his name to JL Cruze, which has become one to remember.
“Right from the beginning, he had lots of size and his conformation was as good as you can get, just perfectly conformed. He grew into a big yearling, all colt for sure, a bit of a handful.”
“He had his moments; a lot of her foals are like that. They seem to be raring to go and you don’t want to be asleep at the switch when you pull them out,” said Joanne. “They seem quite interested in everything that’s going on, they have an edge to them and are all just aching to move.”
Making only three starts as a two-year-old and going on to have a fairly successful sophomore season, his past performances are dramatically overshadowed by near perfection in 2015. Changing hands in November of last year at the Harrisburg Mixed Sale for $35,000, his new owners Ken Wood, William Dittmar Jr. and Stephen Iaquinta may have uncovered one of trotting’s brightest gems.
JL Cruze has amassed nearly $400,000 this season, winning fifteen of seventeen starts and finishing a narrow runner-up in the remaining two. He has defeated many of the sport’s coveted trotting champions, including world champion Sebastian K, O’Brien Award winner Father Patrick and U.S. Trotter of the Year Shake It Cerry.
In his most recent performance at the Meadowlands in the Graduate Final, driver John Campbell steered the gelding to victory and the record books. The 1:49.4 mile was the fastest trotting mile in Meadowlands history and set a new all-age world record for a mile track.
“I was surprised he wasn’t better at two and three than he seemed to be,” remarked Larry. “But was there any indication? Not in my mind. I expected him to be a decent colt but it’s been unbelievable to watch what he’s accomplished, absolutely unbelievable.”
During JL Cruze’s two-year-old season, Glengate Farms had expanded to capacity. Farm owner Jim Bullock felt it was time to downsize slightly, and in September of 2013 the Morrisons took over full ownership of his dam.
“Glengate had a number of younger mares coming in and he felt he had more mares than he needed. We agreed to take the mare and we made a deal that allowed him to do what he wanted to do, and allowed us to do what we wanted to do.”
The mare was back in foal to Crazed at the time of sale, producing a full sister to the superstar. Born at the Morrison’s farm in Beeton, Ont. like her brother, the similarities don’t end there.
“Sheez On A Cruze hasn’t been handled as much as she will be in the next few weeks because it’s still early in the year, but she’s a lot like her brother,” Joanne believes. “She has that bit of an edge, but she’s got a great attitude and she’ll probably be a big filly by the time she sells.”
The yearling is booked in to sell at Harrisburg later this year and is likely to draw eyes and chequebooks. Her breeders are impressed with her conformation and have high hopes for her racing potential down the road.
As for the mare who started it all, Topcat Hall has a beautiful Yankee Glide colt by her side, born earlier this year. She is back in foal to Archangel, another son of Credit Winner, who stood his first season at stud in 2015 after wrapping up a successful five-year-old campaign.
Joanne and Larry have been commercially breeding Standardbreds since 1996 on their 47-acre farm near Georgian Downs, but the excitement never wears off when a youngster steps into the racing spotlight.
“We haven’t missed a single race, even though we can’t be there in person we are always tuning in to watch when he’s racing. You can hear us yelling all the way from Beeton!”
(A Trot Insider Exclusive by Hannah Beckett)