Trainer Linda Toscano and driver Scott Zeron have combined for some of the biggest wins harness racing can provide.
Now they are hoping It Could Be Worse allows them to team up for the most prestigious of all on Saturday, Aug. 8 in the $1 million USD Winning Key Farm Hambletonian (Grade 1) for three-year-old trotters at The Meadowlands.
Zeron drove It Could Be Worse to a second-place finish behind Big Ranger in the second of last weekend’s two eliminations for the 101st edition of America’s Trotting Classic. The top five finishers from each elim advanced to Saturday’s final, where Big Ranger will enter as the 2-1 morning line favourite following his 1:50 triumph.
“I was really happy with him,” Toscano said about It Could Be Worse, who was a boxed-in sixth on the final turn of his elim. “He got away pretty good, and then he got trapped and I wasn’t sure if he was going to get out. When he got out, he came out with real good trot at the end and I was tickled that he got up for second.”
It Could Be Worse will leave from post two in the Hambletonian final as Toscano attempts to capture the race for a second time (she became the first female trainer to win it, in 2012, with Market Share) and Zeron looks to hoist the trophy for a fourth time (which would put him in a tie with Ben White, Billy Haughton, Stanley Dancer and Mike Lachance for the second most Hambletonian victories in history).
During their careers, Toscano and Zeron have won multiple Breeders Crowns together, as well as classics such as the Little Brown Jug and Jugette in the same year (2023), and the North America Cup.
“She and I have had so much success in the last five years, it would be pretty cool for us to do it in this dance,” said Zeron. “We’ve won a lot of majors and a lot of bucket list races, so this one with her and I together would be amazing to get done.”
Zeron drove It Could Be Worse regularly last year, when the colt defeated eventual Dan Patch Award winner Apex in a preliminary round of the Kentucky Sire Stakes Championship Series and finished second to Endurance in the KYSS final. For the season, he hit the board in six of eight races and earned $262,539.
This year, with Zeron committed to another horse early in the season, Tim Tetrick drove It Could Be Worse in his first four races, including a 1:50.3 win in a division of the Reynolds Memorial and a second-place finish behind Endurance in a division of the Grade 3 Stanley Dancer Memorial. Tetrick, though, landed the drive with Big Ranger and Zeron was available to return to the sulky for Toscano.
“It’s funny how life has a way of coming full circle,” said Toscano.
It Could Be Worse, a son of Captain Corey-Emiliciousboomboom, heads to the Hambletonian final with 10 top-three finishes, including three wins, in 13 lifetime starts. He has earned $380,513 for owners The Bay’s Stable of Avon, Colorado, Pat and Mark Huber of Columbus, Ohio, Bill Elliott of Woodstock, Ont., and Camelot Stable and Freehold, New Jersey.
“He was a game horse [as a two-year-old]; he always gave you everything he had,” said Zeron. “He was extremely versatile, but his asset was his gate speed. We used it a lot last year. He was always in a winnable position and the times he didn’t win the race he was right there at the finish in the top three.
“This year, he has not changed at all. He’s very quick footed and can leave well. When we’re going the miles in [1]:50, maybe this Saturday better than [1]:50, we don’t want to be too far away from the leader. We want to be quick out of the gate and situated up close.”
It Could Be Worse has raced only at The Meadowlands this season, which was by design.
“I had no intentions of leaving The Meadowlands until the Hambo,” said Toscano. “He’s done everything I could ask him to do going into this race. He hasn’t beaten Endurance, but other than that he’s beaten most of them, so his credentials are there. He’s a nice trotter and I had single-minded focus on hopefully getting to the final.”
Getting from the elimination to the final can be the most stressful part of the journey.
“I think the eliminations are far more nerve-wracking,” said Toscano. “Of course, your nerves will kick in a little bit this week, but for me, I think it’s always worse the week before because you’ve made it that far. There is nothing more heartbreaking than getting that close and then not making it to the final.”
Toscano did not plan to make any last-minute changes ahead of the final.
“I think I’ve worked out most of the kinks at this point,” she said. “I’m just hoping that he has a good, solid week and we’ll go from there.”
It Could Be Worse is 8-1 on the morning line, fourth choice behind Big Ranger, Apex (who won the other elimination by a nose over Endurance in 1:50.4) at 5-2, and Endurance at 5-1.
“If he’s at 100 per cent on Saturday, he’ll give me his all,” said Zeron. “He’s always capable of putting himself in a winning position. We’ve got a lot of fast horses and maybe the best trip wins it or maybe the best horse on that day wins. Everyone is fast these days, we’ll see who’s the grittiest.”
Racing begins at noon on Saturday at The Meadowlands. The Hambletonian will be race 11, with a scheduled post time of 4:51 p.m. The companion $500,000 USD Hambletonian Oaks is race nine and will go at 3:36 p.m. The races will be shown live on FOX Sport 2 (FS2).
The field for the 101st edition of the Hambletonian is listed below, with drivers, trainers and morning line odds.
$1 million USD Hambletonian Stakes (Grade 1)
Post - Horse - Driver - Trainer - Morning Line Odds
1. Minoan - Todd McCarthy - Noel Daley - 25-1
2. It Could Be Worse - Scott Zeron - Linda Toscano - 8-1
3. Apex - Dexter Dunn - Marcus Melander - 5-2
4. Big Ranger - Tim Tetrick - Anette Lorentzon - 2-1
5. Captain Naughty - Brett Beckwith - Per Engblom - 15-1
6. AI - Ronnie Wrenn Jr. - Ron Burke - 12-1
7. Endurance - Andrew McCarthy - Chris Beaver - 5-1
8. Magic Punk - Yannick Gingras - Ake Svanstedt - 15-1
9. Spencer Hanover - Jason Bartlett - Marcus Melander - 20-1
10. American Power - James MacDonald - Marcus Melander - 10-1
(The Hambletonian Society; photo of It Could Be Worse and Scott Zeron winning together last year at The Red Mile)