Reverend Hanover Retired

Trot Insider has learned that two-time Ontario Sires Stakes Super Final winner Reverend Hanover has been retired.

A four-year-old gelded son of Sportswriter - Razzle My Tazzle, Reverend Hanover amassed $548,000 in earnings for West Wins Stable, Steve Calhoun and Anthony Beaton. He finished in the top three in 15 of his 20 career starts.

After an abbreviated but impressive undefeated freshman season, hopes were high for Reverend Hanover as a three-year-old. A hind bucked shin caused him some setbacks, but the pacer put it together late in the year. He defended his OSS Super Final title with a dominant 1:50.2 score in October at Woodbine.

"He's had these same issues ever since he was a baby. He's had them his whole life and they won't go away," Coleman told Trot Insider. "He's got really weak bones. We did bone scans on him when he was two, and the whole thing just lit up like he was a Christmas tree. It was amazing he raced at all, let alone what he's done."

As a four-year-old he paced back to his 1:48.3 lifetime mark and was racing in the Preferred class on the WEG circuit but the issues that plagued him earlier have returned. Coleman noted that vets have suggests two months of light work to strengthen the right hind shin, but the connections have decided to shut down the speedy pacer.

"He won in :48 on NA Cup night and came back real good again...and now, he's not horrible, you can just tell it's hurting him again. So I took him into Melissa McKee today (Monday)... he was in a few weeks ago and she said it's not bad, it's not great but it's not bad. So we gave him a few weeks off, a few light weeks.

"I had him entered to qualify about a week ago and I didn't like the way he warmed up. He was real rough-gaited, didn't make a break but wasn't himself so I scratched him from the qualifier," continued Coleman. "Took him into Melissa again, she did a little bit more work to him and he still wasn't great...went back in today and she recommended giving him 60 days off and going back to Square One again, re-cryoing that right hind bucked shin. She said even the left hind is starting to act up a bit."

After discussing the situation with the owners, the decision was made to shut the horse down.

"It would be one thing if he was in a class where he doesn't have to pace as fast as he does but I'm not going to put him in a claimer or anything like that...we're just going to find him a good home.

"Steve Calhoun messaged me and said he still wants to help pay for the horse's bills and stuff and take care for feed and board; I thought that was pretty generous of him."

The hands he'll be in are good ones, in more ways than one.

"I think he's going to go to Maddi McNiven and Travis Henry; they just bought a new farm up near her parents' place (Twinbrook Farms in Embro, Ont.)."

A registered equine massage therapist who works on many of Coleman's horses, McNiven expressed interest in transitioning Reverend Hanover to some under-saddle activities like trail riding. Those activities won't aggravate the horse's existing ailments as they only flare up when the horse is competing at racehorse-level speed.

"Realistically, with his issues, he should have hardly raced. He was crazy talented right from Day One."