It’s a long way from Cape Breton to Ontario, especially if you detour through Pennsylvania and New Jersey. But trainer Greg Peck had some extra muscle to assist him on the journey, in the form of a superstar trotting colt named Muscle Hill, now primed to step behind the starting gate in the $1 million Canadian Trotting Classic, at Mohawk Racetrack this Saturday night
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A third-generation horseman whose father and grandfather both raced horses at Sydney, Nova Scotia’s Tartan Downs while holding down ‘real jobs’ elsewhere to make ends meet, Peck continues that tradition as the president of Fine Line Inc., a media training firm which has serviced such clients as Pfizer, Exxon Mobil, DuPont, Merck and the Republican National Committee. But the business administration graduate of St. Mary’s University in Halifax has always had a few horses to train on the side, whether in his native Sydney Mines, or in his adopted American base in southern New Jersey, where he has been situated since 1990.
“My business entails enabling corporate types to be more comfortable speaking with, and dealing with, media,” Peck says. “Everybody needs to be able to communicate with clarity and make things interesting.
“The nice thing is [my business] is designer-made for being able to do both. Even with Muscle Hill’s schedule, I have been able to juggle without any problem.”
The success of his business has also allowed Peck to populate his shedrow with better quality horses than he could afford in his early days in the Maritimes. The first ‘big time’ prospect was Fly Like An Eagle, a black son of Die Laughing whom Peck acquired in 1999 and raced to considerable success at The Meadowlands.
There was also Lady Mattgalane, an Artiscape daughter who captured the Eternal Camnation at Mohawk in 2006 and earned nearly $400,000 in 21 career starts. She was responsible for Peck’s most recent visit to the Ontario ovals, contesting the Fan Hanover in 2007.
Prior to Muscle Hill, however, Peck was probably best known as the trainer of Palone Ranger, winner of the Messenger Stakes at three and still going strong as a free-for-all pacer at age six. Having earned $1.3 million over the course of a 104-start career, Palone Ranger was recently sold and will be standing at stud in 2010. “Palone Ranger was a real turning point for me. But it was time [to sell], and we always wanted him to see him be a stallion,” he says.
Muscle Hill, a son of Muscles Yankee, came with a pricetag of $55,000 at the 2007 Harrisburg yearling sale, and was originally purchased by Tom and Louis Pontone, New Jersey casket makers who operate as T L P Stable. Multi-millionaire owner Jerry Silva soon became involved, and in December 2008 Muscle Hill’s future as a stallion was secured when Southwind Farm (Allen and Connie Skolnick) offered up $3 million for a half-interest in the precocious trotter, who had won all but his first start as a two-year-old and was the top freshman trotting colt in the US last year.
Muscle Hill has been even more impressive this year, racking up eight consecutive victories and $1.3 million in earnings (for a total of over $2.2 million) and looking virtually unstoppable going into the September 19 Canadian Trotting Classic. That he has provided another opportunity for Peck to race in his native land is clearly something which delights him, however infrequently he has ventured north of the border since his US relocation two decades ago.
“Harness racing is clearly alive and well at Mohawk, and it’s really nice to see,” he comments. “I was surprised by the size of the crowd last Saturday night – I’m not used to seeing that many people come out for eliminations. I’m guessing there will be even more people there this Saturday for the final.
“I like it very much where I am, and my kids are in an excellent school system – but I have to say, they did a beautiful job on the racetrack at Mohawk. It had just the right cushion, and that will certainly be an incentive to race up here more often.”
To view Saturday's harness racing entries, click here.
(WEG)