Last year's Hambletonian champion Broad Bahn will be coming back to the track, adding more star power to the older trotting ranks. As Trot Insider has learned, where he'll debut is less clear.
In 2011, Broad Bahn returned from an injury that cost him and trainer Noel Daley a legitimate chance of a Breeders Crown title. The son of Broadway Hall was an elimination winner before being scratched from the 2010 Two-Year-Old Final at Mohegan Sun Pocono. After the race it was revealed that Broad Bahn won his elimination in 1:55.1 with a fractured hind coffin bone.
“We’d X-rayed him before and never found anything,” Daley said at the time. “We were X-raying another horse in the barn and figured we would X-ray (Broad Bahn) again. Sometimes those things don’t show up, but a line is showing there this morning. I guess he’s been dealing with it for six weeks. He’s a tough horse.”
That toughness came through at three in a season that started with question marks. It concluded with five wins including the 2011 Hambletonian, 15 top-three finishes from 19 starts and $1.3 million in earnings for Fam Alber Horse Racing of East Windsor, N.J. At year's end Broad Bahn's bankroll was the best among the three-year-old trotting crop and he garnered U.S. Three-Year-Old Colt Trotter of the Year honours.
After a year standing at Winbak of New York, the owners have decided to bring back the talented trotter and bolster the aged trotting division. Last year, Daley said that he would love to see Broad Bahn back in his barn as an aged horse and in a month's time he just might.
"From what I understand, the owners will have him back in training for November 1," Daley told Trot Insider on Tuesday. "There's talk of him maybe racing in Europe or racing here so I'm not sure where he'll be but he's coming back."
The return of Broad Bahn to Team Daley could create a superb set of older trotters for 2013. Daley already conditions the trio of 2012 Goodtimes winner Beer Summit as well as PASS Champ Magic Tonight and Zweig Consolation winner Gym Tan Laundry. All three of these sophomores are currently in Lexington prepping for Grand Circuit week.