Trainer Frank Antonacci Jr. was obviously pleased with Crazed's win in his Canadian Trotting Classic elimination against Deweycheatumnhowe on September 6.
Crazed, owned by the Antonacci family's Lindy Racing, Gary and Ellen Hoffman, and Robert Rudolph, snapped Deweycheatumnhowe's career-long 17-race victory streak.
"He was super. I couldn't be happier with him," the 24-year-old trainer said on Monday. "He's just been getting better and better. I didn't know how much better he could get, and he just keeps stepping up every week. It's amazing."
Crazed has six victories in eight starts this year and $708,016 in earnings. He was coming off a sharp win over Celebrity Secret in the $500,000 Colonial on August 17 at Chester Downs. On August 2, Crazed finished second to Deweycheatumnhowe in the $1.5 million Hambletonian, losing by a half-length.
"Dewey is a truly great champion," Antonacci said. "You never know if you're going to be able to go by him, because nobody had until Saturday night. He's really a great horse and great horses will do only what they need to do to beat everybody. So, I was never really sure if we would be able to do it or not. Now, it's a different story. It's happened once and I hope we can do it again."
Crazed will start the CTC final from post three, a spot selected by his connections, which was the reward for being an elimination winner. Deweycheatumnhowe got Post 10 in the random draw.
"Picking your post takes one of the variables out that can really mess you up," Antonacci said. "Seeing Dewey get the 10 hole afterward, we were pretty grateful we got to pick our post. It was a great elimination race for him (Crazed). The fact he was able to win and look good doing it was icing on the cake."
(Harness Racing Communications, photo courtesy New Image Media)