Hambletonian winner Deweycheatumnhowe will come off an almost four-week layoff to compete in a race at Vernon Downs on Friday.
"Dewey" won the Kentucky Futurity in a hard-fought three-heat contest against Celebrity Secret on October 4 at Lexington's Red Mile in Kentucky.
"He's no worse for wear," says trainer/driver/co-owner Ray Schnittker. "He never got off his feed; he's always been good that way. He was probably a little dehydrated when he came back because he looked a little tucked up (thin), but within about two days, he was good again. I raced him three heats and then I shipped him home the next day, too."
Deweycheatumnhowe has won 11 of 13 races this year and earned $2.1 million. Lifetime, he has won 21 of 23 starts and earned $3.1 million. He is the only trotter in history to reach $3 million in career purses at the age of three.
In addition to the Hambletonian and Kentucky Futurity, the three-year-old trotter's wins include the Canadian Trotting Classic and the Stanley Dancer Memorial.
Schnittker said the colt is sticking to his usual regimen of traditional on-track training, with riding and swimming in the farm pond added in. It's still warm enough for Dewey to take a dip as he prepares for his anticipated final start in the November 29 Breeders Crown at The Meadowlands.
"We'll be OK for probably another couple weeks," Schnittker said. "We usually swim until about the first of December, so that puts us right up there He goes right in; he's good that way. I swim them less time in spring and fall than I do in the summer. But it seems like they race better in the spring and the fall (after a swim). Maybe the cold water stresses them just enough, makes them work a little harder. I'm not quite sure."
The game plan for the Hallowe'en night race is simple.
"Take him off the gate and let him sprint home; go around [1]:55, probably," Schnittker said. "That should be good enough."
Schnittker has not yet decided on a game plan for Dewey between the Friday race and possible elimination races for the Breeders Crown on November 22.
"Maybe there will be two divisions in the Breeders Crown, but I think it's going to be tough to come up with two divisions of horses," he said. "I might qualify him at Gaitway (a New Jersey training center with a one-mile track) one week. I'll see how it goes Friday. I'm playing it by ear a little bit."
(Harness Racing Communications)