No matter the size of the racetrack, Mister Big has been coming up huge.
On Columbus Day, this season's richest older pacer, with nearly $1.4 million to his credit, won his elimination race for Monday's $317,000 Bobby Quillen Memorial at Harrington Raceway by three-quarters of a length over Won The West in 1:51.1. The time was two-fifths off the track record.
Mister Big, a five-year-old with 10 victories in 12 starts this season, has won at six different racetracks this year. He has posted victories over every size oval – half-mile, five-eighths, seven-eighths, and mile – potentially putting him in elite company. The last older pacer to win on each of those sized tracks and earn division honours was Pacific Rocket in 1995. Mister Big is the defending Dan Patch Award winner as best older male pacer and the first pacer in history with million-dollar campaigns at both ages four and five. His earnings this year are the most ever for an older pacer, surpassing his own $1.3 million in 2007.
"He's a stud, and he knows it, but he keeps his composure in situations," trainer Virgil Morgan Jr. said. "Not much rattles him. It's hard to take him out of his game. I think that's one of his greatest attributes. I have to rig him a little differently according to the track, but he takes to anything. He's obviously the greatest horse I've ever had."
Mister Big, driven regularly by Brian Sears, has won eight consecutive races since finishing second to Artistic Fella's world-record mile in the Ben Franklin at Harrah's Chester on June 15. Mister Big's triumphs include the Breeders Crown, William Haughton Memorial, U.S. Pacing Championship, Canadian Pacing Derby, Allerage, and Winbak Farms Pace. He is known for his style of charging to the front from off the pace, but took his season mark of 1:48.1 in a gate-to-wire win over a track labeled "good" at the Meadowlands in the Haughton elims. He also won from the front in the Winbak at the Delaware County Fairgrounds in Ohio.
"He's so versatile. If you want to leave with him, you can," Morgan said. "I think a lot of people think he has to close, and that's not the case at all. He has a ton of gate speed. We just try to race him according to the race. He prefers to track a horse, I think, but he'll do it on the front end. He's been first-over a little too much for me. That's just the way it's worked out. I'm not a big fan of having horses, especially good horses, first-over. I think it usually catches up to them. But he's a warrior."
Palone Ranger, driven by Ron Pierce for trainer Greg Peck and owners Four Friends Racing Stable, won the other Quillen elimination by one length over Maltese Artist in 1:51.3. Maltese Artist won last year's final.
Joining Mister Big, Palone Ranger, Maltese Artist, and Won The West in the eight-horse field are Booze Cruzin, Kenneth J, Took Hanover, and Western Ace.
Following the Quillen, Mister Big will head to Chicago's Balmoral Park for the American-National on November 1. He then will go to Canada's Woodbine Racetrack for his final start of the season, most likely in an invitational. Mister Big has raced twice in Canada, but needs three starts to be eligible for year-end awards north of the border.
Owner Joe Muscara plans to race Mister Big again in 2009. The horse ranks seventh in lifetime earnings among all pacers in harness racing history and could challenge Gallo Blue Chip ($4.2 million) for the No. 1 spot.
"All systems are go," Morgan said. "We'll pretty much put him on the same schedule as we had this year. His four-year-old campaign was very vigorous. This year was a little more spotted, which is what we'll do next year. He'll get a well deserved break, probably starting in mid-November, and then we'll start back with him.
"He's very confident. He's very cocky," Morgan added. "At the same time, he takes care of himself. He'll lie down and rest. He's a very smart horse. Most good horses are intelligent horses. He definitely is an athlete."
(HRC)