On the strength of his second consecutive record-setting year, MD Magic has grabbed the headline heading into this Saturday's (Feb. 22) annual MHRI meeting and awards banquet.
MD Magic will pick up the hardware as the three-year-old colt trotter of the year for 2019. He recorded seven wins from 16 starts and notched a new record of $74,950 earned in a single season in the Minnesota program. He was the first horse to break the $70,000 barrier when he recorded earnings of $70,300 as the freshman champion in 2018. The talented son of Braggart is owned by Set The Pace Racing and is trained and driven by Nick Roland. Major Al Mar (G, M & J Wilson/Alexia Kehl) is the runner-up award winner in the category.
Three-year-old colt pacer of the year will go to SB Bodacious (Mikaela Del Giudice/Rick Magee) with runner up Burning Blaze (A,C Sandbulte & E Gutin/Justin Anfinson). On the females side of the sophomore awards it will be pacing filly Windmeupnwatchmego (Richard Davelaar/Gordon Graham) for the top award, with Sweet Vivian (Timothy Lems/Robert Lems) as runner-up. Al Mar Humdinger (Aimes Racing/Elvin Zimmerman) and Lone Pine Shuzy (Wendy Haberburg) will share the award as three-year-old trotting filly of the year.
The two-year-old filly trotter of the year will go to Double My Dekker (J,B & E De Long/Justin Anfinson) with Susies Sister (Lynchris, LLC/Don Harmon) as runner-up. The freshman colt trotter of the year is Hearduwhispermynam (Jenni King) and the runner up award will go to Trotterlicious (Rick Bertrand).
Freshman pacing awards will go to fillies Catchmeinadream (Alan & Cheryl Sandbulte/Justin Anfinson) and Huftalookatdatfany (Van Oterloo Stables/Gordon Graham) as runner-up. The winning freshman colts are Bunkerhill Phil (Gene Miller) and Alright Frankie (J J, A P, K M De Long & T J Carrey/Justin Anfinson) is the runner-up.
The four-year-old and up award winners include All Mar Bon Bon (Cara Hauser/Alexia Kehl) as champion trotting mare with Al Mar Reba Babe (Richard Davis) as runner-up, while Bringoverthemoney (Joshua Horvat/David Ginter) has scored the win as top aged male trotter over runner-up French Eclipse (Jenni King). Place N First (Jenni King) is the winner for aged pacing mares with Peekaboo Tattoo (Fabiola Quevedo/Edwin Quevedo) as runner-up, and the final divisional category goes to DeweydiddoneGood (Fredi Herrera/Edwin Quevedo) as top aged male pacer with Buzz Light (Cathy & Bill Dessert/Nick Roland) as the runner-up.
Awards will also be presented for the top performers at the Minnesota Fairs in 2019, with Double My Dekker (J, B, E De Long/Justin Anfinson) as the fairs trotter of the year and The Boss Wife (Cathy Dessert, Set The Pace Racing/Nick Roland) as the 2019 fairs pacer of the year. Brian Detgen will take the fairs driver of the year award for the second year in a row, and Justin Anfinson is the 2019 fairs trainer of the year.
The 2019 Minnesota Harness Racing awards will be presented this Saturday (Feb. 22) at the MHRI annual meeting and banquet, at Vanelli's by the Lake in Forest Lake, Minn. Check in time starts at 1 p.m. for the annual meetings, with cocktail hour beginning at 4 p.m., followed by dinner and awards. There will be a traditional banquet raffle as well as a live stallion auction. Banquet attendees will get the chance to nominate and vote for 2019 Minnesota Harness Racing Horse of the Year.
(Minnesota Harness Racing)