Woodside Charm Retired

Trot Insider has learned that two-year-old world record setter and Dan Patch Award winner Woodside Charm has been retired.

Woodside Charm (Chapter Seven - Fireworks Hanover) took a mark of 1:53 last year at Pocono in her Breeders Crown elimination and banked $521,658 in her seven two-year-old starts en route to divisional honours stateside. She became only the second unbeaten two-year-old filly trotter to win a Dan Patch Award.

After making two starts as a sophomore, Yoder told Trot Insider that a heart murmur was discovered and the difficult decision was made to retire the star trotter. In bringing Woodside Charm back for her three-year-old year, the longtime horseman felt she wasn't 100 percent but for months neither he nor veterinarians could pinpoint the issue.

"Everybody was like 'oh, she's unbelievable' and I kept saying, 'she's not right.' I kept on saying that all spring and everyone just laughed at me...I've sat behind her enough, I know when it ain't right."

Yoder noted that Woodside Charm will head to the farm where she was raised -- Woodside Farms in Indiana -- and start her broodmare career in 2020. He's hopeful that she can pass on some of that amazing talent to her offspring, glowingly praising the filly's gait.

"Chapter Sevens cover the ground in a completely different way than normal trotters...there's no big commotion in the front end," noted Yoder. "Several times I drove her in a race and the fractions got away from me....Usually when you're driving a trotter you can feel when you're going a :27 quarter or to the half in :55. With her, you don't know that."