Freehold Raceway reopens Friday as Cane Pace looms

Cat Manzi to defend
his championship
driving title
By tim morris
Staff Writer

The road to harness racing’s Pacing Triple Crown goes through Freehold Raceway.

When the historic racetrack opens for the 2002 summer/fall meets on Friday, the 48th running of the Cane Pace will highlight the lucrative stakes schedule. The Cane Pace, which will carry an estimated purse of better than $400,000, is the first leg of the prestigious Triple Crown. Any 3-year-old pacer who wants to join the sport’s elite fraternity has to show up at Freehold Raceway’s half-mile track to be eligible for the Triple Crown.

This year’s Cane Pace will start on Aug. 24 with $100,000 elimination heats (if necessary). The $300,000 final is set for Sept. 2.

This year’s top 3-year-old pacer is Mach Three, who has won seven of his nine starts in 2002 and has earned $1,016,095. He won the $1 million Meadowlands Pace and is the top-ranked standardbred by the United States Trotting Association’s Hambletonian Society/Breeders Crown standardbred poll.

Red River Hanover, with eight wins in his 11 starts and more than $750,000 in purse earnings, and McArdle, with six wins in 10 starts and more than $700,000 in earnings this year, are the other top-ranked 3-year-old pacers who could vie for the Triple Crown.

Freehold Raceway has been hosting the Cane Pace since 1998.

The other two legs of the Pacing Triple Crown are the Little Brown Jug (Delaware Fairbrounds, Ohio) on Sept. 19 and the Messenger Stakes (the Meadows, Ladbroke, Pa.) on Oct. 26.

The Pacing Triple Crown was last won in 1999 by Blissfull Hall, who began his journey with a 1:51.4 track record for 3-year-old pacers at Freehold in the Cane.

The other Pacing Triple Crown winners are Adios Butler (1959), Bret Hanover (1965), Romeo Hanover (1966), Rum Customer (1968), Most Happy Fella (1970), Niatross (1980), Ralph Hanover (1983) and Western Dreamer (1987).

The Cane Pace is just one of several big purse races on Freehold’s schedule. For the 3-year-olds who can’t get enough of the racetrack, there is the $300,000 James B. Dancer Memorial, which has established quite a tradition of its own with such legendary winners as Niatross, Artsplace and Cam’s Card Shark. The Dancer is set for Nov. 16, and it could decide who is the 3-year-old Pacer of the Year.

Other major stakes races are the $175,000 Lou Babic Memorial (2-year-old filly pacers), Aug. 31; the $125,000 Shady Daisy (3-year-old filly pacers), Sept. 2; $90,000 Helen Smith (3-year-old filly trotters), Sept. 20; the $150,000 Battle of Freehold (2-year-old open pace), Sept. 21; $80,000 Harold R. Dancer (2-year-old filly trot), Sept. 26; and the $100,000 Charles Smith Trot (3-year-old open trot), Oct. 18.

There will be several New Jersey Sire Stakes Green Acres and New Jersey Sire Stakes finals carrying purses of up to $75,000.

The defending driving champion is Cat Manzi of Freehold, who collected his 14th driving title at Freehold last year. During the 2001-02 season, Manzi, the newest member of the Harness Racing Hall of Fame, won 295 races. He won 139 times during the 2001 summer/fall meets and made 156 trips to the winner’s circle in the winter/spring meets. Manzi won more than 9,000 races in his career and earned more than $85.1 million in purses.

Monico Stanislao was the leading trainer in the past year with 71 winners. He had 22 in the summer/fall meets and 49 in the winter/spring meets.

The fastest mile ever paced at Freehold is 1:51.0 by the 4-year-old gelding Dauntless Bunny in 1998. That time was equaled in 2001 by KF Pro Sam.

The trotting mark remains 1:55.2 by world champion Pein Chip in 1994. Two of Freehold’s age-group trotting records are world records. They are the 1:56.3 set by CR Kay Suzie in the 2-year-old filly division in 1994, and the 1:56.0 by the 3-year-old gelding Arnold Plumstead set in 1997.