by Carol Hodes, for the SBOANJ

Manalapan, NJ — Dan Daley is best known for training trotters but this year he could add to his pacing credentials with a 3-year-old colt entered in the $500,000 Anthony Abbatiello New Jersey Classic at the Meadowlands.

Daley Deposit Only, a son of Artiscape, is rated 9-2 in the morning line from outside post seven in Saturday night’s fifth race, the second of two $25,000 elimination races which will pare down 15 entrants to 10 finalists meeting on May 31 at the Meadowlands in the richest of all state-bred races.

All the colts and geldings, as well as the fillies in the companion race, the $200,000 Thomas D’Altrui Miss New Jersey (with elims on Friday night), were sired in New Jersey. Both events are sponsored by the Standardbred Breeders & Owners Association of New Jersey, which represents the owners, breeders, trainers, drivers and caretakers in the state.

“The colt is out of my wife’s broodmare (Sassy Cessiann),” Daley said, laughing. “That’s the only reason I have a pacer.”

Daley and his wife, Ann-Mari, have built a reputation as trotting specialists. Among those they have campaigned are Master Lavec, who won the Breeders Crown at two in 1999, RC Royalty, the 2005 Valley Victory winner and Diamond Goal, who captured the 2001 Kentucky Futurity. And there are also a slew of trotters carrying the Daley name which have contributed to the trainer’s reputation.

“I’d just as soon sit behind trotters,” Dan Daley conceded. “But he’s fun to train.”

At two, Daley Deposit Only posted a record of three wins and three thirds in 11 starts, earning $22,650, providing indications to Daley that this was a colt with potential.

“I think he’s a good horse, the fastest I’ve ever sat behind,” said Daley, a 49-year-old Virginia native. “He won his qualifier at Pompano Park in 1:51.2 handily. I knew he had to go in at least 1:52 because he was going to have to step right up. He shipped two days later and came out of that well. He came out of the ship from Florida in super shape.”

The qualifier at Pompano Park was on May 9 of this year and set a track record for the fastest qualifier in the 44-year history of the Florida oval.

“I really think he’s a good colt,” Daley said. “He did it very handy. I spoke to him at the three-quarter pole and then showed him the whip in the lane.

“I’m lucky,” he noted. “I trained him back as hard as any horse I’ve ever trained back. And he bounced back well. He’s sound and that makes a difference. I’m pretty high on him, pretty pumped up.

“He qualified so good I thought I’d try the New Jersey Classic,” Daley explained.

“The plan before the qualifier was to put him in an overnight race at the Meadowlands, then go to the Burlington and North America Cup (in Canada),” he conceded. “Plan B is going to the New Jersey Classic and then the North America Cup.”

The colt’s 2-year-old campaign had its ups and downs. He picked up third money in a stakes in Lexington and was third in his Breeders Crown elim but finished seventh in the final.

“Last summer, he got really sick, and we still don’t know what it was,” Daley recalled. “It was like he got poisoned or something. He lost 150 pounds in four days. He wouldn’t eat anything and was all tied up. It was no ordinary antibiotic treatment. We had to pump him full of fluids. There were no cultures of sickness. Maybe he ate something bad.

“He finally came out of it, but he was never himself at the end of the year,” he noted. “I didn’t stop with him and just took it easy on him. He was a little weaker than he should have been, not finishing off his miles. Fortunately, it’s history now.

“He was a really gorgeous looking animal when I broke him,” he said. “He’s always been big and strong. He wore a 62-inch hobble. This year he matured a lot. When you step on the gas pedal, you can definitely go where you want to go. I worked him a month before I qualified him on the farm in Florida in 1:54 and a piece.

“He’s a big, strapping, good-looking colt,” he explained. “He’s really fancy looking. He can just explode and pace a quarter in 26 seconds.”

With all that horsepower, Daley, who usually drives his own horses, will turn over the lines to a catch-driver for the colt’s 2008 debut.

“We’ve got George Brennan down to drive, but we’re not going to bounce him around to a bunch of catch-drivers,” Daley said. “If they don’t think he’s good enough, then I can sit behind him and get money. The difference is if I move him to the front, I’ve got to go in 26 seconds and they can get away with 27. It makes a big difference.”

Daley Deposit Only’s schedule after the New Jersey Classic includes a trip to Mohawk for the C$1.5 million North America Cup on June 14.

“He’ll go from here to the North America Cup, but no Meadowlands Pace,” Daley noted. “We spent $38,000 staking him, it was another $16,000 for that and we just couldn’t do it. He’s in a lot of secondary stakes because he gets around a half-mile track good. He’s real good-gaited.”

In January of 2007, the Daleys brought in a few partners on Daley Deposit Only.

“We sold pieces of him, and we still own half,” explained Daley, who currently is based in Vernon, N.Y. and winters in Coral Springs, Fla. In addition to Ann-Mari Daley, the owners are Jared Daley, Richard Lombardo and Brian Doolittle.

$25,000 Anthony Abbatiello NJ Classic Elimination – 3rd Race
Post, Horse, Sire, Driver, Trainer, ML
1, Cold Cape Cod, Artiscape, David Miler, Mark Harder, 15-1
2, Touch And Go, Life Sign, Andy Miller, James Sronce, 6-1
3, Rudy Rednose, Red River Hanover, Brian Sears, George Teague, Jr., 7-2
4, Duneside Perch, Cam’s Card Shark, Eric Goodell, Ross Croghan, 10-1
5, Ole Red River, Red River Hanover, George Brennan, Mark Harder, 9-2
6, Dear Mac, McArdle, John Campbell, Noel Daley, 12-1
7, Harley D Hanover, Western Ideal, Yannick Gingras, Linda Toscano, 2-1
8, Weekend Gambler, Cam’s Card Shark, Daniel Dube, Mark Silva, 5-1

$25,000 Anthony Abbatiello NJ Classic Elimination – 5th Race
Post, Horse, Sire, Driver, Trainer, ML
1, Perseus, Life Sign, Brian Sears, Mark Silva, 6-1
2, McCedes, McArdle, Cat Manzi, Chris Ryder, 5-2
3, Meant To Be Me, McArdle, John Campbell, Linda Toscano, 8-1
4, Mr Nice Guy, Western Ideal, Ron Pierce, Nat Varty, 2-1
5, Dax Hanover, Cam’s Card Shark, Andy Miller, Tom Fanning, 8-1
6, Yankee Rocketeer, Artsplace, David Miller, Kevin Lare, 12-1
7, Daley Deposit Only, Artiscape, George Brennan, Dan Daley, 9-2