Harness Racing Hall of Fame press release

Goshen, NY — Only a few weeks remain within which to submit ballots for the Living Horse Hall of Fame. The box closes on January 1, so ballots must be postmarked by that date. All members (in good standing) of The Harness Racing Museum & Hall of Fame are eligible to vote for TWO horses they feel exemplify greatness. The results will be publicized on or about January 8, 2010. Winners will be inducted July 4, 2010 at Hall of Fame ceremonies in Goshen.

If you are not a member or have not renewed your membership and would like to vote, call or email Joanne Young, Development Director, at development@harnessmuseum.com for a membership application, or obtain one online at www.harnessmuseum.com. Mail completed membership applications to The Harness Racing Museum & Hall of Fame, 240 MAIN STREET, GOSHEN, NY 10924. Phone: 845.294.6330.

The box closes January 1, 2010.

The winners will be announced in early January 2010.

THE 2009 LIVING HORSE HALL OF FAME NOMINATING CRITERIA

To be considered, a horse must be retired from racing for five years, have had a drug-free career AND

AS A RACEHORSE:

Must have won 70% of its lifetime starts OR

Gone undefeated in a single season campaign of 12 or more starts OR

Been the winner of $2.75 million lifetime OR

Been named Harness Horse of the Year (US and/or Canada)

AS A STALLION:

Must rank among the 10 all-time leading money-winning sires at his gait OR

Have sired at least 100 $200,000 winners OR

Been leading money-winning sire at his gait in three or more seasons

NOTE: BROODMARES are automatically elected if they have produced a $1 million winner and two other winners of $500,000 OR produced a Harness Horse of the Year (US and/or Canada) and another $500,000 winner

THE 2010 SLATE OF NOMINEES ARE:

ARMBRO GOAL – BUNNY LAKE – GARLAND LOBELL

PRESIDENTIAL BALL – VARENNE

ARMBRO GOAL

(Nominated as Race Horse)

2,1:59.3; 3,1:54.3

($1,442,022) Bay Horse, 1985

(Speedy Crown – Armbro Flight – Star’s Pride)

At retirement, Armbro Goal ranked as the second-highest single-season money-winning trotter of all time, having amassed a total of $1,311,234 in 1988.

As a 2-year-old in 1987, Armbro Goal won two of five starts (both New York Sire Stakes) and earned $130,788.

In 1988 Armbro Goal was voted best 3-Year-Old Trotting Colt, winning eleven races out of thirteen starts. He won seven stakes events: the Canadian Trotting Classic elimination and final (1:57.2f), a New York Sire Stake (1:59.4), the Beacon Course Trot (2nd div.) (1:54.4), the Zweig Memorial (2nd div.) (1:56.1), the World Trotting Derby heat and final (1:55.2 – 1:55), the Dexter Cup (1:59.4h), and the 63rd Hambletonian heat and final (1:54.3 – 1:55.1) where he earned a paycheck of $578,400.

Armbro Goal was seemingly destined to win the Hambletonian. His sire, Speedy Crown (1971), and grandsire, Speedy Scot (1963), both did it, as did his grandam, Helicopter (1953), and her sire Hoot Mon (1947). Armbro Goal’s dam Armbro Flight won a Hambletonian heat in 1965.

In 1988, Armbro Goal trotted ten 2:00 miles and won five of the year’s twenty fastest trotting miles. At retirement, only two horses in history had trotted more 1:55 miles than Armbro Goal’s three.

Armbro Goal sired Fool’s Goal 7,1:51.3 ($3,057,070), French trotter Defi d’Aunou ($2,762,409), Legendary Lover K 3,1:54.4 ($1,716,136), and Hambletonian Oaks winner Winky’s Goal 3,1:54.4 ($844,924), the richest filly trotter of 1993. In 1993 Armbro Goal was the leading percentage sire for 2:00 3-year-old trotters. In 1995 he was the leading percentage sire for 2:02 three-year-old trotters.

BUNNY LAKE

(Nominated as Race Horse)

p,2,1:54; 3,1:51s; 4,1:49.4; 5,1:50.3s; 6,1:49s

($2,843,476) Bay Mare, 1998

(Precious Bunny – Lake Nona – Abercrombie)

Bunny Lake earned more than $2.8 million during her racing career, retiring the second-richest pacing mare of all time. In her first year of racing, Bunny Lake won the La Paloma followed by all six New York Sire Stakes in which she appeared, including the final. She ended her freshman year with $281,255 in earnings.

In 2001, as a 3-year-old, Bunny Lake was named 2001 Horse of the Year by the U.S. Harness Writers’ Association; the second pacing filly to capture the award. She was also voted Pacer of the Year and 3-Year-Old Filly Pacer. Bunny Lake won 19 of 21 starts (18 in a row) and never finished worse than second. She duplicated her previous year’s effort winning every NYSS she raced in, including the final. She was also victorious in the Jim Lynch Pace elimination and final, the Historic Ladyship, the Tarport Hap, the Mistletoe Shalee elimination and final, the Glen Garnsey Memorial, the Breeders Crown elimination and final, the Lady Maud and the Courageous Lady. She finished the year with $1,146,219 in total winnings and a record of 1:51s.

In 2002, Bunny Lake won the Classic Distaff final in a stakes and track record of 1:58 for 11/16 miles, and established a 1:51.2 track record for 4-year-old pacing mares in the Vernon Downs 50th Anniversary Pace. She won $400,049 that year and lowered her record to 1:49.4. As a 5-year-old Bunny Lake won 10 out of 24 starts, including the Roses Are Red final and a match race against rival mare Worldly Beauty, and earned $531,134. The following year, Bunny Lake set the world record (1:50.2) for an older pacing mare in the Classic Distaff. Later that same season she set her own lifetime mark and stakes record of 1:49s in back-to-back victories in the Roses Are Red Stakes. With earnings of $484,819 Bunny Lake was the 2004 leading moneywinning pacing mare. At retirement she ranked 8th leading money-winning pacer of all time.

GARLAND LOBELL

(Nominated as Stallion)

2,2:04.4f; 3,1:55.3; 4,2:00f

($345,689) Bay Horse, 1981

(ABC Freight – Gamin Lobell – Speedy Crown)

Garland Lobell currently ranks as the fourth leading moneywinning trotting sire of all time, with total foal earnings of over $50 million. He is also listed as the fourth leading all-time trotting sire of $100,000 winners (158).

Purchased in 1982 as a $7,000 yearling, Garland Lobell won 14 of 63 starts, finishing no worse than third in 36 races, and earning a lifetime total of $345,689. His stakes record time of 1:55.3 came in the first heat of the 1984 Kentucky Futurity which he won by four lengths.

Garland Lobell’s stud career began in Quebec in 1986, and by the time his third crop of 2-year-olds had reached the track his position as the top sire in that province had been established. The earnings of 87 foals from his last Canadian-bred crop (1995) totaled nearly $5.7 million.

Garland Lobell was paired with maiden mare Amour Angus for the first time in May of 1991. Their first foal was Emilie Cas El (3,1:57.1f, $245,199), Canada’s 1994 O’Brien Awards Horse of the Year. The couple also produced the brothers Conway Hall (3,1:53.4, $818,884), Angus Hall (3,1:54.3, $830,654) and Andover Hall (3,1:51.3, $870,510), who proved to be great sires in their own right, producing total foal earnings between them of more than $102 million. Garland Lobell and Amour Angus’ sister Canne Angus produced his richest foal, Cameron Hall (4,1:53.4s, $1,816,236).

As a broodmare sire, Garland Lobell has 276 2:00 and 31 1:55 credits, with 127 $100,000 winners, and earnings over $43 million. He was grandsire to the winners of three Hambletonians, two Kentucky Futurities and three World Trotting Derbies.

Presidential Ball

(Nominated as Race Horse)

p,2,1:54.2f; 3,1:50

($3,021,363) Brown Horse, 1990

(Cam Fella – I Marilyn – Mountain Skipper)

Presidential Ball’s tremendous success at the track not only made him victorious in some of the sport’s most prestigious pacing races, but also earned him the title of Leading Moneywinning Pacer of 1993. In his two year career, he became a two-time USTA honoree as both 2-Year-Old and 3-Year-Old Colt Pacer of the Year.

Presidential Ball debuted at Ontario’s Greenwood Raceway in the 1992 Kindergarten Series with a 2:00.3 win. Winning would become habit for Presidential Ball, with nine wins out of thirteen starts in his freshman season. These victories included the Lawrence B. Sheppard Pace, the Garden State Stake, the Nassagaweya, the Metro Stake and The Niatross. His 2-year-old season concluded with the privilege of being elected USTA’s Two-Year-Old Colt Pacer of the Year and earnings of $799,197.

Presidential Ball’s 3-year-old season cemented his legacy. Not only did he take the $1 million North American Cup and Meadowlands Pace, he was victorious in the Windy City Pace, the Provincial Cup (equaling the track and stakes record), the New Jersey Classic, the William E. Miller, the Burlington, the Simcoe and the New Jersey Sire Stakes Championship. His results showed an impressive seventeen wins out of twenty-five starts and purse winnings totaling $2,222,166. That year he claimed the titles of Leading Moneywinning Pacer, New Jersey Standardbred of the Year and was again honored by the USTA–this time as 1993 3-Year-Old Colt Pacer of the Year.

Presidential Ball won twenty-six out of thirty-eight lifetime starts and amassed more than $3 million in lifetime earnings, ranking seventh among Leading Moneywinning Pacers of All Time. At the conclusion of his sophomore season, Presidential Ball began his breeding career. His offspring have earned nearly $52 million and two have topped the million-dollar mark: Cathedra Dot Com p,3,1:51 ($1,520,487) and Allamerican Native p,3,1:49.4 ($1,296,304).

Varenne

(Nominated as Race Horse)

6,1:51.1; 7,1:51.3f

($5,636,255) Bay Horse, 1995

(Waikiki Beach – Ialmaz – Zebu)

Varenne, a paternal grandson of Speedy Somolli, is the richest trotter of all-time and the fastest all-age and aged trotter on a five-eighths mile track (1:51.3). It is no wonder fans refer to him as “Il Capitano.”

Varenne began his racing career in 1998 as a 3-year-old. He had eight wins, including the Italian Derby, in eleven starts and banked nearly $600,000 that year. As a 4-year-old he was undefeated in his fourteen starts, including the European Championship, the Premio d’Europa, the Premio Continentale and the Gran Premio della Nazioni, with season earnings of $716,579.

As a 5-year-old in 2000, Varenne took victories in France’s Grand Prix Encat and Coupe du Monde. In addition, he took Sweden’s Olympia Travet and Italy’s Gran Premio del Lotteria, clinching Italy’s Horse of the Year title. His thirteen wins out of eighteen starts netted him $1,085,254.

Varenne continued to excel with age and in 2001, at the age of six, became the first trotter in thirty-four years to sweep three of international harness racing’s prestigious titles: the Prix d’Amerique (winning in the second fastest time ever), the Elitlopp and the Gran Premio del Lotteria. His other victories that season included the Trot Mondial, Prix Locatelli, Premio Roma, Prix Renzo Orlandi and the 2^nd leg of the World Cup/Elite Rennen. He became the first European horse to win a Breeders Crown, and even set a world record of 1:51.1 in the process. He also stands as the first foreign trotter to be elected France’s Horse of the Year and took the USTA’s Trotting Horse of the Year title. With fourteen starts and thirteen wins, Varenne had season earnings totaling $1,825,297.

In 2002 Varenne became the fifth horse to have consecutive wins in the Elitlopp. He took it in a world record time of 1:53.1 in the elimination and then bested that mark by winning the final in 1:53 – the fastest mile ever trotted around three turns. Varenne scored a second-year Prix d’Amerique victory, this time in 1:57 (mile-rated) for the 1⁵/₈ mile race. That year, Varenne topped the $2 million mark with $2,188,048 with fourteen wins out of fifteen starts.

Varenne was retired in November 2002 with a reported sixty-two wins from seventy-two starts. He now stands at stud in Italy. From two North American crops, he is the sire of twelve starters, including Southwind Serena 3,1:55.2 ($385,088) who won the 2007 Breeders Crown; and Gallantly 3,1:55h ($153,675).