by Moira Fanning, publicity director, The Hambletonian Society

Cranbury, NJ — “We’re going,” said trainer/driver Ray Schnittker. “I trained him (Deweycheatumnhowe) today and he seemed good. I would say he was about 80 percent better than he was before so that’s a really good sign. I trained him a mile about 2:05, and he came a real good last half. And he’s feeling good and in good shape.

“We don’t know what will happen in the next day or two, but he is feeling good, so we’re going on.”

Deweycheatumnhowe, the 6-5 favorite in the $500,000 Breeders Crown 3-year-old colt trot and a leading contender for Horse of the Year honors, developed a swelling in his soft palate about 10 days ago.

“There’s still like a swelling back under his tongue that is in the way of his airway a little bit,” said Schnittker. “He has stopped the drooling, which is a good thing and he really feels good otherwise. We originally thought it was something like an abscessed tooth, but it wasn’t an abscess or anything normal. It turned out to be something really strange. Of course it couldn’t be something that vets see a lot of,” he continued with a laugh.

“At Cornell they said they saw one like his maybe once every two or three years, and the vet at The Meadowlands said he had never seen anything like it.”

Schnittker will start Deweycheatumnhowe from post eight in the sophomore Crown trot, which is race six on the 14-race card. Post time is 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, with Dewey’s race scheduled for 8:52 p.m. (EST).

Driver changes for Breeders Crown

High noon, i.e. scratch time for the Saturday, Nov. 29, Breeders Crown races at the Meadowlands has come and gone, with the only changes in any of the championship events relating to the drivers.

In Race 2, the $700,000 2-year-old filly trot, Ron Pierce will drive #8 I Wanted Wings. The trainer of #3 All Star Hanover should be Joe Holloway, not Marcus Johansson.

In Race 3, the $700,000 2-year-old filly pace, Dan Dube will drive #8 Special Sweetheart and Andy Miller takes on #9 Thou Shalt Not.

In Race 5, the $500,000 3-year-old colt trot, Cat Manzi will drive #5 Napoleon.

In Race 7, the $700,000 2-year-old colt pace, Andy Miller picks up the mount on #4 Magicmaker Hanover.

No other driver changes.