Free-Legged: Second in poll, first in my Inbox
September 10, 2008,by Dean A. Hoffman
Dean Hoffman Columbus, OH —
Dewey lost his first race when Crazed trotted right past him in the stretch at Mohawk and SBSW didn’t finish off his Simcoe win like a good horse that same night.
Still, they’re both firmly entrenched at the head of the Top 10 Poll sponsored by The Hambletonian Society/Breeders Crown. Dewey is first with 334 points while SBSW is second with 302 points.
Then it’s a drop down to Mister Big, Art Official, and Badlands Nitro.
I can assure you, however, that SBSW remains in first place in terms of my Inbox. The colt has such charisma that people seem captivated by his every movement. I’ve had e-mails from many people discussing the colt and his plans for Lexington and his ultimate place in harness racing history.
Perhaps the greatest testament to SBSW is the number of people who feel that his one defeat by a narrow margain in the Meadowlands Pace couldn’t possibly have been his fault; since it can’t be blamed on the horse, they paint a bull’s eye on Paul MacDonell and blame him.
Six weeks after that memorable Meadowlands Pace, some people can’t let go. I received an e-mail recently saying that SBSW would still be unbeaten if it were not for the “absolutely horrible” drive he got in the Meadowlands Pace.
The topper, however, came in the heated aftermath of the Pace, when one person wrote to me to say that MacDonell’s effort was the “worst drive in the history of harness racing.”
He wrote those words with absolute conviction, but I’m a bit reluctant to agree. You see, I’ve watched a whole bunch of races, but I surely haven’t seen every race in the history of harness racing. So how could I say it was the worst ever?
(And I know a bit about bad drivers. When I was in college, I worked for a trainer-driver who was involved in a two-horse race-off in a Grand Circuit stake years ago at Delaware, Ohio. According to the legend, my boss drew the rail in the two-horse race-off and wound up parked out at the quarter-pole. That takes some effort.)
I must point out that the people leveling these charges at MacDonell for the Meadowlands Pace have themselves never driven a bad race in their careers. Undoubtedly that‘s because they’ve never actually driven a race.
If people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, maybe people with a .000 UDR shouldn’t tell others how to drive.
Still, trainer Brent MacGrath and MacDonell know that a shining star like SBSW draws a lot of attention and some people love to second-guess MacGrath’s management as much as they love to second-guess MacDonell’s driving.
From my perspective, SBSW didn’t lose any luster in the Meadowlands Pace. He went one helluva mile. Art Official simply gained luster with his victory. Yeah, SBSW might have been parked, but remember, folks, it was Art Official who did the parking.
Besides, are we going to let one slim defeat destroy the reputation of SBSW (or even Dewey?) Again, not from my perspective.
After all, I saw Bret Hanover get beat twice in the same afternoon and I saw Albatross get beat twice in the same afternoon. I saw Nihilator lose his first race. These are all great racehorses. Defeats happen. Get over it.
The real question is how a horse bounces back from defeat. What does that do to his mental capacity? Does he fight back to win again? SBSW certainly has. He hasn’t lost since the Meadowlands Pace and, in fact, he’s paced to a world record on a half-mile track and he did so in a two-heat race.
Brent MacGrath said that SBSW was full of mucous after the Simcoe and we can only hope that the big mile while under duress didn’t hurt him. We’ve known all along that MacGrath and the Beach Team have high hopes for Lexington.
We’ll find out if Dewey’s defeat was just a fluke soon. Remember, Donato Hanover went unbeaten after his first race until November of his sophomore season — something like 17 months — then lost his last two races. We’ll find out more about Dewey when we see how he bounces back from defeat.