from Meadowlands Media Relations
A horsemen’s strike in Chicago prompted trainer Ken Rucker’s initial foray to the Meadowlands in 2003.
What was intended as a short-term visit to New Jersey has turned into a profitable venture for the Illinois native, who will have two of his charges competing on Friday, opening night of the fall harness meet at the Meadowlands. First race post time is 7:30 p.m. Live racing takes place on Wednesday through Saturday nights through December 18.
Rucker will harness Lhasa Muscles in the third race, one of four $15,000 divisions of the first round of the Charles Singer Memorial Series for three-year-old trotters. In the sixth race, Kan Wheel, a three-year-old pacing filly, will make her first start since September 18 when she finished second in the $200,000 Grandma Ann at Balmoral Park.
“I’m ready to try the Meadowlands again,” said Rucker, who stables his New Jersey continent at Showplace Farms in Englishtown, New Jersey. “I’ve got about 10 out there right now, and I’m going to ship 20 more when the meet gets rolling.
“I probably wouldn’t have come to New Jersey if there wasn’t that horsemen’s strike here,” added Rucker, 40. “I just hope my success continues down there. Now I don’t want to leave. I plan on still being active in the claiming game, and I try to concentrate on the weekend horses. Those are the nights you make money. I’m half the week here and half the week there. I’m trying to convince my wife we need to go house shopping out there.”
In only two seasons, Rucker has risen to the ranks of top trainers at the Meadowlands. In 2003, he finished tenth in the standings with 47 wins and $891,332 toward his first $1 million year. By the end of the 2004 winter to summer Meadowlands meet, Rucker had risen to fourth in the standings with 65 wins and $1.1 million in earnings. One of his trainees, Sagebrush, swept the three-week Four Leaf Clover Series, including the $120,000 final, last spring, setting a stakes record 1:50.3.
Lhasa Mucles, a three-year-old gelded son of Muscles Yankee, will be battling the next two weeks
for a spot in the $51,300 Charles Singer Memorial Final on December 4.
“Lhasa Muscles [rated 9-2 from post five with Cat Manzi driving in the third race] has a little trouble behaving, but he’s a pretty good horse,” said Rucker, who entrusts his New Jersey-based stock to assistant Al Meyer. “He broke stride in his last because we had a short time between the post parade and the race, and he didn’t get a chance to thaw out. You also have to kind of baby him around the first turn. When he stays trotting he trots funky, but he can go a long way. I bought him off of Jim Doherty this past year. You get a horse from Jim you don’t have to do much changing. He just needed some time and the bottom level trots here [in Chicago] are a little bit easier to develop a horse. He caught on pretty good this fall.”
Rucker co-owns the trotter who has been first or second in five of 15 starts for earnings of $14,475.
Kan Wheel, a daughter of Armbro Mackintosh, leaves from post six in the sixth race, rated 8-1 in the morning line with Ron Pierce driving.
“We [The Panhellenic Stable Corp. of Long Island City, New York] bought Kan Wheel right after the stakes were done here in Chicago, and we pretty much had to shut her down to keep her eligible for some series at the Meadowlands,” he noted.
“She’s not one that likes to work in the morning, and she’ll get better after a couple of starts,” he said. “We let her down and she had some sickness. Once you get her racing she’ll be a lot better. Soundness wise she’s pretty good.
“Another horse I just got is Gar,” Rucker added. “He’s in Saturday’s Oil Burner Series [post one in the seventh race]. A friend of mine in Chicago raced him, he had a month off, then raced him last Saturday to tighten him up. It looks like he’ll fit that series.
“Art’s Ticket [post nine in Saturday’s second race] is another new one for me,” Rucker said. “When I got him, he had a little trouble with his feet. We trained him up pretty good in 2:02 with a last quarter in 28 out here at the farm, and we’re trying to figure out if he really belongs there or not. The owner wanted to try the Oil Burner Series.
“When it comes to yearlings I just don’t spend the money to make me a serious contender,” he noted. “I can’t tie up that kind of money. I just buy horses in my price range and nine times out of 10 I own half of them. I’m not shooting for the moon just yet.”
Rucker’s Four Leaf Clover winner, Sagebrush, will also be back.
Sagebrush raced at Lexington, then the American National at Balmoral Park,” he explained. “We’ve given him a break, and we don’t want to race him too many times in a row. I’d like to have a start in him before the first of the year, and hopefully he’ll fit in the Presidential. He’s part of the family now. He’s earned a spot at the table.”
IANNACONE: FROM CLERK TO WINNER’S CIRCLE
For 20 years, Carmen Iannacone’s view of the Meadowlands was from behind a tote machine as a nighttime mutuels clerk.
Good fortune at his day job – he is a regional manager for the AFLAC Insurance Company, based in Lyndhurst, New Jersey – opened the way for him to leave the mutuels job in 1996 after 20 years. Now he is a partner with Joe and Victor Leonardis’ D’Elegance Stable in nine horses.
On Friday night his two interests will merge as a group of 150 friends and AFLAC colleagues meet for dinner and racing at the Meadowlands.
“We’re donating the costs of the tickets to the AFLAC Children’s Center [in Atlanta],” Iannacone noted. “That should be about $10,000.”
The AFLAC Cancer Center treats more than 250 new patients each year and follows more than 1,400 children with sickle cell disease, hemophilia and other bleeding disorders.
Iannacone’ equine success stories include Jugular, who swept the Complex Series at the Meadowlands and was named United States Trotting Association Horse of the Month in January 2003; the pacer World’s Apart and the trotter Mohammed Mali, both of whom won preliminary legs of winter series earlier this year.
“We’re hoping Mohammed Mali can move into the invitational ranks,” Iannacone said.
“I’m a fairly active owner, not a silent owner,” he noted. “I’m there when the horses train.”
Sharing his interest are his wife, Kathy, and children Denise, 28, David, 25 and Dana, 21. Denise and her husband, Vincent, are the parents of Iannacone’s two-year-old grandson, Nicholas.
RACES NOW AVAILABLE ON DVD
The Meadowlands now offers races available on DVDs as well as videotapes.
The DVD’s cost $20 per race, plus an additional $10 for the blank DVD. Races may still be purchased on VHS tape for $15 per race and $5 for the blank tape.
For more information and to place orders, call 201-460-4191 or email jodice@njsea.com.