from the Meadowlands Publicity Department

East Rutherford, NJ — For trainer John McDermott, Hurri Kane Billy G is more than another horse in his stable. Sure, he is McDermott’s first Hambletonian hopeful, but he is also the horse with whom he has bonded most closely.

Hurri Kane Billy G next steps on the track Saturday afternoon at the Meadowlands in the third race, the first of two $100,000 elimination heats to determine the 10 finalists in the $1 million Hambletonian Final on August 7 at the Meadowlands. Post time for Saturday’s twilight program is 5:00 p.m. and the card features not only two Hambletonian eliminations and two Hambletonian Oaks eliminations, but also four Breeders Crown Finals for older pacers and trotters.

“Besides my wife and kids, this colt is my best friend in the world,” said McDermott, a former cop, who now resides in Lyndhurst, New Jersey. “We have good long conversations together. He understands me, and I understand him. He listens to me.

“Everyone has some special animal that they bond with,” McDermott noted. “For me, it’s him, right from the start.

“When he was walking out of the sales ring, a friend of mine, Ned Simmons, said that he thought that he looked ‘special,'” McDermott recalled. “I agreed. Maybe it is because his second dam is ($2.5 million earner) Grades Singing.”

Hurri Kane Billy G, who is by Donerail out of Superoo, was actually a modestly priced yearling at $7,500. Among the 20 entrants in this year’s Hambletonian eliminations were two of the priciest yearlings –– Cantab Hall at $310,000 and Cash Hall at $300,000.

With a career bankroll of $94,487 for McDermott, Alan Hogan’s Two H’s Farm of Jupiter, Florida, and Anthony Lombardi, Jr. of Fairfield, New Jersey, Hurri Kane Billy G has already performed well on the track.

This year he has four wins and four seconds from 12 starts for $58,600 in earnings. But McDermott has had to battle nagging hoof problems with the trotter.

“His feet have been an issue with him since day one,” he said. “I work on them all the time.”

Hurri Kane Billy G gave McDermott a bit of a scare last week but the bond and trust between horse and trainer was clear from the incident.

“I trained him last week with Italian half-knee boots, and they fell down,” said McDermott. “When he came off the track, he reared up, which he does quite often. Then he fell, and I told him not to get up, to stay right where he was until I took the bike off. He stayed there and didn’t move, and then when I got the bike off, I told him he could get up and he did. He was fine.”

McDermott, who grew up in Kearny, New Jersey, recalls seeing his first Hambletonian the year the prestigious trotting classic moved to the Meadowlands in 1981.

“I was here for the Shiaway St. Pat one,” he recalled. “I was also one of the people out in Paddock Park petting him when they brought him back (in 1988).”

McDermott admires the work of a number of other trainers both past and present.

“Brett Pelling, I have always admired him and what he’s done,” he said, referring to the all-time leading trainer at the Meadowlands. “(The late) Carl Allen, too. I stabled next to him for a couple of years and found him to be an amazing horseman. I always judge myself against (the late Hall of Famer) Billy Haughton. I want to be as good as him. That is the standard I have set for myself.”

Hurri Kane Billy G comes into his Hambletonian elimination with a winning strong performance in a three-year-old open on July 23 at the Meadowlands. He trotted the mile in 1:54¹, with a last quarter in :27⁴.

“Training him is such a treat for me,” noted McDermott, whose brother Kevin, also has a Hambletonian elims entrant, Southwind Elian, in the sixth race. “I usually train projects and horses that other trainers can’t get going, or horses coming back from a bad injury.

“Me and Hurri Kane Billy G love each other, it’s as simple as that,” said McDermott. “I would hope that he can make the final. Nothing would make me happier than to make the (Hambletonian) final and to do well. But either way, he and I are bonded together forever.”

Hurri Kane Billy G, teamed with Daniel Dube in the sulky, is rated 10-1 in the morning line in his third race elim. The top five finishers in each of the two heats advances to the final next Saturday.

Daley seeks Crowns with Animated Art and Peruvian Hanover

In the midst of the battle for the training title in the waning days of the Meadowlands meet, Noel Daley will also be sending out entrants in two of the four Breeders Crown Finals on Saturday.

In the $300,000 Breeders Crown Mare Pace (11th race), Daley will harness Animated Art, rated 5-1 in the morning line from post seven with Mike Lachance driving. He sends out Peruvian Hanover, 15-1 in the morning line, from post five in the eighth race, the $552,500 Breeders Crown Open Pace. Jim Morrill, Jr. will drive.

Animated Art posted her first win in five starts this year in last Saturday’s Mares Open for Breeders Crown eligibles in a lifetime best 1:50.

“She threw in a clunker her first start but was much better her second one,” said Australian-born Daley. “It was the final of the Lady Liberty, and Loyal Opposition was tons the best. The rest kind of finished in a blanket, and she was behind them. That’s the way it’s been with these mares all season. I’ve been over here 14 years and this is the greatest bunch I’ve ever seen at one time. Usually, there are one or two that dominate.

“It was a great bunch last year, and now you’ve added several of these four-year-olds that have really stepped up to the plate, which is tough to do against these older girls,” he said. “Saturday was the first time on Lasix (for respiratory bleeding) for Animated Art, and she raced super. The way she’s coming into the Breeders Crown, if she can get into the flow of the race, she can definitely win it.

“She’ll need things to go her way of course, but any of them will,” he said. “They’ve taken turns beating each other all season, and there are eight or nine in there capable of winning it.”

Animated Art, owned by Bill Hayes’ Daisy Acres of Astoria, New York, is slated to return to the races next year at five as well.

“I told the owners that if they were going to race at four, they needed to race at five too,” Daley said. “It’s tough when they turn four and take on the older mares, but there have been several this year holding their own. Eternal Camnation and Bunny Lake can’t keep racing forever, can they? They’re both super horses, but they’ll have to retire sometime.”

Peruvian Hanover has one of the toughest challenges of the day, trying to unseat 2-5 favorite Four Stazzz Shark, who has won his last seven straight.

“I think we’ve finally turned the corner on him,” Daley said of the six-year-old son of Life Sign. “There were times when we thought he was done this year, but he’s getting better again. We’ve got him over a quarter crack and he raced good the other night. If he’s as good Saturday as he was last week, he can be two, three, four or five.”

Owned by Alvin Jacobson of Crompond, New York, and Sidney Korn of Monmouth Beach, New Jersey, Peruvian Hanover has earned $1,145,632 with 27 wins, 14 seconds and 10 thirds from 87 career starts.

“He can’t beat Four Starzzz Shark unless something really goes wrong, but no one can right now,” Daley said. “They’ve done a marvelous job with that horse. The others, whoever has a good day is going to be second. Royal Mattjesty is very competitive when he’s good, and so is Mini Me. The whole bunch is capable of beating each other — just not Four Starzzz Shark.”

Dave Sabatelli, who conditions Four Starzzz Shark, initially trained Peruvian Hanover for Jacobson and Korn.

“Dave got him started,” said Daley. “Then Chris Ryder had him, but the horse ended up with some tendon problems and didn’t race at two. The owners sent him out to Pennsylvania to train down after he had time off for that, then I got him before he ever raced.

“When he puts his mind to it, he’s a pretty good horse,” he noted. “You can never count him out. He came out and crushed Art Major in the Battle of Lake Erie last year, which was one of the few times he was beaten.”

Mr Muscleman, who won last year’s Breeders Crown Three-Year-Old Colt Trot and provided Daley with his first Crown, failed to qualify for Saturday’s $800,000 Breeders Crown Open Trot.

“He’s flipped his palate three out of the last five starts,” Daley said. “The shame of it is that he’s come back big and strong this year. He flipped it early in the (elimination) race this time. Ron (driver Ron Pierce) said he heard him roaring when he pulled up. He’s heard him do it before, but said he’d never heard it that bad. He’s had throat surgery and there’s nothing mechanically wrong with him. But it seems if he gets upset or anxious, he does it.

“I doubt he’ll get to go in the Nat Ray now, so we’ll get him ready to race in Canada the end of August,” he said. “He’s never been as sound or looked as good as he does now.”

It has been bad luck for Bunny

It is not that John Stark, Jr. feels he has had bad luck with Bunny Lake in 2004, it is that he feels the mare has had no luck at all.

The 2001 Breeders Crown champion and Horse of the Year has one win this season, a world record effort of 1:50² in the Dover Downs leg of the Classic Distaff Series this spring.

Her run of bad luck continued Tuesday when she drew post 11, the second tier, in the $300,000 Breeders Crown Mare Pace.

“This is not good for her,” Stark said Thursday afternoon. “She loves to fire out of there from off the gate and being a trailer will completely take her out of her game. I raced her from post 11 once at the Meadowlands before, and she was not good at all.”

The six-year-old has more than $2.5 million on her card and she is the second richest pacing mare of all time behind Eternal Camnation’s $3.5 million. This year, she has earned $153,463 for the W Springtime Racing Stable of Johnstown, New York and Stark, but she is well off her typical year.

“I’m not disappointed with her at all,” Stark said. “She has been racing great. There have been a couple of times when she got locked in, but she is in great shape and John (driver John Campbell) has driven her well.

“This is an exceptional group of mares, and it looks like most of the good ones have drawn outside,” Stark said. “But we seem to have drawn bad quite a few times this year. Hopefully she and John can make their own racing luck.”

Lifetime, the Bunny has 44 wins, 17 seconds and 14 thirds from 85 starts.

Looking for a winning sign from Sure Sign in Mare Pace

It took a while, but pacing mare Sure Sign has made the tough transition from three-year-old ingénue to four-year-old leading lady.

The daughter of Life Sign has five wins, three seconds and one third in 19 starts this year, banking nearly $150,000 toward a career total of $741,862. But it has been a challenge to face the toughest bunch of pacing mares in years, which she will do in Saturday’s 11th race, the $300,000 Breeders Crown Mare Open at the Meadowlands. She is rated 10-1 in the morning line from post two with Yannick Gingras making his Breeders Crown driving debut.

“I was scratching my head for awhile,” said trainer Chuck Connor Jr., who co-owns the mare with John Fodera of Staten Island, New York; Martha Frank of Fair Lawn, New Jersey; and Ted Gewertz of New York City. “She didn’t start out very good this year. But both Chris Ryder and Ross Croghan told me good mares of theirs had trouble making the transition, too. They both said it would be halfway through the season before she’d start getting to these older mares. That’s what happened — she finally kicked in.

“She really likes the hot weather,” said Connor, a native of Maine, who is based at Pocono Downs. “The hotter it gets, the more it suits her.”

Connor said Sure Sign would likely return to race at age five.

“At this point, we have all intentions of coming back next year,” he said. “She still has the Golden Girls, the Roses Are Red and the Milton on her schedule for this season, too.”

Sure Sign comes into the Breeders Crown with 23 wins, 10 seconds and three thirds from 52 career starts.