by Ken Weingartner, USTA Media Relations Manager

Ken Weingartner

Hightstown, NJ — After a track-record performance in his Messenger Stakes elimination last week, Jimmy Freight will need to overcome the most unfavorable starting position at Yonkers Raceway — post No. 8 — in Saturday’s $500,000 final. While that presents a degree of uncertainty regarding the colt’s prospects in the race, owner Adriano Sorella is hopeful his horse possesses the skills to get the job done.

Jimmy Freight, who won his Messenger elimination in 1:50.3 to become the fastest 3-year-old pacing colt in the track’s history, will have regular driver Louis-Philippe Roy in the sulky for trainer Andrew Harris and is the 5-2 morning-line favorite.

Horses win from post eight at Yonkers at a rate of 4.1 percent. Posts one-through-five at the half-mile oval produce winners at a minimum 15.4-percent clip.

“What are you going to do? You draw the eight-hole, you draw the eight-hole,” Sorella said. “I’m not thrilled about it, but Louis knows what he’s doing and the horse has been super, super sharp. He’s a great half-mile horse and we know he can come from off the pace. We’ll see how it plays out this weekend.”

Mike Lizzi photo

Jimmy Freight won his Messenger elimination in 1:50.3 to become the fastest 3-year-old pacing colt in the track’s history.

Sorella, who paid $30,000 to supplement Jimmy Freight to the Messenger, would like to see the open draw for eliminations winners eliminated in the future. A number of stakes finals already permit the connections of elim winners to pick post positions for the final or allow elim winners to draw for inside positions prior to the open draw for the remainder of the field.

“I knew going into (the Messenger) that it was an open draw, so it’s not like it was a big shock to me,” Sorella said. “I don’t think you should be able to pick your post, but I think elimination winners should draw one-through-five, or something along those lines. If you want competitive eliminations, the elimination winners should get compensated in some way.

“I know people will say it’s only because we drew the eight-hole, but we’ve had this conversation all year when we’ve talked about these half-mile tracks.”

The Messenger is one of four stakes for 3-year-olds Saturday at Yonkers. The card also includes the $500,000 Yonkers Trot, which is the second jewel in the Trotting Triple Crown, as well as the $129,014 Hudson Filly Trot and $112,904 Lady Maud. Racing begins at 6:50 p.m. (EDT) with the stakes events going in succession — Hudson, Lady Maud, Yonkers Trot, Messenger — as races four through seven.

Stay Hungry, who won the first jewel in the Pacing Triple Crown, the Cane Pace, will start the Messenger from post six. The final jewel in the Crown, the Little Brown Jug, is Sept. 20 at the Delaware County Fair in central Ohio.

Springsteen, who drew post one, is the 3-1 second choice on the morning line, followed by Stay Hungry at 4-1. Babes Dig Me, who won the other Messenger elimination in 1:52.2, is 8-1 from post five.

Jimmy Freight, a son of Sportswriter out of Allamerican Summer who was born in Iowa and raced the early part of his career in the Hawkeye State, has won 15 of 25 career races and hit the board a total of 24 times. He has earned $519,274, with all but $6,120 coming since Sorella bought the colt in July 2017. Jimmy Freight won twice in Ontario last year and finished second in the Ontario Sire Stakes championship.

He was lightly staked to races at the beginning of this season, leaving Sorella to supplement if he wanted to see Jimmy Freight compete in some of the sport’s big events. Sorella paid $61,690 to get Jimmy Freight into the Meadowlands Pace and the horse finished in a dead-heat third in his elimination and fourth in the final.

If Jimmy Freight wins the Messenger, he would be eligible to supplement to the Little Brown Jug in September.

“We knew he would be good, we just didn’t know how good he would be,” Sorella said. “Training back, he was in Anthony Beaton’s barn. I asked him what he thought when it came time for staking. I watched him train down and he looked good to me. I think we were a little more concerned about the horses coming back that were so strong at (age) 2 that we kind of left him out of a little bit and staked him more toward the end of the year. That kind of bit me.

“It’s been a fun ride, but it could have been a lot cheaper, that’s for sure. But at the end of the day the horse deserves to be in those races and he’s showed us that he’s one of the top 3-year-olds. This is why you buy horses and you race them, to try to get a good one like this. When you have one, you don’t want to think twice about some of the stuff you want to do with them. You want to go to those races so you’re not kicking yourself afterwards for not trying.”

Jimmy Freight’s wins this year include four divisions of the Ontario Sire Stakes and a division of the Somebeachsomewhere Stakes. He finished third to older rivals Sintra and McWicked in the Gold Cup, where he rallied from eighth place with a :26.3 final quarter-mile.

“Maybe he shouldn’t have been in there, but we put him in there anyway to give him a race,” Sorella said. “He was trying the whole way and closing hard. I like the fact that he’s got gate speed or can come from behind. We’ve seen him on the lead, but some of his better races have come from off the pace.

“This horse has got a big heart and nothing really fazes him. He went a big mile the other night. We knew it was coming because he likes the half and he’s a pretty handy horse. I don’t know if we’ve seen the bottom to him yet, but I don’t think we have.”

Following is the field for the Messenger in post-position order.

PP-Horse-Driver-Trainer-Morning Line
1-Springsteen-Brian Sears-Rene Allard-3/1
2-Winston-Corey Callahan-John Butenschoen-20/1
3-Topville Olympian-Jim Morrill Jr.-Chris Oakes-7/1
4-JK Wildfire-Jason Bartlett-Brett Pelling-7/1
5-Babes Dig Me-George Brennan-Tony Alagna-8/1
6-Stay Hungry-Doug McNair-Tony Alagna-4/1
7-Nutcracker Sweet-Jordan Stratton-Jimmy Takter-20/1
8-Jimmy Freight-Louis Roy-Andrew Harris-5/2