by Dean A. Hoffman

“Psst ! Hey, buddy, wanna make a million bucks?”

How many times have people been scammed by someone using that line, appealing to man’s greed? It’s happened in the stock market, real estate, and, yes, even the horse business.

A guy in the horse business once called me and wanted to know if I wanted to make not a quick million, but a quick two million bucks.

“Sure, as long as I don’t have to drive the getaway car,” I answered in jest, knowing full well that this was a foolhardy get-rich-quick scheme.

Pedigree of Rocknroll Hanover

The fact is that I do know how to make a million bucks in harness racing. It’s simple: Buy a colt out of Rich N Elegant.

The 15-year-old Direct Scooter mare has produced six colts and they have averaged more than $1.1 million in earnings, or more than $6.6 million collectively. And this is despite the fact that she’s had one clunker colt, Righteous Hanover. He was a $375,000 yearling and he’s now a 5-year-old with $48,365 in the bank.

Other than that, Rich N Elegant’s colts have been nothing short of superb, as demonstrated once again when her son Rocknroll Hanover swept to victory in Saturday night’s Meadowlands Pace. His earnings are already at $1,951,756 and he’s got a lot of opportunity to add to that bankroll.

Prior to Rocknroll Hanover and Righteous Hanover, Rich N Elegant had four colts. They were:

Rustler Hanover ($971,638)
Royalflush Hanover ($2,553,893)
Richess Hanover ($557,537)
Red River Hanover ($965,426)

She’s had four fillies, including a 2005 foal by Western Hanover.

Her first filly was Rye Hanover, a 1998 Western Hanover filly who earned $68,506. In 2001, she had a filly from the first crop by The Panderosa named River Hanover, who did not race and is a Hanover Shoe Farms broodmare.

Rich N Elegant has a 2-year-old filly by Cam’s Card Shark that has yet to race.

In 2003, she was bred to reigning Horse of the Year Real Desire. It’s interesting to note that Shifting Sands, the fourth dam of Real Desire, is also the second dam of Rich N Elegant.

No foal came from that 2003 mating to Real Desire, however, and in 2004 Rich N Elegant was first bred to Art Major, then switched back to Hanover’s goldmine stallion Western Hanover. Rich N Elegant produced a filly by Western Hanover of May 7 of this year.

Rocknroll Hanover ‘s sire Western Ideal.

Let’s give appropriate credit to Rocknroll Hanover ‘s sire Western Ideal because having a Meadowlands Pace winner in your first crop gives a stallion a remarkable boost. Plus ,another Western Ideal colt, American Ideal, picked up the fourth-place check in the Meadowlands Pace despite starting from post 10 and enduring an overland journey.

Western Ideal’s son Dawn Ofa New Day won the Hoosier Cup in late June.

Last year Western Ideal jumped off to a quick start in the stud with the champion filly Cabrini Hanover (out of another great Hanover mare Cathedra). Another top filly from his first crop was Righteous Renee, a winner of $134,760 in eight starts in 2004. This year Righteous Renee has cooled off, earning only $25,795 in her first 10 tries.

The hot sophomore filly for Western Ideal this year is Ideal News, a winner of seven of 10 starts and $220,900.

One ironic fact about Western Ideal siring a Meadowlands Pace winner in his first crop is that Western Ideal himself never had a chance to compete in the prestigious Pace. He sat out his entire sophomore year with an injury.

Developed by Alan Riegle , Western Ideal was clearly a talented colt before he was injured in a race at Lexington in late September, 1997. He was on the shelf for the 1998 season, but reappeared in 1999 for trainer Blair Burgess. In 2000 he enjoyed an outstanding season as a free-for- aller under the guidance of Brett Pelling , trainer of Rocknroll Hanover.

Rocknroll Hanover ‘s victory bring joy to many people—certainly to his owners, trainer, driver and breeder. But it must also bring joy to Hall of Famer George Segal, whose Brittany Farm bred Western Ideal. Segal raced Western Ideal’s sire and dam, the champions Western Hanover and Leah Almahurst.

Western Ideal and Rich N Elegant are both out of mares by Abercrombie, a stallion that provided Segal with some of his best performers, including Jug winner Life Sign.

The triumph of Rocknroll Hanover would also bring joy to one man who is no longer around to drink from the victory cup, and that’s the inimitable Bill Shehan. He was a lawyer and horse breeder and in his breeding program he championed lines from two mares foaled in the 1950s: Adora (1952) and Golden Miss (1954).

Adora’s daughters K Nora and Dreamer’s Sis, both by Knight Dream, were extremely successful for Shehan and they lead us to Western Ideal.

Golden Miss was a daughter of the first Jug winner, Ensign Hanover, and this female line first vaulted to national fame when Strike Out, a son of Golden Miss, set a world record winning the ’72 Jug.

Golden Miss had only six foals, including two fillies. Her first was Shifting Sands, a chestnut mare whose sire and dam were also chestnut.

Shifting Sands earned only $3,469 on the track. She was trained by Charlie Clark, the Kentucky horseman used by Shehan for many years. Few trainers knew how to make early speed any better than Charlie Clark, but Shifting Sands just didn’t have the right stuff. Shehen bred her as a 4-year-old in 1969 to Race Time.

I recall Shifting Sands when I worked at Stoner Creek Stud in Kentucky in the early 1970s because she was one of the first mares bred to Meadow Skipper during the 1973 breeding season. She was, however, actually bred to Meadow Skipper in late 1972 because the USTA then permitted foals born in November or December to be registered in the subsequent year. So the ’73 breeding season began in ’72.

The Meadow Skipper colt from Shifting Sands was foaled Nov. 25, 1973 , but he was considered a 1974 foal by the USTA. He raced under the name Glencoe Skipper, but accomplished little.

(Ironically, another Meadow Skipper colt was foaled the same day— Nov. 25, 1973— as Glencoe Skipper. His name was Jade Prince and he made history in 1974 when he became the only 2-year-old ever to hold the record for the fastest race mile [1:54.1] in harness racing history.)

Shifting Sands was among a group of mares that Kentuckiana Farms acquired from Bill Shehan , but she never really produced a superstar. In 1984, her Abercrombie filly Proven Perfect went through the sale ring at the Kentucky Standardbred Sale for $30,000.

Proven Perfect was purchased by Armstrong Bros. and earned only $153 on the track.

Retired to the Armstrong Bros. broodmare band, Proven Perfect had colts by Amrbro Omaha and Cam Fella before delivering a Direct Scooter filly in 1990. Sold for $22,000 as a yearling under the name Armbro Literal, the filly was renamed Rich N Elegant.

She was an outstanding freshman filly, winning four of 17 starts and $70,645 under the direction of trainer John Kopas in Canada . As a 3-year-old, she earned a mark of 1:56.4 and retired with lifetime earnings of $96,244.

Hanover purchased Rich N Elegant in the spring of 1994 and she went to the court of Western Hanover, then standing his second season.

From that mating came Rustler Hanover, a winner of $639,931 in his freshman season, and Rich N Elegant was on her way.

Her daughters Rye Hanover and River Hanover are both broodmares now. Rye Hanover has a 3-year-old by Astreos and a yearling Camluck filly. River Hanover has a yearling colt by Artsplace selling at Harrisburg this fall and colt by Real Artist foaled on April 10, 2005.

Rich N Elegant is a daughter of Direct Scooter, who died earlier this year. He was not known as an outstanding filly sire and you don’t have to scratch the surface of Direct Scooter’s pedigree very hard to find a lot of trotting blood. Nevertheless, Direct Scooter is the sire of the best pacing broodmare in the breed right now.

Other Direct Scooter mares have produced the current free-for-all Cashimir Camotion and top pacers such as Pacific Rocket and Village Jiffy, but they cannot begin to compete with the accomplishments of Rich N Elegant.