by David Mattia, USTA Web Newsroom Senior Correspondent

New Brunswick, NJ — Down in the Sunshine State you’ll find a no-nonsense horse who understandably goes by the name of No Nonsense Yankee. This rugged son of Jenna’s Beach Boy from the No Nukes mare No No Paradise, has been tearing up the track since he first went postward at Pompano Park on February 10, 2006, and except for a brief trip to The Meadowlands in the summer of 2006, Pompano is the track where he’s been delighting fans since day one.

Saturday night he’ll go to the gate in Pompano’s premier event, The Isle of Capri, for a purse of $267,000. That’s quite a leap for a horse that sold at Harrisburg as an unraced 2-year-old for a mere $3,000 — or is it?

No Nonsense Yankee showed up for his first qualifier as a 3-year-old, and made it a winning one. He patiently sat the four hole and then uncorked a :28.1 final panel to win in 1:58.4 for his trainer and co-owner, Michael Deters. He came back ten days later for his pari-mutuel debut and raced superbly — coming from far back with another :28.1 last quarter to win by 2–1/2 lengths in 1:57.2. He promptly followed that win with a front-end blow out in 1:55.2 — only this time his last quarter had improved to a very brisk :27.4.

His third start was marred by a break nearing the half, and he had to settle for a third place check. After this miscue No Nonsense Yankee returned with an admirable 6-1/2 length score in 1:53.2.

We asked Michael Deters about the break No Nonsense Yankee made early in his career. Keep in mind that Deters hails from a renowned harness racing family, and as horsemen with astute pedigrees usually go, he is very candid about his horse’s strengths and weaknesses.

“I think he broke in that race because he was over-pacing himself,” recalled Deters. “To this day he still hits his knees a little bit, but the faster he goes the less he hits his knees. Going behind the starting gate he brushes his knees, but once he’s in full flight he doesn’t hit his knees — or barley brushes them. That night I was moving him in the middle of the pack and he was pacing pretty well but I think I might have took too much time getting around the turn. I think he would have been fine and won that race, but that’s not the way it turned out.”

Lap Time Photo – Skip Smith

No Nonsense Yankee was a 1:50 winner in the third leg of the Isle of Capri.

Since the aforementioned early successes, No Nonsense Yankee has won 22 of his 69 lifetime starts, taken a mark at Pompano of 1:50, and earned $140,768. In the process he has interested quite a few buyers, but indecision was the rule when it came time to hand over the lead shank.

“That night he made that break I had him sold for $100,000, but he made that break and the buyer backed out. This turned out to be a good thing for me because he’s the best horse I’ve ever had. He’s certainly worth a lot more than $100,000 now. As a matter of fact, he’s been sold two or three times but each time nobody showed up with the money.

“He’s a really fast horse and he’s really nice to drive. He matured so much since August (2007) when Pompano closed for a break. He’d paced in 1:52.1, but he wasn’t really that good. We shipped him out for a three-week rest and he came back a whole different horse — bigger and stronger. The freshening up just really did him a lot of good. Since he’s come back from that break he’s been unbelievable.

“If you look at his starts from September 2007 until the end of that year, his cumulative total of getting beat is about two lengths — the total of how much he was beat, not how much he was beat per race.”

The acquisition of No Nonsense Yankee came about when Deters went to Harrisburg looking for a good, green horse, but things panned out a little differently than he thought they would.

“I bought him for $3,000 at The Harrisburg sale at the end of his 2-year-old year. He was a 2-year-old coming three and had never raced. My partner at the time, whose wife (Despina Powell) still owns half the horse with me, went to Harrisburg with me looking for a nice horse — a green horse. My uncle Terry Deters told me that he’d heard about this Jenna’s Beach Boy horse named No Nonsense Yankee that was training in Michigan and he told me to take a look at him and take a shot. We were prepared to go to $10,000. I noted that he had a curb and he stood a little crooked, but he was a big strong horse, so when the hammer fell at $3,000 we were really happy.

“The side note to that is that the same day I bought No Nonsense Yankee I bought another horse for $25,000 and he never made it to the starting gate. It’s the truth — the cold-hearted truth. It was a trotter that I was familiar with, but he never got to the gate for me– and I had him for a year and a half! So I was blessed by getting No Nonsense Yankee. Truthfully, if you look at the history of horse sales, very rarely is the highest priced horse the one who goes on.”

Deters describes his champion pacer with the passion of someone who really loves his horse, yet maintains a professional bearing when he pushes aside the warm glow that often obscures the genuineness when one portrays his or her champion.

“He’s not a huge horse or anything like that. He’s a medium plus horse and he’s really beautiful in the fact that he’s got a big neck and a great big rump on him. But he’s got a Beach Towel head — not a very pretty head at all, but I always like to say, ‘As long as their head is in the picture, all their heads are pretty.’”

Eschewing the glamorous trail that many top horses take along their way to fame and fortune, No Nonsense Yankee seems to be right at home on the Pompano backstretch.

“He stables at the track,” said Deters. “He’s been at the track pretty much since I bought him. Two summers ago I sent him to the Meadowlands, but things just didn’t go well for him. I don’t know if he got sick shipping or what happened — but he didn’t do well there. He’d always been raced from behind, but when Cat Manzi drove him at The Meadowlands he became a lunatic — that just wasn’t his game. His “game” throughout his whole career was racing from behind. He can cut a mile, and more recently he’s gone a few good races on the front end, but his best game has always been from behind.

“I gave him some time off when he came back from New Jersey. He won for me when he got back but he wasn’t any good. I won with him in 1:56(.1), but he wasn’t the same horse, so I castrated him. Since I castrated him the evolution of his becoming a good horse began. He’s not the best-gaited horse I’ve ever had but he’s the fastest all around. I’ve had horses that could pace a :26 second quarter, but not one who can pace consecutive :27’s like this horse does.”

In divisions of the first two legs of the Isle of Capri, No Nonsense Yankee proved his merit by finishing a close third to the noted Maltese Artist in the first go-round on February 9; pacing his mile in 1:51.4 despite being parked through a :26.3 opening panel. He came back the next week to finish a thin nose behind Little Brown Jug champion Mr Feelgood.

In last week’s leg he grabbed the top after a first quarter of :26.3 and never looked back — scoring easily in 1:50.

“The other night he cut the mile,” said Deters, “and there was never a moment when I thought he was going to get beat.”

No Nonsense Yankee will race from the seven hole in the Isle of Capri final without his usual pilot, Wally Hennessey.

“Bruce Ranger is going to drive him,” said Deters. “Wally Hennessey has been driving him but he picked off to drive Special Report. Of course, I’m disappointed to lose his regular driver, but Bruce and Wally are the two best drivers at Pompano so I’m not taking this as a step down. For me to be able to pick up Bruce is a plus.

“I think that I would like to see him realistically get away somewhere in the middle and come when he has to, but Maltese Artist, who will be the favorite in the race, has the nine hole and he’s not going to take back to last that’s for sure.

“It’s going to be a great race, but if I had my druthers I would have preferred the three, four or five hole. When you get a post like that you get the chance to leave a little and still get position, or you can duck in and still get away good. I think that when the wings fold Saturday night Bruce will do what he thinks is best. Whether that comes out as his plan or my plan nobody knows. I just hope he works out a good trip.”

Michael Deters is a native of Ohio but followed his dad Bill who trained horses in Florida from 1966-1976. The family then moved to Michigan where the young Deters went to high school and college. Somewhere along the road he acquired the skills he needed to be a top horseman — something he is certainly proving to be.

Deters is a refreshingly candid and intelligent horseman — quite deserving of a horse like No Nonsense Yankee, and to date Deters has trained 401 winners with earnings of $1,894,825. His driving statistics are equally impressive. As of February 28, 2008, he’s brought home 578 winners and earned $2,274,624. If, with his keen eye, he keeps picking out $3,000 horses like No Nonsense Yankee, these figures are sure to mount.

The field for the Isle of Capri lines up thusly. 1. Disco Dragon (Daryl Bier), 2. Green River Gorge (Richard Schaut), 3. Fake Denario N (Brad Hanners), 4. Mr Feelgood (Andy Miller), 5. Western Ace (Howard Parker), 6. Special Report (Wally Hennessey), 7. No Nonsense Yankee (Bruce Ranger), 8. Predator DVM (Kevin Wallis), and 9. Maltese Artist (Dave Palone).