by Dean A. Hoffman

Dean Hoffman

Columbus, OH — Yesterday I was speaking to a prominent person in the sport on another subject and casually asked, “So, whatcha think of the Meadowlands Pace?”

“Holy cow!” he said. For a moment I thought sportscaster Harry Caray had come back to life, but I suppose that’s the reaction of just about everyone who saw the race, either live or on simulcast.

Holy cow indeed. We might have believed that Somebeachsomewhere could pace in 1:47, but who among us believed that another horse could pace that fast — and beat him in the process? Yeah, holy cow!

Yessir, that was some horse race and my inbox has been filled by people commenting on the race. I see that the blogs are full of comments about it. That’s all good — you’d hardly want a Meadowlands Pace to be ignored.

Ironically, Dexter Nukes recently died and I recall seeing his Meadowlands Pace win in 1989 and it seemed like a ho-hum event. I was on the way back from a trip to Moscow with American horsemen Delvin Miller, Howard Beissinger, Doug Ackerman, and John Cashman. Delvin and I stayed over in New Jersey and drove to the track to see the Meadowlands Pace. For some reason, at the time — and certainly now in retrospect — it simply didn’t seem all that exciting.

No one will say that this year’s Meadowlands Pace wasn’t exciting. The race was practically conceded to Somebeachsomewhere, who was being anointed with other-worldly abilities by some in the sport. And he didn’t disappoint his backers; it’s simply that another horse paced right with him.

I’m not among those who will pile on Paul MacDonell and tell him what he did wrong in the race. I don’t think he did anything wrong in the race. Others disagree. I know that and certainly Paul does, too. Drivers know that if you win, you’re a genius and if you lose you’re a bum.

What’s that saying? “Success has many fathers but failure is an orphan.”

But it’s all too easy to drive a horse from the grandstand or from the chair in front of your computer. And it’s even easier when you can drive the race after it’s over and you knew exactly how things played out. MacDonell didn’t have those luxuries.

I’ve read that people felt that Paul hit the panic button and pulled three-wide too soon. What were his options? To stay behind Bullville Powerful, who was raising the white flag of surrender at the half? Bullville Powerful was in the process of going from being live cover to becoming a roadblock and MacDonell knew it was better to tip his colt before they reached the turn.

Pierce let Bullville Powerful get a half-length past Art Official and saw SBSW on his heels. He loosened the lines on his colt and soon Art Official, Bullville Powerful, and SBSW were three horses across the track as they passed the half-mile marker.

SBSW was going forward while Bullville Powerful was going backwards, but MacDonell had to go a full furlong outside of Art Official before he could clear to the pylons.

Let’s take nothing away from Art Official, his trainer Joe Seekman, and driver Ron Pierce. Seekman obviously had his colt honed to a fine edge and sitting on SBSW’s back for part of the third quarter undoubtedly braved Art Official up for the stretch.

Look at Art Official’s lines and you’ll see that when he has a target to aim for in the homestretch, his brush can be lethal. That’s how he won the Hoosier Cup and the Hanover. And that’s how he won the Meadowlands Pace.

His trainer Joe Seekman is highly respected and certainly no stranger to top horses. Let’s give Joe and his colt and driver all the credit, but SBSW raced like the champion he is.

Interestingly, if you listen to track announcer Sam McKee’s call of the Meadowlands Pace, you could close your eyes and still “see” the race unfolding. Sam does far more than just tick off the positions of the horses. He slips in comments that demonstrate his mastery of race calling.

“Somebeachsomewhere is tracking the cover of Bullville Powerful.”

“They’re rolling pretty good.”

“Here comes the big horse!”

“51.4 — amazing half here!”

“Art Official is stretching him out.”

“Somebeachsomewhere was used very hard.”

“Somebeachsomewhere under pressure.”

“Art Official a desperate lunge on the outside!”

“At the line — Art Official — 1:47! World record upset in the Pace!”

It was a classic race call in a classic race, and it was enough to make me say, “Holy cow!”

Editor’s Note: To view a Cyber Circuit replay of the Meadowlands Pace, click here. For video interviews with the major Pace players, click here.