Rich Fisher

Trenton, NJ — David Miller may not be driving one of the more well-known horses in Saturday’s (Aug. 3) Hambletonian at The Meadowlands, but he will be driving for one of the more high-profile owners in the race.

Miller will be in the sulky behind Reign Of Honor, who has two wins in 21 lifetime races along with four seconds and three thirds. He has won a total of $294,550. This year, Reign Of Honor has one win in the second leg of the New Jersey Sire Stakes in a lifetime best of 1:54.2. He is a son of Father Patrick out of Margarita Momma.

While those figures may appear modest when compared to much of the field, the horse will have a pretty famous rooting section at The Meadowlands, as one of his owners is Jennifer Dalton.

Reign Of Honor (with trainer Richard “Nifty” Norman) has two wins in 21 lifetime races and has won a total of $294,550. USTA/Mark Hall photo.

Fans of Bravo Network will remember Dalton appearing in Pregnant in Heels in 2012 and one year later she was a season-long guest star in The Real Housewives of New Jersey. A friend of Teresa Giudice, one of the show’s top stars, Jennifer is also a Sotheby’s realtor who appeared on the show while trying to sell a home for Melissa and Joe Gorga, and she counts Lil’ Kim as one of her best friends.

And when the gate goes up Saturday, Reign Of Honor will have the Housewives on hand to lend vocal support.

“All the Housewives crew are going to be there,” Dalton said. “The producer wants to do a show with the horses.”

It’s a show that no one would have thought possible just five years ago. Dalton had no interest in horses for most of her life until one day she went to a race at Yonkers, where John Campbell drove her girlfriend’s horse. As they were stuck in traffic while leaving, she saw the horse trailers and became obsessed. Rolling down the window she yelled out to a trainer, who happened to be Pat Lachance. He invited her to see the horses and the two became friends.

Soon after, she entered the Meadowlands’ “Own a Horse” promotion and “won” 10 percent of UF Fast Feelin. Her first race as an owner was Jan. 2, 2016 and she never looked back.

In fact, once the contest ended, she claimed the horse. The horse was eventually claimed from Dalton, which broke her heart. “I never owned a claimer again,” she said. “I cried.”

Once Jennifer got involved in Standardbreds, she discovered a different kind of tension than that which occurred amidst the Housewives controversies.

“There’s drama in both,” she said. “But Housewives of New Jersey I got paid. This one, I pay so much money for horses and training, and you just hope you get paid back.”

Dalton now has a stable of 19 horses at trainer Richard “Nifty” Norman’s New Jersey barn. Most of them have something in common — they honor Jennifer’s 5-year-old daughter.

“All my horses are named after her,” she said.

“When you see a ‘Reign’ somewhere, it comes from us,” Dalton’s boyfriend Mike Herrera added.

Several years ago, Dalton actually brought a horse to Reign’s school for show-and-tell.

“She had me driving around in a tractor and trailer in Edgewater, N.J., right under the George Washington Bridge,” Herrera recalled.

Jennifer has completely immersed herself into harness racing. A striking, stylish woman who always looks her best, she surprises folks when they see her cleaning out the stalls. After attending several Hambletonians it became a dream for her to enter a horse in the race. She and Norman staked Reign Of Honor and made the call to enter him.

“I’m so happy,” said Dalton, who owns the horse with Deo Volente Farms, Tom Pontone, and Kentuckiana Racing Stable. “This horse is so good, he really is. I love this horse.”

The Hambo is a great morale lifter for Dalton, who suffered a serious stroke at the beginning of last year. She is able to walk and live an everyday life, but is still undergoing speech therapy, and her memory has issues at times.

“It was serious, but I’m OK now,” she said.

Jennifer thinks her horse, who is coming off a sixth-place finish in the Reynolds Memorial and drew the four hole in the second elimination, is pretty OK as well. She and Mike playfully joke about his chances in the Hambo.

“You know what, he’s a real nice horse, but he’s been second to Greenshoe (in the New Jersey Sire Stakes final),” Herrera said. “I don’t think we can beat that horse right now. To be honest, I think we’re racing for second place.”

He then directed his conversation to Dalton, saying with a laugh, “You know that; you’re a professional, you know that.

“A couple of years ago she would have been like ‘My horse is the best,’ but she realizes the business now, she understands the numbers. I’m just keeping it real.”

And what is Dalton’s version of real?

“I want to go for it all!” she said.

Either way, it’s a big day for the couple.

“Imagine,” Herrera said, “going from a 10 claimer to a Hambo horse.”

Sounds like a made-for-TV saga.

* * * * *

Tyler Buter doesn’t know if his horse can win the Hambletonian, but he knows darn well that he deserves the opportunity to try.

Buter will be driving Mr Vicktor out of the five hole in the first elimination Saturday, and he is certain the horse belongs in the field of outstanding competitors.

In nine starts this year, Mr Vicktor has won six and finished second twice. Steve Roth photo.

“I thought so early on in the year,” Buter said. “They sold him to (trainer) Jennifer Lappe and (husband) John Kokinos and that was the main reason they bought him, to have a horse with the potential to race in the Hambletonian. The only time other than last week that he’s been beat was against Gimpanzee, who is one of the top two to win the Hambo in my eyes. When you can keep up and race well against one of the top trotters in the country, there’s no reason to believe that he doesn’t belong in the Hambletonian.”

In nine starts this year, Mr Vicktor (RC Royalty-Hawaiian Vicky) has won six and finished second twice. His two seconds were both to Gimpanzee. He made his first Meadowlands start — in fact, his first start outside of New York — on July 27 and finished 12th after making a break in the Reynolds.

He has rebounded from an abbreviated 2-year-old season, in which he was shut down after breathing issues surfaced. There have been no such issues this season, and Buter felt the Reynolds clunker was an aberration.

“He’s had a great year; his start last week, I would just throw it out,” he said. “It was unfortunate. It was a 12-horse field, two trailers, horses going everywhere in the first turn. It didn’t work out. I would not even take that start into consideration and look forward to this week.

“He’s really good gaited and he has a desire to race. As soon as you turn him to the gate, he wants to go. He’s a very willing horse. He’s always showed up every week to race.”

The horse is also owned by Robert Santagata, Diamond Pride LLC (baseball legend Joe Torre) and Joe Lee, and Lee praises the way Buter handles the horse. This will be the driver’s Hambletonian debut, although he won the Townsend Ackerman Stakes with Two AM on Hambletonian Day in 2017.

“This is something you always look forward to growing up,” he said. “It’s what you work for. For the trotters, it’s the biggest race. It’s what you strive for, what you work for all your life. The chance to drive in it at (age) 33 is pretty cool, I think.”

* * * * *

Bob McClure won the Dr. John R. Steele Memorial with Dream Together on Hambletonian Day last year, so it was jokingly suggested to him it should be no problem to win his Hambo debut this year.

“I wouldn’t say that,” McClure said with a laugh. “It takes a lot of horsepower and good luck. But it’s fun when it does come together.”

Forbidden Trade (with trainer Luc Blais) has four wins and two seconds in six starts this year, good for $122,956 in earnings. USTA/Mark Hall photo.

McClure will try and have his fun driving Forbidden Trade out of the one hole in the second elimination. The horse has four wins and two seconds in six starts this year, good for $122,956 in earnings. Last year he won seven of 11 starts and earned $236,244 in winning the O’Brien Award as the top 2-year-old trotting colt of the Year in Canada. The son of Kadabra-Pure Ivory is trained by Luc Blais for owner Serge Godin’s Determination Stable.

“I don’t think he’s disappointed anybody yet,” McClure said. “He’s only been beaten twice. The first time he was on a half (-mile track) and the next time he got locked in. He almost got out to beat Pilot Discretion (in the $185,250 Goodtimes final at Woodbine Mohawk Park). I think every race he’s had, he’s improved and couldn’t be going into the Hambo any better.

“I think the sky is the limit for him. He’s been a professional from day one. He’s made my job easy. If he’s in any position to win he usually gets the job done. He’s been fun to drive all year. I think he has the potential to be a top Grand Circuit horse.”

McClure likes Forbidden Trade’s versatility, nothing that as a 2-year-old “he just chased horses,” and that this year, “out of nowhere in the Goodtimes elim, I left with him. He’s very handy either way. He doesn’t have a preferred style.”

On April 25, McClure suffered a broken pelvis in an accident during qualifiers at Woodbine Mohawk Park, and returned to the sulky May 23 using a hyperbaric chamber three to four times a week to aid his recovery.

After all that, needless to say Saturday is a big day for the 28-year-old.

“It’s exciting,” he said. “I definitely never would have thought this two years ago. But I wouldn’t be here without Determination Stable. That’s a big contribution to it all. I owe it all to them.”

As for whether last year’s Steele victory can help him, McClure said, “It doesn’t hurt. Last year we went into it kind of green, but came out OK. I think as long as you’ve got some good horses and some confidence, you’ll be OK.”