by Ken Weingartner, Harness Racing Communications

Ken Weingartner

Freehold, NJ — He’s Watching returns Saturday to the site of his biggest win, the Meadowlands Racetrack, and trainer Dave Menary is hopeful it will spark a return to winning form.

The colt, who captured the Meadowlands Pace in July with a world-record-equaling 1:46.4 performance, will try to snap a four-race skid when he competes in the first of two Breeders Crown eliminations for 3-year-old male pacers Saturday night at the Big M.

“He’s undefeated at the Meadowlands, so he likes it here,” Menary said. “He seems fresh and happy. We’re just going to try to make sure everything is ironed out and hopefully get back on the right track.

“It’s a wide open (3-year-old colt) division.”

USTA/Ken Weingartner photo

He’s Watching enters the Breeders Crown eliminations with lifetime earnings of $1,116,450.

He’s Watching, who has won five of 12 races this year and earned $824,728, starts his elimination from post six and is 7-2 on the morning line. Supplemental entry Always B Miki, the winner of four races in a row and eight of his last nine, is the 8-5 choice from post four followed by North America Cup champ JK Endofanera at 5-2 from post one.

Little Brown Jug winner Limelight Beach is the 8-5 favorite in the second elimination, followed by Adios winner McWicked at 2-1.

The top five finishers from each elimination advance to the $531,250 final on Nov. 22. Elim winners will draw for posts one through five for the final.

He’s Watching last won on Aug. 10, in the Empire Breeders Classic at Tioga Downs. In his most recent start he finished sixth in a division of the Tattersalls Pace won by Always B Miki. Afterward he was discovered to have suffered from atrial fibrillation, an electrical disorder of the heart rhythm, but has since been well.

“It’s something I’ve monitored, but I think it was a fluke thing,” said Menary, who owns the son of American Ideal-Baberhood with Brad Gray, Michael Guerriero and the Muscara Racing Trust. “If it had been a different horse, we probably wouldn’t even be talking about it. I was pretty disappointed that day, but we’ve regrouped and he seems fresh.

“Hopefully we’ll have a good couple weeks.”

The Canadian-based Menary skipped the Messenger and Matron stakes and prepared He’s Watching for the Breeders Crown with two qualifiers at Mohawk Racetrack in Ontario. He finished second in both, timed in 1:52.4 and 1:53.4.

“We bypassed the Messenger because that was rushing him,” Menary said. “I made the decision to skip the Matron just thinking it was a little less trucking and a little more time at home and I’d have him a little fresher.

“His qualifiers at home were better miles than they look. They were dirty, cold mornings. One morning it was a cold rain and the second qualifier it was snowing. We sat him pretty far back and the horses he missed getting up on are pretty decent horses.”

The Breeders Crown for 3-year-old male pacers features eight of the division’s top nine seasonal money-earners. Wins in an elimination and the final could go a long way toward deciding which horse receives the Dan Patch Award as the group’s best.

“I guess it depends who it is (that wins),” Menary said. “You might end up adding another horse to the mix. This is a big two weeks for everybody.”