by Emily Gaskin, for Hoosier Park

Anderson, IN — Hoosier Park Racing & Casino is proud to announce Lazarus N, who is hailed as the greatest racehorse to ever emerge from New Zealand, will be making his North American racing debut at Hoosier Park Racing & Casino for the 25th edition of the $325,000 Dan Patch Stakes on Friday (Aug. 10).

Lazarus N will be supplemented to the Dan Patch Stakes for a fee of $25,000 by Hall of Fame trainer, Jimmy Takter. Takter is no stranger to the Dan Patch winner’s circle as he won the 2015 edition of the race with JK Endofanera and driver Brett Miller.

The event is for older male pacers and restricted to the 10 highest lifetime money-earners that enter. With the supplemental fee, the Dan Patch Stakes will boast an increased purse of $325,000 for the third consecutive year.

A winner of 35 of his 45 lifetime starts at the variety of distances raced in Australia and New Zealand, Lazarus N is the richest Down Under bred Standardbred stallion of all time with earnings of NZ$3,821,066 (US$2,683,343). The New Zealand bred was named Pacer of the Year at ages 3 and 4 and was victorious in two editions of the prestigious New Zealand Cup and 15 Group One events overall. Lazarus N has only finished off the board once in his career.

Lazarus N was recently purchased by world-renowned Thoroughbred farm Taylor Made Sales and Stallions of Nicholasville, Ky., as they returned to the Standardbred world with a huge splash. The 6-year-old horse arrived in the United States in late May and made his debut on the racetrack with a dazzling 1:48.3 qualifying mile on July 28 at The Meadowlands.

“It is truly an honor to have a horse as incredibly renowned as Lazarus N make his North American debut at Hoosier Park during our 25th anniversary season,” said Hoosier Park’s Vice President and General Manager of Racing Rick Moore. “He’s taking the world by storm, and his presence at our 25th edition of the $325,000 Dan Patch Stakes is a testament to the racing program we’ve built here in Indiana.”

When the nominations closed for the Dan Patch Stakes, a total of 26 of the top rated older pacers in North America were included in the lineup. William R. Haughton Memorial winner McWicked, who is currently ranked No. 2 in harness racing’s weekly Hambletonian Society/Breeders Crown poll, is among the list of eligibles. McWicked has won six of eight starts while amassing $574,561 in purse earnings this season. The Casie Coleman trainee is approaching $3 million in career earnings and is currently the top horse in harness racing’s older male pacer division.

As an added bonus, the winner of the 2018 Dan Patch Stakes will get an automatic nomination to the 2018 edition of the $175,000 (est.) Hoosier Park Pacing Derby slated for Friday (Sept. 21) at Hoosier Park Racing & Casino. All nomination fees will be waived but in the event the winner of the Dan Patch has already been nominated to the Hoosier Park Pacing Derby, a refund of all fees will be given upon declaration.

Once again, the Dan Patch Stakes will highlight the 2018 harness racing season as the best in the sport of harness racing will descend upon the seven-eighths-mile oval seeking glory in Hoosier Park’s premier harness racing event. As part of a weekend long festival of entertainment and racing, The Dan Patch stakes will serve as Indiana’s richest harness race of the season and will be broadcasted live on Indianapolis’s WISH-TV Channel 8.