Gordon Waterstone

Lexington, KY — Home cooking certainly agrees with Ponda Adventure as the Indiana-sired 3-year-old gelding trotter has been nearly perfect while never leaving the Hoosier State over his 25-start career, amassing 20 wins and five seconds and earnings of $628,537. Ponda Adventure will now put his record of never finishing worse than second on the line on Friday night (Nov. 4) when he lines up in post three in the $200,000 Carl Erskine at Harrah’s Hoosier Park.

Trained by Erv Miller and driven by Trace Tetrick, Ponda Adventure is listed as the 5-2 second choice on the morning line behind the 8-5 King Of The North, who arrives at Hoosier Park off his Breeders Crown victory last Saturday night (Oct. 29) at Woodbine Mohawk Park for trainer Ray Schnittker and driver Mark MacDonald. King Of The North will line up behind the gate to Ponda Adventure’s immediate right in post four.

The Erskine (race nine) is one of four open stakes on the 14-race card that also includes the $200,000 Monument Circle for 3-year-old male pacers (race 11), the $110,000 Crossroads of America for 3-year-old filly trotters (race seven) and the $100,000 USS Indianapolis Memorial for 3-year-old filly pacers (race five).

A $28,000 yearling purchase, Ponda Adventure went eight-for-10 last year at two and 12-for-15 this year at three. Dean Gillette Photography.

“He’s one of those horses that tries every week,” understated trainer Miller about Ponda Adventure, who has devoured his Indiana competition over the past two years. “He gives you 100 percent every time he goes on the track. He’s been a really good horse for us.”

A $28,000 yearling purchase, Ponda Adventure went eight-for-10 last year at two and 12-for-15 this year at three. Twenty-three of his races have been at Hoosier Park, with the other two at the Indiana State Fairgrounds.

A son of Swan For All out of the Muscle Hill mare Wildflower, whose biggest career victories came in the 2015 Kindergarten final and the 2016 Hudson Filly Trot, Ponda Adventure is owned by Marty Engel’s Engel Stable of IL, Andy Willinger and Jerry Graham.

“He’s a nice, strong horse now, but when he was a 2-year-old it took him a little longer,” said Miller. “That’s part of the reason he brought only $28,000, he wasn’t very mature at the sale. He just wasn’t quite as big and mature as some of the other ones. When we were getting him ready as a 2-year-old we turned him out a couple of different times to let him grow up and give him more time.”

Miller said when it came time to make stakes payments, he conferred with the owners and decided to stay close to his Indiana home base at the Indiana State Fairgrounds.

“I told the owners that since he was a smaller horse and not a real big horse, why run around everywhere else and chase that money when we can get it right here at home,” said Miller. “It’s such good money. It’s a nice place to race and we don’t have to ship everywhere.”

This year, Ponda Adventure won his first 10 races as he dominated his Indiana peers. His first loss of 2022 came on Sept. 23 when he finished second in the $100,000 Phil Langley Memorial to Hambletonian champ Cool Papa Bell. Ponda Adventure then finished second in his next two starts, including the $270,000 Indiana Super Final on Oct. 14, the second year in a row he had to settle for runner-up honors in the rich Sires Stakes finale.

Ponda Adventure then got back into the winner’s circle his next start in the Pegasus on Oct. 21, following that up with a career-best 1:52.2 win in the Circle City on Oct. 28.

“Even when he got beat a couple of times he put forth a good effort,” said Miller. “He wasn’t quite as good in the Super Final but then he came back super sharp.”

Miller said Ponda Adventure’s upcoming schedule following the Erskine includes two more races at Hoosier Park and then the trotter will head to The Meadowlands where he will be sold in the January Mixed Sale.

While the Pond-A-Acres-bred Ponda Adventure brought a modest $28,000 when he was sold as a yearling at the 2020 Hoosier Classic Sale, it’s been much different for his younger siblings. At the 2021 sale his full brother Ponda Chase brought $160,000, and just a couple of weeks ago at the 2022 Hoosier Classic Sale his half-brother Ponda Marshall sold for $170,000.

“I looked at them but I didn’t get either one of them,” said Miller. “I bid on them but they brought more than I wanted to spend.”

Miller has starters in each of the other three stakes Friday, with Atlee Bender in the sulky behind all three. In the USS Indianapolis, the Miller-trainer JK’s Rollin Baby starts from post three, with the daughter of JK Endofanera posting eight wins and more than $200,000 this year.

“She was a little slow starting at two,” said Miller. “She popped a curb late training in Florida early her 2-year-old year so we froze that curb and gave her some time and she didn’t start until midway through the season. She got better and was good at the end of her 2-year-old year.”

JK’s Rollin Baby is the 6-1 fourth choice on the morning line, with 9-5 favoritism going to Ohio Sires Stakes champion and Jugette runner-up Sea Silk, who starts from post one with driver Chris Page.

Atlee will also direct the Miller-trained The Longest Yard from post one as a 20-1 longshot in the Monument Circle. The favorite in the race is Little Brown Jug and Adios champ Bythemissal, who starts from post nine as the 6-5 choice with driver Page.

“He’s been a nice horse for us,” said Miller about The Longest Yard, a son of Rockin Image who has won three times in 2022. “He battled some sickness but is on his way back and he raced good his last start (a late-closing fourth in the Circle City on Oct. 28).

Miller and Bender will also team up with Cash Infusion from post one in the Crossroads of America. The daughter of Chapter Seven was sent to Miller from East Coast-based trainer George Ducharme for her Indiana starts, and she responded well to the trip west as she comes into the Crossroads of America off a career-best 1:51.4 score in the Circle City on Oct. 28.

Cash Infusion is listed as the 5-2 second choice on the morning line, behind Indiana champion M-M’s Dream, who is the 2-1 choice from post seven with driver David Miller.

For complete entries for the Friday card, click here.