by David Mattia, USTA Web Newsroom Senior Correspondent

David Mattia

Plainfield, NJ — Despite the fact that Indiana journalist John B.L. Soule actually coined it, the old phrase, “Go west, young man,” is usually attributed to newspaper magnate Horace Greeley. There are, however, no records of anyone coining the phrase, “Go east, young lady,” but that didn’t deter one intrepid Iowan, a mare named Laughandbehappy, from pulling up stakes, so to speak, and finding her way to the Meadowlands and trainer Tony Alagna.

Alagna, after a very long tenure as the go-to man for training greats Erv Miller and Brian Pinske, has struck out on his own with 32 head, and his 4-year-old mare from Iowa is turning heads now that she’s headed into the $53,000 final of the White Ruffles on Thursday night (Jan. 21) at Meadowlands Racetrack. She’s already won both of her legs in the series and seems primed for a top effort after less than two months with her new trainer.

“Ross (Croghan) said to me that he’d just bought a new mare,” said Alagna. “She had been racing in Iowa and he didn’t know much about her but he asked would I be interested in taking her so of course I said I would. I looked her up and saw that she had some winter series at the Meadowlands and she had some really good lines out in Iowa.”

She certainly did have some good lines out in the Hawkeye State, and a quick glance at her lines shows her winning often on the Iowa Fair circuit. As a matter of fact, in 2009 she won 12 of 14 races and earned $21,449 while racing for some very modest purses. The daughter of Badlands Hanover from the Arturo mare Zinful took a 3-year-old record of 1:55.2 at Prairie Meadows back in October for trainer Roger Roland and driver Duane Roland.

Lisa photo

Laughandbehappy lowered her mark to 1:52.3 in the second leg of the White Ruffles Series at the Meadowlands.

Alagna picked up Laughandbehappy on Dec. 1 whereupon he put her into two qualifiers at the Meadowlands, with Andy Miller and then John Campbell at the controls.

“In her qualifiers for us (Dec. 22 and Dec. 28) we brought her along from the back,” Alagna said. “You could tell that even though she’d won a lot of races, the fact that she was so much the best in many of them had landed her on the front end quite a bit. We tried to educate her a little so that when she was ready to go to the next level she could.”

Turns out that a little education was the right thing to do because while she was up to speed and scored in 1:54.1 over Future Fire N and I’m All Country in the first leg of the White Ruffles, she still needed to improve her navigation skills at this higher level.

“When we raced her in the first leg of the White Ruffles we knew that she had enough speed to leave a little,” Alagna said. “John (Campbell) left from the 10-hole and dropped in sixth. Then she came second up very lightly and as he pulled her out in the lane John noticed that she wasn’t quite sure of what to do but he also said that she’d done her best pacing down to the wire so we were very encouraged by that and we knew we had her going in the right direction.

“After the first leg we figured she’d shown enough versatility but we made a couple of changes because she was a work in progress. John had suggested some changes as well and in the second leg he said that she was very raceable and would get better every week.”

The second leg found Laughandbehappy a little closer to the lead and through the stretch she drew away by five lengths in a lifetime best of 1:52.3 over Auroring Doll and Jawjackin. This big win didn’t completely surprise her trainer.

USTA/Ken Weingartner photo

Trainer Tony Alagna will start Laughandbehappy from the rail in Thursday’s White Ruffles final at the Meadowlands.

“Having worked for Erv Miller and Brian Pinkse I’ve sat behind so many mares who were developing and stepping up to that next level,” recalled Alagna. “The first time I trained her she had a gait to her that was made for speed and you could tell there was something there that was going to take her to the next level.

“She’s a nice medium-sized mare but she has some length to her. She’s dark brown and very well proportioned. She has a nice rump and a good shoulder to her. She looks the part in the stall and she looks the part when she steps up on the track.”

While Tony Alagna’s name might be somewhat new to the program, his face in the harness racing community is very well recognized for a guy who is just 37 years old. For many years he’s always been the big man behind the bigger man and for the last seven years he’d been handling Erv Miller’s Florida barn and going wherever he had to go to get a horse raced.

Seems as if fate crossed the paths of two emerging champions because as Alagna headed north, Laughandbehappy was headed east, and the two bumped into each other in the shadows of New York City, and if you can make it there…well, you know how the song goes.

Foaled in Grinnell, Iowa, Laughandbehappy was bred by Linwood Higgins and Amy Higgins. She is currently owned by Let It Ride Stables Inc. and Robert Cooper Stables LLC.

$53,000 White Ruffles Final
PP-Horse-Driver-Trainer
1-Laughandbehappy-John Campbell-Tony Alagna
2-I’m All Country-Tim Tetrick-Dean Eckley
3-Bryan’s Ideal-George Brennan-Kevin Hewitt
4-Cherish Melody-Andy Miller-Tony Alagna
5-Auroring Doll-George Brennan-Ron Burke
6-Balasun-Brian Sears-Sherif Cunmulaj
7-Jawjackin-Brian Sears-Darran Cassar
8-Amarillo Sky-Peter Wrenn-Peter Wrenn
9-Future Fire N-Mark Lewis-Kelvin Harrison
10-TC’s Delight-Brian Sears-John Stark, Jr.