by Karen Briggs, WEG Media

Campbellville, ON — He already has $2.2 million in his bankroll, and this Saturday evening (Sept. 19) at Mohawk, Muscle Hill is in a perfect position to add another heafty paycheck to the pot.

He’ll be going postward as the prohibitive favourite in the C$1 million Canadian Trotting Classic, Canada’s premiere event for 3-year-old trotters, riding a wave of 16 consecutive wins. The most recent of those was in last week’s CTC elimination, which provided his connections with the opportunity to choose their post position for the lucrative final. Muscle Hill‘s regular driver, Brian Sears, selected the four hole, which will give the veteran linesman lots of options.

But as Muscle Hill‘s trainer, Greg Peck, has pointed out, the CTC is still a horse race and anything could happen. Nine other colts will be starting alongside Muscle Hill, each of them a talented trotter in his own right.

Among them is Judge Joe, who captured the second leg of the Trotting Triple Crown, the Yonkers Trot, on August 29 when Muscle Hill‘s connections routed him instead to the Du Quoin, Illinois World Trotting Derby. Judge Joe defeated fellow CTC starter Neighsay Hanover by nearly four lengths at Yonkers, and earlier in the season enjoyed a five-race win streak, culminated by a victory in a $151,670 Zweig Memorial division at Tioga Downs in July.

Mike Lizzi photo

Yonkers Trot champion Judge Joe has banked $848,542 in his career, with 14 trips to the winner’s circle.

While he has yet to prevail against Muscle Hill, Judge Joe (by Credit Winner out of the Garland Lobell mare, Judge Judy) has bankrolled nearly $900,000 lifetime and can boast a record of 14 wins, seven seconds, and a third in 23 starts. In fact, he has been worse than third only once in his career, in the 2009 Hambletonian final (where he finished seventh).

What’s more, Judge Joe has drawn decently; he’ll leave from post five, just outside of Muscle Hill — and will have the advantage of legendary pilot John Campbell in the bike.

Campbell, in fact, selected Judge Joe over his brother Jim’s entry, Tom Cango.

“They’re all underdogs in this race,” acknowledged Jimmy Takter, who took over training duties on Judge Joe just before the Yonkers Trot, when the colt was purchased by European interests. “But John (Campbell) was quite impressed with the horse and he has high expectations for him.

“He got a little trapped in his elimination (where he finished second to Southern Rocketop) but he had good power in the lane. He drew a good post to me — five is the best post to have at Mohawk — so we’ll see.”

With the colt’s good gate speed, Takter is predicting that Judge Joe may be the one the field chases through the early fractions.

“It’s a good field and it will be an interesting race, anyway,” he says.

The C$1 million Canadian Trotting Classic is the marquee event on Mohawk’s Saturday night, Sept. 19 card. It’s carded as race seven, post time 9:44 p.m.