by Peter Kleinhans, for The Red Mile
Lexington, KY — Last season, as a two-year-old, the Cambest colt Kafka Hanover won only two races and just over $11,000. And as a sophomore, he had earned about the same amount through the middle of July. But after leaving the Meadowlands for other climes, the colt, like one of the characters in his namesake author Franz Kafka’s short stories, has undergone a metamorphosis.
Unlike Kafka’s character, however, the Karen Garland-trained three-year-old did not turn into a giant insect, but rather into one of the best Kentucky-sired three-year-old pacers around.
After winning the final of the Stan Bergstein Pace at Plainridge on July 26, Kafka Hanover shipped to The Red Mile, where he has been perfect in three outings, winning both the elimination and the $80,000 final of the Kentucky Sired Summer Championship, and taking his elimination for the Kentucky Sires Stakes in 1:52 on Saturday night.
Mark O’Mara was Kafka Hanover’s third driver in as many local starts, but the results were the same. O’Mara got away fifth from the seven hole, but as the pace began to slow past the quarter, gunned the favorite to the top.
From there, it was simply a sprint home, with Kafka Hanover flashing a :27 second final quarter to hold off two other sons of Cambest, the pocket-sitting Circle L Kid (Ray Paver) and Peyote (Dean Magee).
The Magic Partners LLC Two of Massachussetts own Kafka Hanover, who will take on eight others in the final of the Kentucky Sires Stakes next Saturday.
In the fastest of the three eliminations, Shattered Halo came through again, stopping the timer in 1:512 for his fifth win in six starts as a three-year-old.
After winning a division of the Simpson despite interference in an accident-marred contest last week, the Jenna’s Beach Boy colt had no such difficulties on Saturday.
Given a perfect two hole journey behind the pacesetting Mercenary Hall, Shattered Halo was momentarily blocked at the top of the stretch, but driver Jason Dillander tilted him to the far outside where he regained his momentum and took after Driven To Win (Ray Paver), who seemed to have had the race won. But the John Duer-trained Shattered Halo nailed down the victory with a furious stretch drive under a flashy drive by Dillander, who was horizontal in the bike as they hit the wire.
Like Kafka Hanover, Shattered Halo is in razor-sharp form coming into next week’s final, in what shapes up as a terrific contest. He is owned by the Peninsula Farm and former NBA center Sam Bowie.
Driven To Win and Crombes Last Laugh (Brendan Johnson) also earned spots in the final event next Saturday.
The third elimination had a short field of six but provided a great contest as All Hall found room between horses with less than a sixteenth of a mile remaining and burst through for the score.
Dan Shetler piloted the improving son of Cambest to his sixth win of the year, and his 1:522 mile lowered his previous mark by four full seconds.
All Hall had qualified well with the addition of lasix the week before, and he heads into next week’s final in fine form as well. Bruce Riegle trains the colt for owner James Hofler, Sr. of North Carolina.
Best Of Show (Don Irvine, Jr.) circled the field and took the lead but was outkicked at the wire, settling for second, while Boys Town (Mark O’Mara) also made the final with his third place finish for birthday trainer Peter Foley.
Saturday marked The Red Mile’s introduction of the $10,000 guaranteed Pick-4 pool, but big longshots won two of the events, and the best the betting public could put together was two out of four winners. 75% of the pool is carried over to Sunday night.
Legal Muscles, a three-year-old trotting ridgling, provided the biggest shocker, paying $128.20 to win and setting up the largest payoff of the meet, a trifecta which paid over $17,000.
Legal Muscles had actually been two-for-two on the season, but after being given a couple months off, had taken four qualifying efforts to get to Saturday night’s race.
He was ready to go, however, and Steve Waller parlayed a perfect two hole trip into the surprising win.
The other stunner of the night was the 35-1 Falcon’s Design, who scored in 1:57 for Bobby Wilson.
Called “a really nice horse when he doesn’t fall down” by one local horseman, Falcon’s Design has either made a break, fallen, or been distanced 32 times in his career, but the six-year-old looked good here on Saturday, circling the field with a three-wide move on the backstretch, staying wide through the entire turn, and still handling this group of claiming pacers.
The fast but frustrating son of Falcon Almahurst is now past $20,000 in lifetime earnings.