by Dean A. Hoffman, for the Breeders Crown

Cranbury, NJ — Arch Madness finished second to Donato Hanover in both heats of the Kentucky Futurity in early October.

Barry Goldstein, who bred and owns the trotter with Marc Goldberg, says that Arch Madness is a “different horse” since those heats. That’s why the partners were willing to pony up $62,500 to supplement him to the Breeders Crown.

“We’re realistic about our chances of beating Donato,” says Goldstein, “but we’d like another shot.”

USTA/Mark Hall photo

Arch Madness has won eight times this year and banked $534,891.

Certainly the son of Balanced Image has come a long way from his beginnings as a homely and seemingly helpless trotter.

“I was sick to my stomach when I saw him as a yearling,” admits Goldstein. “He had a hock the size of a softball, a four-inch cut on his knee, and a very ugly head. There was nothing to like about him.”

Goldstein’s trainer Trond Smedshammer was with him and said, “Barry, don’t look. Let me take care of him.”

Goldstein turned the colt over to Smedshammer, but soon even he lost interest. Arch Madness seemed to be quite ordinary in his training efforts.

“This one isn’t the kind you’re looking for,” Smedshammer told him. Goldstein enjoyed being partners with his friend Goldberg, so he asked Smedshammer to keep trying with Arch Madness. Still, the talent wasn’t there.

“Do me a favor and sell this horse to someone up in Canada,” Smedshammer told Goldstein. “Maybe someone up there can do some good with him.”

Arch Madness started in his first qualifier at the Meadowlands last July and broke stride, finishing almost 39 lengths behind the leader. He wasn’t making any friends with his antics.

In his next qualifier, the ugly ducking became a swan, trotting off to an easy win in 1:59.2.

“He was a different horse after his first qualifier,” says Goldstein. “That’s the first time he became a different horse.”

Arch Madness then reverted to the role of the ugly duckling, making breaks.

“He was a very nervous, headstrong horse,” says Goldstein. “To tell you the truth, I don’t think he’s very bright. Or maybe he’s just a slow learner. Trond said that he did have some talent, but we should geld him and bring him back as a 3-year-old.”

The offspring of Balanced Image are often difficult to handle and take time to mature. Many of the males, like Arch Madness, wind up as geldings to make them easier to handle.

At the start of the 2007 racing season, Smedshammer told the owners, “Sometime this horse is going to do something far beyond what you ever expected.”

The partners listened carefully because, as Goldstein says, “Trond isn’t a guy to waste words.”

The trotter’s 2007 season started off decently, but he made a break at the start of the Goodtimes in Ontario in June and failed to advance to the final. In the consolation, he kept his mind on business and won in 1:53.4, more than two seconds faster than the final.

He won a 3-year-old open at the Meadowlands on July 20 and that earned him a ticket to the Hambletonian.

“That was the only bad race he’s ever gone,” says Goldstein. “He’s made breaks before and he’s been beaten, but he just wasn’t himself in the Hambletonian elim. He came first-over but he just stopped in the stretch. Trond thinks he might have shut off his air. We just don’t know.”

After Arch Madness broke stride in his next try, Smedshammer decided to put trotting hobbles on him.

“I’m a traditionalist and I don’t really like to see hobbles on a trotter,” says Goldstein. “I don’t think Trond likes it either. But Arch Madness is so long-gaited and the hobbles shortened him up a little and allow him to clear his hind legs. They gave him confidence.”

Arch Madness was second to Donato Hanover in an elimination heat of the Canadian Trotting Classic, but drew post 10 in the final. Things didn’t go his way and he finished eighth.

He rebounded by winning the Ontario Sires Stakes Gold Final impressively.

In the time-honored Kentucky Futurity at The Red Mile, Arch Madness was second to Donato Hanover in the first heat, finishing with a flurry when he found room.

“He must have trotted his final eighth in 13 seconds,” says Goldstein. “He just absolutely took flight.”

As Arch Madness paraded for the second heat of the Kentucky Futurity, Goldstein noticed something curious. His trotter was behaving like a gentleman.

“He’d been a nutcase warming up and parading before the first heat,” he said. “I thought maybe the first heat took something out of him.”

Apparently it didn’t because Arch Madness was second again to Donato, timed in 1:50.3, in the world record 1:50.1 win.

“We always knew he had speed, but we never thought he’d trot in 1:50.3,” admits Goldstein.

He says that Arch Madness has been a much calmer horse since the Kentucky Futurity. He showed that when he crushed Laddie and the best colts in Canada with a 1:53.2 mile in the $321,000 Gold Final on Nov. 11.

Now Goldstein and Goldberg are itching for a rematch with Donato in the Breeders Crown.

“Donato is an incredible horse,” says Goldstein. “He doesn’t hurt himself. He has all the talents a great horse should have with none of the negatives. We’re realistic, but we’d love to beat him in the Breeders Crown.”

Arch Madness will get his first chance in the Breeders Crown elimination on Saturday, Nov. 16. He’s drawn the rail against the other supplemental trotter Prayer I Am and Donato Hanover, who start from post two and six, respectively. The first five finishers advance to the $610,000 final, and the elimination winners get to choose their post positions.