by Kimberly French, USTA Web Newsroom Senior Correspondent

Williamsport, PA — It took several years for Philos Hanover, Pennsylvania’s 2008 Horse of the Year, to find his best stride, but his connections think it was well worth the wait.

“He’s really a very special horse,” said the 5-year-old stallion’s conditioner Joe Poliseno. “He likes what he does and is an extremely happy horse. He’s also real nice to be around, except that he bites, and he does everything you ask him to.”

Unraced at two, the son of Cam’s Card Shark-Panned Out has earned $357,876 during his career, with 17 victories from 54 starts and a mark of 1:49.3f. “Philos,” who is owned by John Cancelliere of Clark, N.J., has collected $291,441 and 11 wins this year, while competing primarily in the open handicaps at Harrah’s Chester. The pacer only had 19 starts on his resume from his prior campaigns, yet has already paced 35 racing miles in 2008.

USTA/Ken Weingartner photo

Trainer Joe Poliseno has enjoyed a successful 2008 campaign with Philos Hanover.

“We’ve had Philos since last March and when I got him, we raced him at the Meadowlands,” Poliseno, who resides in Allentown, N.J., said. “He has allergies and bad feet, so we took care of those problems.”

While those issues can definitely compromise a horse’s form, Poliseno feels there is another reason Philos wasn’t at the top of his game.

“He had a condylar fracture in his left hind leg before I got him,” the 45-year-old explained. “Ross Croghan bought him from Nifty Norman and I guess he had the condylar fracture when they (Croghan’s stable) got him. He went lame, they x-rayed him and ended up operating. They put a screw in him and after they brought him back, he just wasn’t very good. I ended up getting him from Steve Elliott and I think that (the fracture) still bothered him. I think it still does to some extent, because he was pretty sore.”

Since he’s allergic to nearly everything in the barn, Philos spends a lot of time in the fields and he appears to appreciate it.

“I wet his hay and his food,” Poliseno, who captured last month’s $390,000 Progress Pace at Dover Downs with another Cancelliere horse, Bettor Sweet, said. “I keep him outside a lot and I don’t train him too much. He seems to respond to it. In fact he was in a wreck over at Chester (August 17, pilot Cat Manzi was out six weeks with a broken collarbone). He came back from that and won.”

Philos has two more races on his card before he receives a vacation.

“He has one more start at Chester and then we are going to try the Presidential (pacing series at the Meadowlands),” Poliseno said. “Then we will turn him out and get him ready for Chester or put him in a series for older pacers.

“I don’t know how he’s going to be racing back on a mile,” he continued. “He has excelled at Chester and he’s a stout horse, but not a big one. He’s very well built and it seems like he will probably do the same thing on the mile as the five-eighths, but we really haven’t tried him there (on a mile track) all that much.”