by Ken Weingartner, Harness Racing Communications
Freehold, NJ — Ariana G and All The Time have taken different paths to this weekend’s Breeders Crown eliminations at the Meadowlands Racetrack. Marvin Katz, who with Al Libfeld bred and owns both filly trotters, is simply grateful for the opportunity to see the sisters in action together again.
The last time All The Time and Ariana G shared the stage at the Meadowlands was Aug. 6 when All The Time won the Hambletonian Oaks for 3-year-old female trotters and Ariana G won the Jim Doherty Memorial for 2-year-old female trotters. A day later, All The Time was found suffering from colic and taken for intestinal surgery that sidelined her for nearly two months.
All The Time has prepared for her return by winning two qualifiers, the first in 1:52.1 at Lexington’s Red Mile on Oct. 4 and more recently in 1:55.1 at the Meadowlands on Oct. 11. On Saturday, she races in the first of two Breeders Crown eliminations for 3-year-old filly trotters. The top five finishers from each elim advance to the $500,000 championship on Oct. 29 at the Big M.
On Friday, Ariana G — the winner of eight of nine starts this season — competes in the first of two Breeders Crown eliminations for 2-year-old filly trotters. The top five finishers from each division advance to the $600,000 final, also set for Oct. 29 at the Meadowlands.
If both fillies win their respective Breeders Crown finals, it would mark the first time in the history of the series that full siblings claim trophies in the same year. The only other occurrence of siblings winning Crowns together came in 2011 when half-brothers Sweet Lou and Bettor Sweet accomplished the feat.
“I’m very excited to have both of them racing,” Katz said. “I think it’s an extraordinarily rare thing to have two fillies like this at the same time competing in the Breeders Crown and be top contenders. I’m particularly happy to see All The Time back on the track. She’s such a great, great filly. Hopefully it will have a storybook ending. That would just be over the top.”
Ariana G and All The Time, both trained by Jimmy Takter and driven by Yannick Gingras, are daughters of stallion Muscle Hill, a two-time Breeders Crown winner and the 2009 Horse of the Year, out of the stakes-winning mare Cantab It All.
All The Time has won 11 of 19 career races, including four of seven this season without finishing worse than second. She won the 2015 Breeders Crown for 2-year-old filly trotters and became the first horse to come back the following year and win the Hambletonian Oaks since Passionate Glide in 2006.
“Obviously, I’d rather she raced the season and gone a more traditional path (to this year’s Breeders Crown), but she’s been prepared as best as she can,” Katz said about All The Time, who has earned $827,616 lifetime. “She was brilliant in Lexington in her qualifier. Jimmy Takter, who drove her, told me that she gave him goose bumps. She was just that fabulous.
“Considering what she’s had to deal with, what a magnificent filly. She’s tough as nails with a great desire to race and win. They just don’t make them like that. Hopefully she’ll give a good account of herself.”
Ariana G, who has earned $438,967 this season, heads to her Breeders Crown elimination off a career-best 1:51.4 win in a division of the International Stallion Stakes on Oct. 7 at Lexington’s Red Mile. That time is the fourth fastest in history for a 2-year-old trotter and her average margin of victory in her eight wins is 3-1/2 lengths. Her only setback came when she went off stride at the start of a race at Hoosier Park.
“I’ve enjoyed every minute with her and was impressed with her from her first start,” Katz said. “She won a (preliminary leg of the) New Jersey Sire Stakes in a tsunami. I couldn’t believe a 2-year-old filly could do that; that she had the mental acuity to behave in that type of adverse weather conditions and look tremendous on the track. She’s an extraordinary filly. She’s über-talented. They don’t come like this very often.”
The Canadian-based Libfeld and Katz have been breeding horses for more than two decades and now have a highly regarded band of more than 50 broodmares. The Libfeld/Katz breeding partnership, which focuses on trotters, received Canada’s Armstrong Breeder of the Year Award in 2015.
“To be the breeders (of All The Time and Ariana G), for them to come out of our program, it’s just an extraordinary accomplishment to get them this far,” Katz said. “It speaks to the quality of people we have helping us, and the quality of horses we’re now producing.”
Friday’s card at the Meadowlands, which begins at 7:15 p.m., also includes two eliminations for the Breeders Crown Mare Pace. Eliminations for the remaining 2- and 3-year-old trotters and pacers will be Saturday.
Eliminations are unnecessary for the Breeders Crown Open Pace, Open Trot and Mare Trot, so those horses advance directly to their respective finals.
Breeders Crown finals for older pacers and trotters will be held Oct. 28 at the Meadowlands and the championships for 2- and 3-year-old pacers and trotters will follow on Oct. 29.
Post positions for the Open finals will be drawn live Friday and posts for the 2- and 3-year-old finals will be drawn Saturday. Elimination winners draw for inside posts one through five for the finals.
For Friday’s complete card, click here.
For Saturday’s complete card, click here.
For more information go to www.Hambletonian.com or www.playmeadowlands.com. Follow Breeders Crown news and updates on Twitter @Breeders_Crown, using #BCrown16 and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/BreedersCrown. Fans can also go to http://harnessracingfanzone.com/, the Place for Harness Racing Fans to See, Share, Connect and Play.
- Wiggle It Jiggleit supplements to Breeders Crown at The Meadowlands (Monday, October 17, 2016)
Defending Horse of the Year Wiggle It Jiggleit has been supplemented for $50,000 to the $421,000 Breeders Crown Pace, setting up another epic showdown with arch-rival Always B Miki, winner of last year’s Crown title for older pacers at Woodbine Racetrack.
- Breeders Crown fields set (Tuesday, October 18, 2016)
A total of 174 horses on Tuesday were entered for the $6.2 million Breeders Crown championships at New Jersey’s Meadowlands Racetrack, with harness racing’s top-ranked stars Wiggle It Jiggleit and Always B Miki leading the list as the battle for Horse of the Year hits the homestretch. It is the largest number of entries in five years.
- Record number of entries for Breeders Crown at Meadowlands (Tuesday, October 18, 2016)
The entries for the $6.2 million Breeders Crown events at The Meadowlands Racetrack saw an overflow 174 trotters and pacers in the entry box to qualify for the 12-race finals on Friday (Oct. 28) and Saturday (Oct. 29). This is the highest number of entries in the last five years.
- Breeders Crown eliminations in Grand Circuit spotlight (Wednesday, October 19, 2016)
The Grand Circuit heads to Meadowlands Racetrack this Friday (Oct. 21) and Saturday (Oct. 22) for Breeders Crown eliminations in nine divisions. Eliminations will not be required for the open pace, the open trot and the mare trot.
- Roaring To Go is ready to reach for the Crown (Thursday, October 20, 2016)
With less than 72 hours to tick off prior to her appearance in a $20,000 elimination for the Breeders Crown 2-year-old filly pace on Saturday (Oct. 22) at Meadowlands Racetrack, trainer Kevin Lare thinks owner Frank Chick may be a bit weary of his weekly training updates in regards to Roaring To Go.
- Being cautious has paid off for Ken Jacobs with trotting colt Walner (Thursday, October 20, 2016)
It took a year for owner Ken Jacobs to find a hole with Walner — and that was a hole in the wind. Walner trotted a world-record 1:51.3 on Oct. 6 at Lexington’s Red Mile, a mark that came one year to the day after Jacobs purchased the colt for $90,000 at the Lexington Selected Sale. It was Walner’s fourth win in five races this season and established the horse as one of the top Breeders Crown 2-year-old male trotting contenders.
- Smedshammer duo aim for Breeders Crown glory (Wednesday, October 26, 2016)
Trond Smedshammer is going against his philosophy not once, but twice this week. So far, it seems to be working out. Smedshammer has qualified two Purple Haze Stables horses for the $600,000 Breeders Crown for 2-year-old filly trotters, as Chezatter and Hillarmbro will both compete in this Saturday’s final at the Meadowlands.