by David Mattia, USTA Web Newsroom Senior Correspondent

New Brunswick, NJ — Takeshigemichi p,3,1:50f ($72,026) may not be an easy name to say, but it belongs to a horse who is not easy to beat — so get accustomed to both saying it and hearing it if you plan on following this year’s crop of 3-year-old pacing colts.

In modern Martial Arts, a Takeshigemichi is an expert in Aikido and a name applied to action film star Steven Seagal. Aikido is a form of self defense where one can soundly defeat one’s enemy without inflicting any harm. Ironically, in harness racing the only way to inflict harm on your opponents is to soundly defeat them — something Takeshigemichi manages to do quite easily without having to blow up cars or beat the stuffing out of international diamond smugglers.

Racehorsephoto.com photo

Takeshigemichi was a 1:50 winner in his Hempt Memorial elimination.

The son of The Panderosa–Bet Me Hanover (Matt’s Scooter) is one of the strongest contenders in this Saturday’s Max Hempt Memorial Final, and he proved it with a 1:50 romp in last week’s elimination at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs. He soundly defeated Tivoli Hanover, Trueys Legacy and six other exceptional sophomores in an electrifying performance worthy of the speedy colt who showed genuine, albeit erratic talent, as a 2-year-old.

A repeat performance in the Hempt Final will find him in a virtual dead-heat with Rusty’s For Real, who won the other elimination in 1:50. Both horses seem to be climbing the ladder of athletic aptitude at about the same rate and Saturday’s rematch will not only be something worth watching; it will be the forerunner of things to come in the world of 3-year-old pacing colts.

The $37,629 Hempt Elimination was Takeshigemichi’s first start since his freshman farewell on December 2, when he finished a disappointing sixth in The Governor’s Cup at The Meadowlands. Of course he threw in two qualifiers prior to this year’s outstanding debut and both of them were remarkable.

At Freehold on April 25 he ran off by 8-1/4 lengths in 1:56.2 for driver Daniel Dube and trainer Anthony Mannino. He followed that with a qualifier at The Meadowlands where he looked more like he’d emerged from a cannon than a starting gate. He won that in 1:51.4 with a last panel in :26.3, over the highly regarded Yankee Skyscaper.

Boy, the things a horse has to do nowadays to tighten up for his stakes races.

In an interview last year, Takeshigemichi’s trainer prophetically described his colt. “He was not aggressive in the beginning, which is something I thought he needed to be more of. He keeps getting better.”

He certainly has gotten better because each successive start, while not always a winning one, has shown this colt to be on the move despite getting off to a somewhat late start. Takeshigemichi made his debut at Lexington on July 26, 2006, and his Hempt Elimination win was only his 13th race.

His 3-year-old win column (his qualifiers are too good to exclude) is unblemished thus far, and a victory in the Hempt Final will certainly move him into the upper echelon of contenders.

Last fall he defeated the very highly regarded Artzina in a $20,00 elimination of The Governor’s Cup when he stopped the clock in 1:53, and it’s quite likely that the two will eventually meet up again this season. As a matter of fact, a lot of last year’s talent is starting to come out of the woodwork, and some big time heads are going to butt — something Steven Seagal would be proud of.

Takeshigemichi was purchased for $80,000 at the Lexington Select Sale and he races for Glenn K. Berger’s Lightning Stable of Millstone, New Jersey. Originally the colt was named Best Bet Hanover but Takeshigemichi is an interesting and innovative alias. It evokes an image of a gentlemanly warrior, and it keeps the spell-check program on our laptop up to speed.

Takeshigemichi’s dam, Bet Me Hanover p,2,1:57f, only managed to win one race in her career and that was a division of the Trillium Series. She’s been a reliable dam, however, with foals like Bet Again Hanover and Backed Up Hanover, but the foal with the mightiest karate chop is definitely Takeshigemichi.

Mickey McNichol handled Takeshigemichi on the track early in the colt’s development. “He was the best horse you could ask for — he could just fly,” remembered McNichol.

“I went to work for Mannino and Glenn Berger last year because I wanted to be around babies,” says McNichol. “We were at Sunshine Meadows and the plan was to take the young ones to Rockingham. When we got to Rockingham there was nothing around that could keep up with Takeshigemichi on the mile track there. He ended up doing a lot of training alone and when he got to Lexington he was a little green.”

“In the beginning he didn’t know what racing was about because we kept him away from the slow ones,” added McNichol. “You don’t want to put a horse like him against average babies because it doesn’t work out. When you’re the best horse in the stable you run into problems like that.”

The Max Hempt Memorial Final carries a purse of $301,032 and it promises to showcase the kind of talent harness fans will be talking about all year long — even if one of the names is a little difficult to pronounce.

Editor’s Note: The Hempt Final will be the fourth stop on the USTA’s Cyber Circuit. Be sure to view the race replay moments after the “official” sign is posted. Follow the entire Cyber Circuit by following this link.