by David Mattia, USTA Web Newsroom Senior Correspondent

New Brunswick, NJ — In a year that has seen a lot of exciting races, Mohawk Racetrack will take center stage Saturday night with what could be the most exciting race of them all.

The C$1 million Canadian Trotting Classic is already pumping out the kind of pre-race adrenaline harness fans often dream about. The undefeated, Quebec based Val Taurus will look to challenge harness racing’s crown prince, Donato Hanover — but wait, there’s more.

Trainer Jimmy Takter is sending out a posse of talented trotters, four in all, to mix it up in a race that otherwise would have looked like a Donato Hanover vs. Val Taurus face-off.

USTA/Ken Weingartner photo

Pampered Princess is one of four Jimmy Takter trainees in the Canadian Trotting Classic.

The Takter entry will be led by the first lady of trotting — the ground-gobbling Pampered Princess. Obviously this how-soon-we-forget filly will be looking to even the score after her valiant, but disappointing effort, in last month’s Hambletonian. Her presence in this race will make even the most skilled handicapper scratch his or her head — especially when she has three stablemates in the race; each of which is a horse moving up in form.

Driver Marcus Johansson, still basking, albeit humbly, in the glory of his phenomenal display of driving talent — winning seven races on Monday’s card at The Red Mile — will be handling the Takter entrymate Rune in Saturday’s Classic.

“Rune drew bad and he was slipping around a little last week in the elimination,” said Johansson. “We made some shoeing changes on him that should help a lot, but it looks like he’ll be racing from off the pace, but you don’t know what will happen when the race shapes up.”

Oddly enough, Rune, for handicappers who consider race times as a factor (and some do) has a notch in his belt that might go overlooked. His 1:52.2 clocking in The World Trotting Derby at Du Quoin, makes him the second “fastest” trotter in the race. Of course he was chasing Donato Hanover that day, and his very fast time served only to get him a fourth-place check, but 1:52.2 is 1:52.2 no matter how you slice it.

Johansson, who is Jimmy Takter’s son-in-law, is closely connected with all the horses in that stable, and he offered his informed opinions on the rest of the entry.

“Photo Maxx raced really well in his elimination and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s close to the big horses in there. He’s lightly raced but he’s coming along really well and getting better each time.”

Photo Maxx is definitely getting better but he’ll have to get a whole lot better to cut it in here. The fastest he’s trotted was his 1:53.4 fourth-place finish in last week’s elimination when he got within 5–3/4 lengths of Donato Hanover at the wire. His fastest winning time was a 1:55.2 qualifier at The Meadowlands back on July 12. He did, however, peel off a :26.4 final panel in that race, so he has the speed.

“Quite Easy was very good in his elimination,” noted Johansson. “He’s the kind of horse who has the ability to get up there at the wire and win.”

Quite Easy is a rather impressive son of Andover Hall with nine wins in 22 career starts, a qualifying mark of 1:54.4, and a bankroll of $409,365. He has a lot of catching up to do nevertheless if he’s looking to nail Donato Hanover.

Donato, now so famous that he’s just about dropped his prestigious last name, is quite likely the best trotting colt to come down the road for some time, and his 1:51.2 mark out steps Quite Easy by 17 lengths.

To beat Donato, Quite Easy will have to show a major improvement, but horses from Jimmy Takter’s barn often do just that. Perhaps Johansson’s estimation of Quite Easy’s chances isn’t so far off the mark, but a victory Saturday night won’t be quite easy for Quite Easy.

If one is expecting the Takter team to gang up on Donato Hanover, think otherwise.

“We have four horses in the race,” said Johansson. “Each driver drives to win for the owner and we try to do the best. Any one of those horses has a chance to beat the top horses if things go right, and Pampered Princess is in an especially good spot.”

Of course a lot of eyes will be trained on the elegant Pampered Princess because it wasn’t too long ago that she was the talk of the trotting world, and she will again try to beat the boys, or boy, if one is singling out Donato Hanover. Pampered Princess finished second to Val Taurus in last week’s elimination, but she did get stung to the quarter in :27, and perhaps, as her race schedule shows, she was not yet sharp enough after a brief lay-off.

“She (Pampered Princess) didn’t race for almost a month after the Hambletonian,” said Johansson. “She might have been a little short for the elimination. She qualified in 1:56 (.1) on August 31, and then came back good for the elimination. That race tightened her up. If those guys go after each other early it could set up good for her now that she has a race under her belt.”

Pampered Princess is again in the hands of John Campbell after having had a brief Hambletonian partnership with Tim Tetrick. Campbell was committed to driving his own horse, Flirtin Man, in both the Hambletonian elimination and the final, but he’s been back behind the Princess twice since then, and according to her connections she’s responding well and back in fine form.

Donato Hanover’s co-owner David Scharf is looking forward to the challenge of Val Taurus and the Takter entry.

“It’s an honor to be able to go up and race in Canada’s signature race and to race against such fine horses,” said Scharf. “I have never had the chance to race in the Canadian Trotting Classic before and I am looking forward to it.”

This year’s Canadian Trotting Classic should be a very interesting race for all parties concerned. The fans are getting a highly competitive field and the horsemen and horses are getting to race at a fine facility for a very lucrative payday.

It’s going to be an electrifying night in beautiful Ontario, Canada, and some lucky horse will walk away from the Canadian Trotting Classic as either the still reigning prince of trotting, or perhaps the newly crowned prince of trotting. One participant in particular, however, will return to the paddock as the Crown “Princess” of trotting regardless of where she might happen to finish.