by Ken Weingartner, Harness Racing Communications

Ken Weingartner

Freehold, NJ — From a physical standpoint, colt pacer Hurrikane Kingcole may have been more of a prince last year. During the winter, he grew into, well, a king.

“He turned into a man,” said trainer John McDermott, who owns the 3-year-old Hurrikane Kingcole with Jeffrey Kuhen, John Levy Racing Stable and the group of Jonathan Klee, Mitchell Cohen, Arthur Brewer II and Jeffrey Gordon. “He’s a big, strong, really wonderful animal. He grew up to be a big boy, no doubt about it.”

Hurrikane Kingcole won five of 13 races and $259,123 last season, with his biggest victory coming in a division of the Nassagaweya Stakes in Ontario. He was third in the Breeders Crown, behind Sweet Lou and A Rocknroll Dance. Sweet Lou won the race in a world-record 1:49.

USTA/Ken Weingartner photo

Hurricane Kingcole banked $259,123 as a freshman in 2011.

So far this year, Hurrikane Kingcole has prepped for his return to action with two qualifiers at the Meadowlands Racetrack. He won the first in 1:52.4 and finished second to Pet Rock last weekend. Hurrikane Kingcole, driven by Tim Tetrick, was timed in 1:52.2.

“It went the way I wanted to do it,” McDermott said of the most recent qualifier. “Timmy said he was going right by at the top of the stretch and then (Hurrikane Kingcole) just started running in. He has an issue with vision; I keep changing shadow rolls on him. He hates not seeing, but seeing is sometimes a detriment because he will try to jump over things.

“It’s just tinkering with him to get him where he’s comfortable; where he can see enough, but not see too much. I haven’t trained him since I qualified him last and I was real happy with him. He had plenty of pace, he just was getting a little carried away with himself coming alongside the last horse.”

Hurrikane Kingcole is a son of Cam’s Card Shark out of the mare Blazing Yankee. Sold under the name Lost Highway, the colt was purchased as a yearling for $10,000 at the Standardbred Horse Sale. His mother is a half-sister to stakes-winner Lady Luvs Diamonds and his third dam, Betta Yankee, is the mother of 1996 Adios winner Electric Yankee and 2004 Battle of Waterloo champ Banner Yankee.

McDermott was uncertain about Hurrikane Kingcole’s early-season path, but said the New Jersey Sire Stakes, which begin May 19 at the Meadowlands, or the Art Rooney Pace at Yonkers (eliminations if necessary May 26) were possibilities.

“I’m leaning toward the Rooney,” McDermott said. “I trained him on a half (-mile track) a few weeks ago and he zipped around with no problem at all. Now he’s out here playing and running in on a mile track, which makes no sense. But he’s a colt and he gets a little excited and likes to play with other horses. We’ll see what happens.”

Whatever happens, McDermott knows the competition will be tough. In addition to Sweet Lou’s world record in the Breeders Crown, A Rocknroll Dance paced in 1:49.1, which at the time equaled the world record.

“I know Sweet Lou is a monster and A Rocknroll Dance is a monster, and I’ll race with any of them,” McDermott said. “I know those two are the best, but there’s no reason why I can’t be the third one there. It’s going to be a really interesting year. You’ve got two horses coming back off world records last year that were legit world records. They were just awesome in both of them.

“If you asked me which one was better, Sweet Lou or A Rocknroll Dance, I couldn’t split the two of them; they’re just two really awesome horses. You know what? We’ll be chasing them this year.”