from the Meadowlands Publicity Department

East Rutherford, NJ — If Enough Talk continues to impress, trainer Peter Kleinhans will have to add learning Swedish to his list of interests.

A solid performance in the $132,500 Su Mac Lad Final on Friday night (May 2) at the Meadowlands will earn Enough Talk an invitation to Sweden’s famed Elitlopp on May 25.

“It totally depends on how Enough Talk races on Friday,” Kleinhans said. “The people in Sweden have talked to me about it. They said if he’s good on Friday, they’ll invite him and I said I’d let them know as soon as possible. It’s really exciting. I think they’ve also been talking to the owners of San Remo Kosmos.”

Enough Talk is the 2-1 morning line favorite in the Su Mac Lad, the first major stakes race of the season for free for all trotters. He is coupled in the wagering with his stablemate, Lavec Dream. Enough Talk will start from post three in the seven-horse field. George Brennan will drive.

Traveling from New Jersey to Stockholm and racing in heats is a taxing experience for a horse and his human connections, but Kleinhans would happily embrace the challenge.

“I understand if I wait a year, he can make some money for me but you don’t know what he’s going to be like by then,” he said. “This is like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It can take a lot out of a horse.

“For me, it’s just such a big thing to represent the United States in front of 50,000 people,” he continued. “What’s the point of being in this business if you can’t have that kind of fun? I’m trying to invite as many people I can think of. I may never experience something like that in my life and this is not a dress rehearsal.”

Kleinhans has already started to plan their itinerary. Enough Talk would depart for Amsterdam on May 14, while Kleinhans would fly out two days later.

“The flight is eight hours, then there’s a 20-hour trucking,” he said. “That’s the worst part of it. They’ve eliminated the straight flight to Stockholm, so they can only fly to Amsterdam. It seems to me, he might need three weeks to recover from the trip. He’s a tough, rugged horse. Some people have said I should be prepared to miss the rest of the year. I just don’t know, but I don’t see how it can be so bad. I’m just trying to talk to as many people about it as possible.”

Kleinhans is also trying to line up a top catch driver to go with them.

“George Brennan said he couldn’t go, so my next choice is Ron Pierce, who raced Mr Muscleman there (in 2007),” he said. “If Ron can’t go, then I’ll drive him myself.”

Kleinhans purchased Enough Talk for $250,000 from Matthew Butcher, Jr. on March 2, 2008. The gelding had first caught Kleinhans’ eye during his 3-year-old campaign in 2006. Enough Talk won 11 of 22 starts and $189,206 as a sophomore, including the New Jersey Sire Stakes Final at Freehold. Last season, he won six of 14 while racing exclusively in New York. He kicked off his 2008 campaign at the Meadowlands and was an impressive winner over American Lane in his second start off a five-month layoff on February 15.

“I’ve always admired this horse and thought he was special,” Kleinhans noted. “He won a division of the New Jersey Sires Stakes here a couple of years ago. He sat back behind a slow pace and he was flying home. His previous owner, Matthew Butcher, Jr., is a great trainer and blacksmith. He didn’t race him as a 2-year-old and he brought him along slowly. He drove him conservatively and his goal was to showcase him and sell him eventually. I watched every single replay of his and he basically had only one poor performance in his life. Every race he was going forward. I’m a huge fan of Enjoy Lavec as a sire and there aren’t anymore here.”

In his third start for Kleinhans on April 7, Enough Talk lowered the world record for an older trotting gelding on a five-eighths-mile track in the Classic Series at Dover.

“I thought he was a little bit flat when he finished third in his first start for me, but he was slipping around in the slop,” he said. “In his second start, he got boxed in and was flying. He was great in his world record performance (1:52.2) at Dover Downs in the Classic Series. He was three-wide to the quarter in :26.3, then Green Day came at him full tilt and he fought him off.”

Enough Talk followed up his world record performance with another impressive victory in the $50,000 opening round of the Su Mac Lad Series. He seized command at the half and never looked back en route to a three-quarter length win over 2-1 favorite Swan Image. Kleinhans opted to give him last week off.

“He was a big overlay (paid $13.00) in the first leg of this series,” he noted. “Enough Talk trained great (Wednesday) in 2:03, and he was just floating around there.

“They’re all good in this final,” he added. “I like Green Day, but the outside is going to hurt him. I guess I would fear San Remo Kosmos the most. He was great in the Classic Series at Dover. He made a break and made up a ton of ground. I think we’re a little better than American Lane right now. Before He Cheats had a nice prep race.”

If Enough Talk does not go to Sweden, Kleinhans indicated that he may enter him in the Maxie Lee eliminations on May 18 at Harrah’s Chester. Enough Talk is also eligible to the Titan Cup, eliminations for which are June 20 at the Meadowlands.

While Enough Talk has garnered much of the attention lately, Kleinhans also expects a good showing by Lavec Dream on Friday night.

“Lavec Dream won a leg of (the Su Mac Lad) last year and she broke in her next two starts,” he said. “She’s a funny horse to deal with. She gets this soreness behind and it’s never been exactly pinpointed. It seems to be something internal. She always comes springing back out of it and right now, she’s great. She’s in the groove she was in when she won the Armbro Flight (in a lifetime best 1:52.3 in Canada) last year. I bought her as a 2-year-old at the Meadowlands (Tattersalls Mixed Horse) Sale in July of 2003 for $40,000.”

If ever there was a renaissance man in harness racing, it is Kleinhans. The 42-year-old trainer splits his time between an apartment overlooking Central Park in New York City and a 230-acre farm in Flemington, New Jersey. He has an M.A. in English Literature from New York University and Juris Doctor from the University of Michigan Law School. While racing horses off and on for more than 20 years, he has also worked as a track announcer and racing analyst at The Meadows, Hoosier Park, The Red Mile and Tioga Downs, and as a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. In his spare time, he also developed a pilot for a television show on handicapping and is fine-tuning a book and computer program on the subject. Kleinhans is part of the ownership of Tioga and Vernon Downs racetracks in New York State. And he is also a devoted father to his 3-year-old son, Quinn.

Kleinhans won the biggest race of his career with Wearable Art in the 2007 Berry’s Creek at the Meadowlands. Unfortunately, an injury curtailed Wearable Art’s racing career.

“Wearable Art is breeding some mares in Pennsylvania and he’s in a holding pattern,” he said. “We advertised him to breed and only five people were interested. I was also training him back to race and he has this silly little injury below his ankle. It’s like a weird bow and it never totally goes away. When he goes in 2:05 or faster it flares up.”

Kleinhans suffered a dislocated hip and broken pelvis as a passenger in an auto accident on December 26, 2002. That mishap changed his perspective on life, inspiring him to get the most out of it. And this year, that might mean a trip to Sweden.