by Ken Weingartner, Harness Racing Communications

Ken Weingartner

Freehold, NJ — Market Share will be away from the races for a while, but the award-winning 8-year-old trotter is expected to return to action later this season for what might be a farewell tour.

Richard Gutnick, who co-owns Market Share with T L P Stable and Bill Augustine, said the horse will be sidelined for approximately a month because he was gelded Wednesday at the New Jersey Equine Clinic. Fertility issues prevented the 2012 Hambletonian winner from a breeding career and the gelding procedure was veterinarian recommended so Market Share could have a more enjoyable future and be put in the company of other horses.

“They feel he will be much happier and I want to do whatever is best for the horse,” Gutnick said. “I would love to have some of his offspring, but it wasn’t meant to be. I’m just counting my lucky stars to have a horse like him. He deserves a great life. It’s all about the horses, I just love being around them.”

USTA/Ken Weingartner photo

Market Share is a two-time Dan Patch Award divisional champion and the winner of $3.78 million in career purses.

Market Share is a two-time Dan Patch Award divisional champion, at ages 3 and 4, and the winner of 32 of 95 career races. His $3.78 million in career purses rank No. 2 behind Bee A Magician among trotters that raced only in North America.

In addition to the 2012 Hambletonian, Market Share’s victories include the Canadian Trotting Classic in 2012, the Breeders Crown Open Trot, Maple Leaf Trot and TVG Series championship in 2013, and the Maxie Lee Memorial Invitational in a world-record 1:50.2 in 2014.

Market Share, a son of Swedish stallion Revenue out of the mare Classical Flirt, has won four of 14 races this year. In his three most recent starts, Market Share posted two wins and a third. His best win time this season of 1:52.4 is tied for third fastest among trotters older than 7.

If all goes well, Market Share will return to racing later this year with a focus on Dover Downs. Two of Market Share’s four victories this year came at the Delaware oval.

“The amazing thing is he still loves to race,” Gutnick said. “I don’t think he’s Grand Circuit anymore, but I think he could be open caliber. If he loves to race and he’s not hurting himself and he’s holding his own, not at the highest level but a high level, then we could continue. That will be a decision based on what it’s like a few months from now.

“But this could be his last go-round. The horse doesn’t owe me anything. I owe him a lot. He gave me a lot of pleasure, a lot of excitement, more so than one person deserves.”