Breeders Crown: Karl brushes, crushes in 2-Year-Old Colt Trot final

T C I handed Karl his lone career defeat when they met in the International Stallion Stakes on October 6 at The Red Mile, but the $700,000 Breeders Crown 2-Year-Old Colt Trot was a different day and a different result, as Karl romped over T C I in a stakes and Harrah's Hoosier Park track record 1:51 4/5.

David Miller hustled T C I to the front from post five in a 26 4/5 quarter, but Yannick Gingras put Karl in motion out of fourth past that marker, and Karl advanced quickly towards T C I in the backstretch. Karl got to the top at the 56 1/5 half and then was able to keep the tempo sensible around the final bend and to three-quarters in 1:25, setting up a sprint to the wire.

Miller tipped T C I to the outside in the drive, but he didn't have the acceleration that Karl did, and a 26 4/5 final kicker propelled Karl to the win by three lengths. T C I had to settle for second, followed by Security Protected. Private Access (Louis Roy) and Greenspan (Dexter Dunn) completed the top five finishers.

All was not lost for T C I, as with his second-place finish, he became harness racing's all-time leading earner for a freshman trotter. His sum of $1,256,370 eclipsed the prior standard of $1,252,646 set by Snow White in 2007.

Gingras gave high marks to trainer Nancy Takter for equipment switches she made following Karl's elimination victory last Thursday.

"All credit to Nancy. Last week he was not the same horse that I had tonight. She changed the shoes, she changed the bit, she changed a bunch of things on the horse," he said. "She gambled and it paid off. She sent me a video of him yesterday and he looked tremendous. I had all the confidence in the world in the horse, but even moreso after I saw how he looked.

"He's just so fast. In my opinion I think he's the best horse I've ever sat behind, that's how high I think of this horse. Tonight I thought he was unbelievable. He came a 26 4/5 last quarter, and I was pulling on him at the wire like I was behind the gate still. I was a winner and didn't want to do anything crazy. He's got such abilities. I thought high of him at the beginning of the year, but we wanted to let the horse do the talking."

Nancy Takter also co-owns Karl, a Tactical Landing colt, with her mother Christina and their partners Black Horse Racing, breeder Crawford Farms and Bender Sweden Inc. He has earned $709,760 to go with his 7-1-0 summary from eight starts and paid $3.40 to win as the 3-5 favorite.

"I thought I had the better horse (coming into tonight). I wasn't happy with him in Lexington when he got beat by T C I. He took a couple of steps and he wasn't grabbing the track well, so we went to steel shoes in the elimination and he didn't love it, so we went back to what he was wearing and changed the grip on it. It paid off," Takter said. "I literally changed his shoes Wednesday before we left to come here for detention. It was a last minute thing. Thank God it worked out."

Gingras also opined that the duels between Karl and T C I are just beginning, though perhaps not the rest of 2023 as Takter mentioned in an on-air interview that Karl was done for the season, and Ron Burke was heard in the press room saying the same about T C I.

"Both trainers are great trainers - Ronnie (Burke), he shows it year after year that his horses come back. I know Ronnie's horse is going to come back and he'll be fine, and Nancy's going to do a great job, too," Gingras offered. "I know the battles between the two of us are definitely not over."