Breeders Crown: Takter has two chances at Horse of the Year

Trainer Jimmy Takter heads into Friday night at Hoosier Park with a chance of putting the finishing touches on a Horse of the Year campaign. Takter, who has trained four overall Horses of the Year including the 2016 champion Always B Miki, has the top-ranked Ariana G as well as the unbeaten Manchego favored in their Breeders Crown Trotting Finals.

“They’re very similar,” said Takter of the pair. “They are both very determined ladies.”

Determined yes, and overwhelming favorites as well, with Manchego listed at 6-5 but certain to go below that in the $600,000 Breeders Crown for juvenile fillies (race 8) and Ariana G listed as the 3-5 favorite in the $500,000 Breeders Crown sophomore filly event (race 10) from post eight. Ariana G, by virtue of taking a bye in last week’s elimination, faced an open draw in the evening’s tenth race.

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Both fillies enter Friday’s contest with 11 wins on the season, but Ariana G is coming off a rare defeat in the final of the Kentucky Futurity on October 8 at the Red Mile.

“You have to throw that out,” said Takter. “The track conditions that day were horrible. I knew after the first heat it wasn’t her kind of track. She’s like a Ferrari.”

Indeed, Ariana G was spinning her wheels while facing similar conditions to the potential sloppy track expected at Hoosier on Friday, and lost a decision to Ice Attraction, a filly she will face on Friday. It was only Ariana G’s third defeat of the year and first against fillies, but it did little to alter the confidence of her trainer.

“I trained her back on Friday in Kentucky and she was very good,” said Takter of Ariana G, a daughter of Muscle Hill who looks for her second straight Breeders Crown victory and perhaps the signature moment that earns her the coveted Horse of the Year title.

Ariana G, a homebred from the breeding team of Marvin Katz and Al Libfeld, will likely make one more start following the Crown with Takter looking ahead. “I think we are going to bring her back to race as a 4-year-old,” Takter said.

Manchego looks for a dozen straight against juvenile fillies and Takter was impressed with her response once under pressure in last week’s elimination. “She was nice and relaxed most of the way and then she dug in and was strong finishing,” said Takter.

Manchego, a $120,000 yearling purchase at last year’s Lexington Selected auction, has been winning races by open lengths all season long.

“She’s done most of the hard work,” Takter said. “No one’s been setting up the miles for her.”

On Friday Manchego faces the only filly in North America that has come close to her in elimination winner Phaetosive. The last time the fillies met, Phaetosive got to the flank of Manchego in the stretch but was unable to pass, finishing second. Earlier in the year Manchego romped in the Jim Doherty Memorial at The Meadowlands with Phaetosive well off the pace closing for the place spot.

This is likely to be Manchego’s final start of the year.

“It’s too long a wait to the Goldsmith Maid and I have a few others I’m looking forward to racing in it,” said Takter.

Takter, a Hall of Fame conditioner, had a three-year run with Horse of the Year honors that began in 1997 when Hambletonian winner Malabar Man captured the title. In 1998-9, it was the world traveler Moni Maker taking consecutive titles under Takter’s care.

“It means a lot,” Takter said of winning Horse of the Year. “It means you had the best horse in the sport.”

Despite coming in with impressive credentials, Takter is not taking anything for granted given the results he witnessed in last week’s elimination races.

“There’s not much room for error here,” said Takter of the Hoosier Park dynamic. “It’s very tough to make up ground on the turn in the third quarter and you saw every time a horse went hard the third quarter they tired.”

With Ariana G and Manchego, Takter appears to be in the driver’s seat but instead it will be Yannick Gingras guiding both fillies in quest first of a Breeders Crown and perhaps second a Horse of the Year title.

“I would have to give it to the 3-year-old,” Takter said, tipping his hand where his vote would be cast.