Great racing doesn't come accidentally. The power to captivate comes with the presence of champion horses in combat for the biggest prizes and in 2023 harness racing achieved some of its best racing spectacles when pride and prestige was on the line. Champions may be born but they can't be crowned until they meet the challenge on the racetrack and perform when the spotlight is cast upon them. Despite the growing number of states that offer restricted events for those either bred or raised on location, the sport continues to showcase some of the best performances in Grand Circuit events open to all. That was quite evident in the performances witnessed this year once horses had to meet their match against open company. Heading the list of great races we witnessed this year is The Meadowlands Pace, where revenge was not the motive but was the stage for the ascension of Confederate to the title. A runner-up in the North America Cup to It's My Show, that rival was ineligible to the Meadowlands Pace and despite efforts to lure his owner to supplement remained on the sidelines and allowed another son of Sweet Lou to take the stage. The Meadowlands Pace performance by Confederate in mid-July surpassed expectations as Tim Tetrick guided the Brett Pelling-trained colt on an epic first-over mission rarely seen in today's sport. The advantage was not his as would often be the case as Yannick Gingras had cleverly done a brilliant job putting Christchurch on the lead early and slowing pace at a pedestrian rate in the second quarter of just :28 1/5. It was a strategy Gingras has employed to perfection in the past and it gave his charge all the ammunition thought necessary to hold off any first-over invasion. Confederate though, as he proved then and afterwards, was no ordinary rival and when given the word to attack by his driver made up a three-length gap instantly pacing a :26 second split to reach the leader. In theory that should have been enough to take something out of both horses but on this stage Confederate had more to offer finishing out his mile in a stunning :25 4/5 for a then personal 1:47 best effort. Posting a sub-:52 second final half is a rarity in this sport and Confederate’s Meadowlands Pace victory will stand out as his finest moment if not his fastest victory. It's My Show's absence from the Meadowlands Pace put him out of the limelight temporarily. The North America Cup champion had different goals as a gelding and that was not a bad decision by his connections. A chance to meet up with Confederate in the Kentucky Sires championship was not in the cards as It's My Show went to the half-mile track in Delaware, Ohio for the first $1 million Little Brown Jug in mid-September. There were three elimination races to decide the finalists and It’s My Show, who finished second in his trial, drew post five in the final, ceding the better posts to the divisional winners. That put driver Scott Zeron in what would become familiar territory for him this year. Zeron had earlier championed a Hambletonian for Tactical Approach overcoming post 10 in an unconventional manner and now was faced with the daunting task of winning from off the pace over the uber-speed favoring Delaware Ohio Fairgrounds half-mile oval. Overlooked at 7-1 to the elimination winners that drew inside, It’s My Show and Zeron got to watch the show as the unexpected happened with two elimination winners Moment Is Here and Cannibal locked in an epic speed duel through fractions of :25 4/5 and :53 3/5 for the first half mile. At that point in the mile Dexter Dunn had positioned the favored Seven Colors behind the dueling leaders on the outside and all Zeron could do was follow further behind third over. Seven Colors and It's My Show had squared off weeks earlier with the former handily defeating It’s My Show in the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes championship. When Seven Colors stormed around the tired leaders into the homestretch he appeared to have the race won. That was right up until It's My Show and Zeron made an incredible burst of speed and surged past in the final yards before the wire. While Zeron enjoyed other memorable moments this year it would be hard to top the Jug on the pacing side of outstanding miles. [DRF HARNESS: Sign up for our FREE DRF Harness Digest Newsletter] The prospects for a rivalry are never ending and the hopes that 2024 can generate the same kind of buzz on the sophomore trotting front that it did for this year's exceptional freshman class are high. The two colts T C I and Karl chose quite different paths to stardom in 2023 but are likely to be on a collision course for the first week in August in East Rutherford if their trainers can get all the ducks in order. That said, the two put on epic performances this year with each having his own moment to shine in a budding rivalry that saw them meet on just two occasions. For T C I we would be remiss in not mentioning his Mohawk Million winning performance. It was an also-ran on the top six list not because it wasn't an epic performance and not because it wasn't a world-record performance. The reason T C I's Mohawk Million didn't make the cut was that it wasn't T C I's best race. As good as T C I was for driver David Miller and trainer Ron Burke when he overcame a break in stride and rallied from last in the Mohawk Million, he truly didn't meet a horse that night that was near him in overall talent. A few weeks later when he first met Karl at The Red Mile is when he would find out what it was like to race against the finest. So, two weeks following his Mohawk Million championship it was thought T C I would meet his match at The Red Mile. The public saw to put faith in Karl, yet an undefeated son of Tactical Landing, over the streaking T C I perhaps witnessing the speed displays the colt had put on in Kentucky before as an indicator of greatness whereas his rival had won in gritty fashion without teletimer fanfare. The October 6 contest at The Red Mile proved one of the epic battles ever contested over the famed Lexington surface with Yannick Gingras putting Karl on the lead and David Miller using the pocket for T C I. Karl had the fractions in his favor and the lead but T C I and Miller were persistent putting a nose in front and proving he had the speed to match and even surpass Karl winning in a career best 1:51 4/5 clocking. That Karl may have missed a step or two in the stretch just left the door ajar for what could have been, but it hardly spoiled the afternoon. Karl would grow from the experience exponentially for trainer Nancy Takter and made no doubt about it in his signature victory in the Breeders Crown where he dominated. There are few performances I've seen in the now 40 year history of the Breeders Crown that rival Karl’s epic 1:51 4/5 performance at Hoosier Park in late October. Sylvia Hanover, the sport’s premier sophomore pacing filly, would also have her shining moment in the Breeders Crown at Hoosier Park and would win a race in quite different fashion than Karl did. With driver Bob McClure in tow Sylvia Hanover once again had the obstacles thrown into her face early in the mile as Twin B Joe Fresh and driver Dexter Dunn appeared to have the position edge once again. Only on one occasion this year had Twin B Joe Fresh defeated Sylvia Hanover and that came when Sylvia broke on the final turn in the Lynch at Pocono. In the Breeders Crown Sylvia Hanover made a charge towards Twin B Joe Fresh before the half mile pole and Dexter Dunn elected to seek separation rather than yield or have the two fillies go eye-to-eye before the stretch battle. Visually that appeared to leave Sylvia Hanover vulnerable to all sorts of issues but as had been the case though her career Sylvia Hanover shrugged off adversity and just kept on chugging. Disposing of her rival in midstretch Sylvia Hanover looked to be threatened late by a streaking Charleston sneaking along the pylons. That threat likely only lasted until Sylvia Hanover noticed it and extinguished it in dominant fashion. By year's end Jiggy Jog S would assert herself as the top aged trotting mare in North America but her dominance was far from assured especially when looking back at a signature moment in the season when M M's Dream did the unthinkable and upset her in the Hambletonian Maturity at The Meadowlands in July. Though drawing post nine far outside Jiggy Jog S (post 3) M M's Dream put herself on the lead after the quarter but was parked a long way. Once Jiggy Jog S took over at the half in :55 4/5 it appeared the race played to the favorite's advantage. Though the Maturity was raced at a mile and one-eighth distance the tepid pace paved the way for the sprinting dominance of Jiggy Jog S. Or so that was what was expected, but what happened was that M M's Dream and Miller had an extra gear and took the fight to Jiggy Jog S making up three lengths in short fashion and getting a neck up in the $410K contest and earning a valued spot on the list of 2023’s best races.