Giwner: The end of the Jimmy Takter era in Harness Racing
The dust had long settled on the stakes action at The Meadowlands on November 24 as Hall of Famer Jimmy Takter sat in Trotters lounge. He was able to win one of the eight major races on the card with Tactical Landing, but it was a conditioned race on his mind at that precise moment.
“I think he’s going to win this one,” remarked Takter as 4-5 favorite Hundie N moved first-over on the backstretch.
The race only carried an $11,000 purse yet Takter was yelling words of encouragement and chirping as if he and not Dexter Dunn was sitting behind the New Zealand bred. Despite the trainer’s best efforts, Hundie would come up a half-length short, settling for second, something Takter clearly doesn’t enjoy.
That one-minute sample in Trotters of Takter’s training career revealed all you need to know about the 58-year-old. There is no accepting failure. Every corny quote that you can think of applies: “Second place is the first loser” or “Winning isn’t everything; it is the only thing”.
It wasn’t the first time I witnessed Takter watching from Trotters after his work in the paddock and warming up horses was complete. There was the Del Miller Memorial in July 2018 when Plunge Blue Chip and the Takter-trained Manchego came to the wire together in a world record 1:49 4/5. The winner would become a sub 1:50 trotter and post the fastest mile by a 3-year-old on that gait in history.
As the two speedy fillies crossed the wire in real time, it was difficult to decipher which was the winner. Takter would pop out of his seat and rush to the big screen TV for a closer look during the slow motion replay. He would turn around and caught my eye, clearly noticing that I was nodding my head side to side confirming what he likely already realized. His filly missed the record by the shortest of noses after a brilliant performance.
Takter took the loss about as well as you would expect Michael Jordan to accept missing the game-winning jumper at the buzzer. It is a great comparison. Two men who rose to the zenith of their sports with a combination of talent and extreme dedication.
A lasting memory for me of Takter’s attention to detail and commitment to excellence occurred this past October on the backstretch of The Red Mile. He had Lazarus under a shady tree just outside of his stall and was rubbing his fingers up and down the horse’s back with the pinpoint accuracy of a massage therapist or chiropractor. I recall asking, “Is that something you always do”? He simply replied yes, adding that you have to watch every horse very carefully to make sure you aren’t missing anything.
Takter is expected to hang up his colors on November 30 to begin retirement. A winner of 823 races as a driver, he won his final appearance in the sulky as trainer/driver on November 29 at Harrah’s Philadelphia in the 13th race behind I’m All Pink. Fittingly, the 2-year-old trotting filly is co-owned by his wife Christina Takter, who has been by his side watching him ascend to the top of the Standardbred world.
Adding certainty to the retirement, Christina, who handles the day-to-day business operations for her husband’s stable and also owns many of the horses under his care, revealed that she was changing over all of the insurance policies as of December 1 since Jimmy would no longer be the name behind the stable. While Jimmy is stepping aside, her work is very much still ahead. “He may be retiring but I still have a lot of work to do,” joked Christina.
First up on Takter’s post-racing schedule is travelling. Trips are planned to Florida, New Zealand, and of course to the couple’s native Sweden. “I’m sure we will go to the Elitloppet, but we are going to spend a month in Sweden in June to see family and friends,” said Christina. “My parents aren’t alive, but Jimmy’s are and we really haven’t been able to spend time with them and the rest of our family out there.”
Having trained horses to earnings of over $130 million would seemingly leave plenty of retirement money available to the Takters for travel, but Jimmy was quick to point out that his five percent commission only amounts to about $6.5 million over his 35-plus years in the United States, or about $180,000 per year.
“I realized back when I had Kadabra (2002-2003) and only got one stallion share when he retired that I needed to be smarter about investing my money in this business,” said Takter, who now owns pieces of many horses under his care as well as countless stallion shares and broodmares.
As I purposely peppered Takter with carefully worded questions about whether he would truly retire for good, he stood his ground, pointing out that his daughter Nancy (Johansson) won two stakes races on the card and could wind up with a pair of divisional winners when the year-end awards are announced. He’ll also have longtime assistant Per Engblom at the helm of the Takter empire looking over an equal share of his former equine students.
As Christina, Jimmy, Nancy, Perry Soderberg and Conny Svensson discussed the topics of the day one table over, I discussed Takter’s retirement with his son-in-law Marcus Johansson. I mentioned the possibility that perhaps he could just train Breeders Crown winner Tactical Landing in 2019. According to horse agent Ernie Martinez, who I twice asked about the possibility to make certain I didn’t catch him off guard the first time, Tactical Landing will return for a 4-year-old campaign next year.
“He has a special bond with that horse, but I don’t see him training just one horse. You can’t go from training a big stable to warming up one horse and sitting around all night,” said Johansson.
Despite the absence of his name on the program, Takter will still have a voice in the barn. He’ll shift gears to consultant and provide valuable advice for both Nancy and Per on certain horses.
If Hillofamystery, a 12th race starter on the Friday Philly card for Takter and driver Josert Fonseca, turns out to be the last horse he officially trains, he’ll retire with at least 2,156 wins since the USTA began keeping records in 1991.
Most importantly, Takter, like all-time NBA great Michael Jordan and NFL superstar Jim Brown, will leave the game while widely considered the best at his job. He’ll exit on top under his own terms, which is not such a bad way to say goodbye.
Harness Racing will miss Jimmy Takter, but whether in the grandstand or perhaps someday back in the program, I have a strong feeling we haven’t seen or heard the last of him, and thank goodness for that.