Harness: The Atlanta saga and the birth of an Argentine invasion

I guess we better call the track and make sure they are racing, no matter what the Weather Channel says. That’s what I took away from the cancellation at Yonkers Raceway on March 2 despite no signs of bad weather. At least that lull in action gave us time to weigh in a on a couple of things.

I am surprised by all the shock and awe over Atlanta being sold for $1.5 million at OnGait.com. Let’s be clear, the ticket says she sold for $1.5 million, but she didn’t really. Just 5% of her sold for $75,000. The majority partners decided they wanted to be done with Rick Zeron due to his recent suspension, among other things, and offered him $50,000 for his 5%.That would value the mare at $1,000,000. He turned them down and asked for $200,000, making her worth $4,000,000, according to sources. So the only way to settle the dispute was to auction her off. Timing was important due to stakes payment deadlines, so she went online, rather than at a sale. We see it all the time in sales catalogues. “Selling to settle an ownership dispute.”

I remember it happening in the late seventies, although the specific details elude me. The great Ohio trotting filly Cami Almahurst was being sold by the Blooded Horse Sales Company in February of 1978. It was the first horse sale I ever attended and I was kind of shocked to see the Gene Riegle-trained, Ohio Sires Stakes champ in the book. She had just turned 3 after posting 11 wins in 18 starts at 2. Someone told me they were buying out a partner, but I stood transfixed as the bidding went to $100,000, then $125,000, $150,000 through $200,000. Cami Almahurst eventually sold for a then Ohio record $250,000. As a newbie to the business – I ended up spending $700 on a green pacer named Jake Spinner who I l Amished for $450 three months later – I had no concept of what was going on until a couple of experienced folks explained that several of the partners were basically spending their own money to buy back their own interest in the mare, in addition to buying out the other partner. Cami Almahurst went on to set a 1:59 2/5 world record at Delaware and had a pretty solid career, earning $235,000 while winning 36 of 71 career starts. She had 13 foals, but only one made more than $10,000.

And that is where, perhaps, the Atlanta story becomes interesting. Clearly other people were interested in her. But racing opportunity for aged trotting mares still lags the other three veteran categories, so the people who were bidding against the existing team had to be thinking not just racing value, but potential broodmare value as well. And that is never a guarantee, even for a mare as regally bred and good on the racecourse as Atlanta.

I have joked repeatedly that a Rocksino sounds like the place Fred Flintstone would gamble at, but you can’t joke about its success. I wonder how many months the marketing crew at MGM took to come up with the name MGM Northfield Park, but I have to say I am glad the Northfield Park name will be honored and featured by MGM. I often felt Northfield Park lost some of its identity to the Rocksino, and as the guy who wrote the book on Northfield Park (literally - https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/Products/9780738533292), it is important that the Northfield Park name will be front and center again. The track has seen many of the best in the sport compete there – both human and equine – and the track’s history is really pretty remarkable.

Tuesday night (March 5) at the soon to be MGM Northfield Park, Albionkinginfinito celebrated Mardi Gras by posting a 1:54 4/5 win in the nightcap. It was just his second win in 47 2018-2019 starts, but he has a pretty cool back story. Albionkinginfinito is believed to be the fastest horse in Argentina harness racing history by virtue of a 1:52 4/5 win back in October of 2016 in De La Copa De Criadores or Breeders Cup. After that impressive win, he immigrated (legally) to the United States and won four races in 2017 before his slump. He also lost the spaces between his three names in order to honor the USTA’s 18-character rule. He picked up a win over the Flying Turns last year in 1:56 3/5 at odds of 1-9 , but shortly thereafter moved into the Peter Stratton barn for Argentine ex-pats Luis and Angela Porfilio. A son of Mumbo King from an Argentine (apparently non-Standardbred) mare, Albionkinginfinito was recently purchased by former Northfield driver/trainer Craig Stein and put into the care of William Rhoades.

We hear a lot about horses coming here from New Zealand and Australia, sometimes even British pacers and of course European trotters, but Argentine pacers are a rarity. That may be changing with Art Official standing at stud for leading Argentine nursery Haras Albion (Albionkinginfintio’s breeder) this year, and a smattering of other American stallions having headed to South America in the past few years.

Abionkinginfinito is the second Argentine horse I recall racing at Northfield, although Haras Albion (and a couple other Argentine nurseries) has sent several others to the states, racing at The Meadows and in New York. Trelpon Yanguelen, a non-Standardbred full-bred Argentine pacer, raced there in 1978 and 1979 with limited success for Earl Simmons, but he did pick up one win. I am not saying South America is going to be the new hotbed of pacing stars, but it is an interesting angle worth watching in the coming years, and I guarantee that it will not be 40 years until we see another Argentine horse win at Northfield.

That’s it for this month. Now go cash. Maybe on an Argentine-bred.