For the most part, over the last decade or so trainer Noel Daley has gone to the yearling sales with a tight budget and an eye for trotters. With the enormous success of just one colt, Pebble Beach, Daley has seen his outlook change as ownership has tilted the stable in the direction of pacers. As he looked out on the coming stakes season, Daley is equally fitted with quality from both gaits that could lead him not just into the sport’s biggest races but perhaps the winner’s circle. Daley finished the 2023 with a pair of high-caliber colts from both gaits, with Captain Albano expected to be one of this year’s premier sophomore pacing colts and Sig Sauer, a Muscle Hill-sired colt, with Hambletonian aspirations. “Captain Albano had a nice break and we brought him back in January. He’s filled out nicely and grown a bit. He was already a very good looking horse last year,” said Daley of his hopeful star. “We’re taking our time with him and he should be ready to race sometime in May.” Captain Albano carried a six-race winning streak into last year’s Breeders Crown for freshman pacers but was upended at the finish in the contest at Hoosier Park when 23-1 shot Gem Quality went sailing by. “It was disappointing,” said Daley. “Looking back, I think he may have gone a bit too much in his Breeders Crown elimination and wasn’t the same horse for the final.” Despite the defeat, Captain Albano earned $445K on the season with seven wins in nine starts and a 1:49 2/5 record to show for it. Captain Albano banked more than Pebble Beach did as a freshman in 2021. For Daley, Pebble Beach changed the direction of his racing stable before he became a star. “I was training 80 percent trotters,” said Daley. “I had one of my owners call me up and ask me to look at a yearling he liked. He was an Ohio bred but when I saw him, I really liked him too.” The Downbytheseaside-sired colt was Pebble Beach, and with his success Daley found himself looking at more pacing yearlings each year and adding to the point where the stable is now almost equally split between pacers and trotters, with roughly 30 babies in training now from the 60 horses in the stable. ► Sign up for our FREE DRF Harness Digest Newsletter Ironically, not only did Daley look for more pacers but he actually started spending more as well. In prior years there were just a handful of six-figure types that Daley and ownership would come away with at the auctions but last year the numbers escalated on both the pacing and trotting side. “I actually spent $310,000 on a pacing filly,” Daley said, recalling last year’s Lexington Selected auction. “I got together with the partners and we decided to go up to $250,000 on the filly. They were kind of surprised that I was the winning bidder.” Daley was talking about the filly named Champagne Room, a daughter of See You At Peelers from the first crop of Papi Rob Hanover. “I spent $175,000 on a Papi Rob colt that I thought I would get for $100k,” said Daley. “I’m glad I did.” While the $310,000 figure looks high, there is a positive spin on the bloodlines with the Daley’s purchase a half-sister to the dam of last year’s outstanding juvenile pacing filly Geocentric. On the trotting side, Daley remains quite strong for the coming season and Sig Sauer is largely the reason. “He won four of his five starts,” said Daley. “I probably shouldn’t have started him in Kentucky. He didn’t warm up that well.” Sig Sauer made a break in his final start of his juvenile campaign and Daley stopped with him for the season. The colt earned $279K during his brief campaign and was dominant in New Jersey. A $200,000 yearling purchase in the fall of 2022, Sig Sauer has the pedigree that could see him go very far as a sophomore and perhaps land Daley and his partners in the winner’s circle in major sophomore events this year. The dam’s side of the pedigree includes 2022 Hambletonian Oaks winner Fashion Schooner as well as her Breeders Crown-winning sister Broadway Donna. Daley is extremely high on a pair of sophomore trotting fillies getting ready to return and he put Buy A Round just a notch above Miss I LA on his current list. “We had seven 2-year-olds from the 24 we started with last year that made six figures,” said Daley. Miss I LA just hit that plateau with a fourth-place finish in last year’s Kindergarten Series final at The Meadowlands. Miss I LA was also a Grand Circuit winner in competition at The Red Mile last fall. Buy A Round, another by the top sire Walner, earned $355K as the leading trotting filly in New Jersey. She too was a Grand Circuit winner at The Red Mile on a pair of occasions and was on the wire and just a neck short in third in her final juvenile start, the Breeders Crown last October. According to Daley, both sophomore fillies, as well as Sig Sauer, are pointing towards New Jersey Sire Stakes events at The Meadowlands in May. On the pacing filly side, Daley feels that Miraculous Deo is good enough to have her day against the premier sophomore pacing group. “She’s got tremendous gate speed and it wouldn’t surprise me if she captured a big race or two this season,” said Daley. “I’m not sure she could slug it out with Burke’s fillies [My Girl EJ, Pass Line] but I think she could be there with them.” A $172K winner as a 2-year-old, Miraculous Deo closed out her juvenile campaign with a solid third-place finish timed in 1:50 3/5 in the Three Diamonds at The Meadowlands, just a neck behind Breeders Crown winner My Girl EJ, the race’s runner-up. Unlike some of his contemporaries, Daley takes a very measured approach with his 2-year-olds and conceded that his group only began to go two trips just recently. “We’ve probably only been in around 2:30 while some other trainers have gone much faster,” said Daley. “I’m not going to be bringing them up to The Meadowlands for fast training trips.” Instead, Daley will take his time as has been his custom and give his freshman a chance to mature naturally before they reach the big stage. “I’ve got a lot of nice 2-year-old trotting fillies again this year,” said Daley. “I’ve got a few colts that I like a lot too.” Daley ponied up for a spot in this year’s Mohawk Million and on Wednesday was one of the lucky finalists for a coveted spot in that September 21 race at Woodbine Mohawk Park.