Harness: Decisions, decisions when evaluating the Three-Year-Old Colt Trotter of the Year candidates

In this most interesting season of Horse of the Year voting it has become painfully obvious to both amateur and professional handicappers how difficult the assignment is. Evaluating performance from week-to-week to come up with a selection in a race is child's play when compared to spanning an entire season of regional and Grand Circuit stakes races and attempting to make a valued selection.

Perhaps few years have posed such a complex problem for those entrusted in naming the best horse in one class as the 3-year-old colt and gelding trotting division has left us this year. Highlights of the season are littered with major upsets as suggested betting public choices went down in flames on several occasions and in the sport's most significant races.

In trying to be fair to those who had their moments early and some that showed up towards the end of the season there's a risk in failing to recognize the quality of the field a horse beat on a given occasion. Historically in this division the races tend to get a bit watered down towards year's end as the pressure and hard racing that takes place prior to and in the Hambletonian starts to show itself on the horses.

What makes 2022 different is the actuality that Cool Papa Bell, the longest shot to win the sport's biggest prize, did so in a manner that was hard to quantify. Driver Todd McCarthy did an impressive job staying along the pylons as others filtered to the outside and was fortunate enough to find a path once in the homestretch. That Cool Papa Bell stormed past the field late was a surprise given the somewhat mediocre final time and the presence of what appeared to be quality horses leading the pack. Could it have been a combination of one horse having the best day of his life and five others wilting under the pressure of a $1 million contest? That's a lot to be speculating and would be an unfair smear of Cool Papa Bell's brilliant performance on that August afternoon.

What can be said about this year's Hambletonian field is that it likely was the best collection of 3-year-olds in any stakes race this season - filly or colt. The presence of the two fillies Jovialty S and Jiggy Jog S in the 10-horse field added a level of talent that would not be matched the rest of the season. The fillies also said something about Swedish breeding as their quality mares blended perfectly with North American stallions to create a pair of spectacular fillies. Yet in 2022 those fillies didn't have their best in the Hambletonian. Joviality S raced well enough to win from an inside draw but was outsprinted late. Jiggy Jog S suffered the same demise as most every horse that attempted to go overland in the Hambletonian and was still trotting well to the wire if not as fast as one horse that saved all the ground.

Lost in the Hambletonian mix was the race favorite Rebuff, a horse that trotted in 1:49 4/5 in advance of the race winning the Stanley Dancer and then couldn't trot a mile faster than 1:52 with $1 million riding three weeks later in the Hambletonian.

For Rebuff there would be salvation of the season a few months later as the odds-on beaten Hambletonian favorite would rise to the occasion against a large field in the Kentucky Futurity to score at odds of 10-1. Rebuff's victory was in a 1:50 3/5 mile and it would give him some measure of revenge over Cool Papa Bell, who managed a third in the final leg of trotting's Triple Crown at The Red Mile. In the Kentucky Futurity, unlike the Hambletonian, Cool Papa Bell found himself mired behind excess cover in a 12-horse field and was a few lengths behind the winner entering the stretch. That made his performance exceptional to most excepting those who used him first or second in exotic wagers.

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For Rebuff the racing season ended in the Kentucky Futurity but others went on to race in the Breeders Crown and the two weeks at Woodbine Mohawk Park represented a stark shift in the balance of power as the aptly named King Of The North emerged with his crowning achievement.

"We were pointing towards the Hambletonian with him," said Mark MacDonald, who drove King Of The North throughout his racing career. "When he made a break in the Hambletonian we were hoping he could win a marquee event. The Breeders Crown was just that."

King Of The North more than lived up to his lofty pedigree at the end of the racing season and did something quite rare for a 3-year-old trotter, that being saving his best efforts for last.

The 1:50 3/5 victory on a cold October 29 evening at Woodbine Mohawk Park was not just exceptional, it was rather mind-blowing. Having drawn the rail many believed King Of The North would have a hard time holding the lead or even seeing the lead in the early stages at a track where mid-pack horses generally gain the edge after a long sprint to the first turn. MacDonald and King Of The North posted a :26 2/5 opening quarter to assure control and never let up the rest of the way.

MacDonald employed a strategy you don't generally see in major races and that was to try to distance himself from the contenders in the third quarter as opposed to the sprint home. "That's not something you can do all the time," MacDonald said of the strategy. "If I had a horse like Double Deceiver on my back, I wouldn't have done that, but World At War Deo (45-1) was just going to pick up a check and I wasn't worried about him."

The :27 3/5 third quarter was enough to separate King Of The North from the contenders as Cool Papa Bell struggled to get near the winner despite enjoying a three-hole trip much of the way.

"He felt very strong to me going to the three quarters and that’s why I let him go. He was doing it on his own," said MacDonald of the epic performance of King Of The North.

With a victory six days later in the Erskine at Hoosier Park King Of The North ventured to Dover Downs six days later where he finished second behind Double Deceiver in the Matron Stakes.

"When you consider not just the races he went, but the amount of travel between races that’s a lot to ask," said MacDonald in explaining perhaps why Double Deceiver got the better of King Of The North in the final stakes race of the year.

Perhaps a victory in the Matron would have tilted the scales at the end of the year in favor of King Of The North. From this voter's perspective it fell just a little short of the entire body of work of Cool Papa Bell, a gelding that beat the best field assembled this year on the sport's biggest day and then went on to be competitive over the course of a long campaign.