Harness: Joviality S could be eyeing a date with the boys in 2022

Over the course of the winter trainers spend time educating coming 3-year-olds and looking for ways to improve capabilities. On the trotting side, horses prone to making mistakes are worked with as conditioners are given the time away from racing to produce a finished product. Trainer Marcus Melander may be on the young side, but year after year he's come up with some impressively talented trotting colts and fillies.

This winter Melander has spent time teaching one of his more expensive 2-year-olds from 2021 lessons he hopes to propel her to greatness. At the same time, Melander and his owners have already learned pretty much everything they need to know about Joviality S, a filly in the endless line of success stories for the stable from sons and daughters of Chapter Seven. Joviality S proved to be as good as any filly at the end of her juvenile campaign and over that time conveyed a message that was read loud and clear by her connections.

"We're looking towards racing her in the Yonkers Trot," Melander said the other day while going over some of the early schedule for Joviality S. "You saw how good she was coming out of post eight at Yonkers in the New York Sire Stakes final."

Indeed, the blistering early foot and her ability to navigate a first turn that generally is unkind to juvenile trotters, gives Joviality S an incredible advantage over the half-mile track, especially the four-turn variety at Yonkers.

For Melander the Yonkers Trot is obviously down the road, but he is focused on New York as well due to her Sire Stakes eligibility.

"I'm probably going to race her in the first two New York Sire Stakes legs," said Melander. "Then she has the Empire Breeders Classic."

Joviality S is back in training with the rest of Melander's sophomores, but patience is being shown at this time with big races down the road. Despite having an arsenal of top-quality horses over the last five years that included a powerhouse in Greenshoe and a three-time Breeders Crown champion in Gimpanzee, Melander has not gotten the job done on Hambletonian Day and certainly he's hoping to do better in 2022.

"I've definitely learned that it's a long season. I think in the past I've had them maybe a little too sharp early in the year," said Melander, who recognizes just how many big events take place after the first week in August for 3-year-old trotters.

Melander speaks of Joviality S with the same reverence he spoke of Gimpanzee over the three-year period he trained that son of Chapter Seven.

"He had a great gait and you could do anything with him," said Melander of Gimpanzee, the winner of the 2019 Yonkers Trot. "The great thing about Joviality S is just how easy she is to drive and how easily she will relax."

Though his horses are only doing interval training right now and not gone faster than 2:40 miles, Joviality S has continued to show impeccable manners this winter giving rise to high aspirations for the coming year. The first foal from the international stakes star Pasithea Face S earned a shade under $900K as a juvenile, following up her Breeders Crown upset victory with an impressive win in the Goldsmith Maid over eventual divisional champion Venerable.

Entering 2022 Joviality S is more the proven commodity, but Melander believes he has another filly in the stable that may prove up to that level, at least over the big tracks. Jaya Bae, a $725,000 yearling purchase at the 2020 Lexington Selected auction, enters 2022 with just $19,000 earned in four career starts, a fraction of her more celebrated stablemate. The filly from the first crop of Walner and the second foal from the near $1.6 million-winning phenom Mission Brief had a bit of a bumpy campaign but always showed the talent required to compete at the highest level.

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"Training down she was every bit as good as Joviality S," said Melander. "We had some issues with her and decided to wait until The Red Mile Grand Circuit to race her."

The results were more than impressive as Jaya Bae took a 1:53 2/5 record in an overnight event at The Red Mile before shipping to The Meadowlands for the Breeders Crown. Jaya Bae was a solid third in her elimination heat but made a break in the final, her last start of 2021.

"I think she was a bit too fresh," said Melander, with understanding of why driver David Miller couldn't get control of Jaya Bae in the Crown final and the filly made a miscue. "I think some of the Walner's can get a little hot and grabby and that is something we've been working on with her over the winter."

On pedigree alone Jaya Bae would appear destined for greatness, but Melander knows full well that winning major races as a 3-year-old requires a combination of high speed as well as manners. Quite often post position doesn't go your way when the big money is on the line. A versatile horse can overcome more obstacles than one that can't be relied on to mind its manners.

There are roughly 60-head Melander has in training, with 40 of those 2-year-olds that are doing well given the vast changes in the weather experienced in the northeast in February. On the sophomore trotting colt side, Melander has four horses coming back that earned in the $100k neighborhood during their freshman campaigns. Periculum, a Muscle Hill colt that captured a Grand Circuit event at The Red Mile in October, also captured a William Wellwood Memorial elimination at Woodbine Mohawk Park. Periculum is a full brother to Spy Booth, who finished second in last year's Hambletonian and then captured the Zweig Memorial at Vernon Downs.

The Walner-sired Temporal Hanover was second behind King Of The North in the New Jersey Sire Stakes final, and Classic Hill, another Muscle Hill colt, finished second behind King Of The North in the Peter Haughton Memorial on Hambletonian Day at The Meadowlands. Melander is pointing all three for New Jersey Sire Stakes action first and hopefully Grand Circuit races later in the year.

On the 4-year-old front Sonofamistery will need to be more consistent.

"He's got plenty of speed," said Melander. "He beat Captain Corey in the Stanley Dancer in 1:50 2/5." Unfortunately, that victory in July was the last of the year for Sonofamistery.

"I'm pointing him for the New Jersey Maturity," Melander said of the new race on the stakes calendar this year with eliminations at The Meadowlands on April 16 and a final on April 23.

With his usual firepower in the barn, you can expect to see Melander in the winner's circle quite often during 2022.