Harness: Knoxville feeling right at home in New York for Ray Schnittker

The New York Sire Stakes program has become rather lucrative for 3-year-olds over the last few years, as the second-tier option has diverted many horses away from the top class and assured six-figure purses. Trainer Ray Schnittker has been a long-time veteran of the New York program and has found success through the years with a varied assortment of pacing and trotting talent.

Last Friday (June 12), Schnittker sent out his latest success story at Vernon Downs - the sophomore Knoxville - to a monster open-lengths victory in the $121K New York Sire Stakes for sophomore colts and geldings. The 1:50 3/5 clocking was his best to date.

Knoxville was a horse no one heard of in 2025, and in large part that had more to do with just one victory in 10 starts, and that came at his home track of Goshen in a New York County Fair stakes event. Despite the lack of victories, Knoxville, a son of Schnittker's Meadowlands Pace champion Huntsville, managed to earn enough points to reach the New York Sire Stakes championship and then finished a distant third to division winner Fragment in the $300,000 final at Batavia Downs.

"He had a bruise in a hind cannon bone that bothered him all of last year," said Schnittker of the subpar season. "I guess in hindsight we probably should've stopped with him."

The off-season did a world of good for Knoxville, and he has returned sound and more than capable of competing in the top Sire Stakes division. For the 67-year-old trainer and sometimes driver, there has been a shift in how he brings horses along.

"These horses have to race so hard every week," Schnittker said. "So, I try to go easy on them in the early races so they can still be strong to the end."

Schnittker qualified Knoxville at Pocono with Tyler Buter guiding the colt to the front and cutting rated fractions before being out-sprinted in the stretch by the classy Pleaseletmeknow in a 1:52 2/5 mile. A first pari-mutuel win came on May 4, with Buter giving Knoxville a two-hole trip that he converted with ease. Another solid off-the-pace effort a week later was the final tune-up for the Sire Stakes program, with Knoxville entered in a $82,500 division in the first Sire Stakes leg at Saratoga on May 24.

Knoxville paced a 26 1/5 first quarter over a sloppy Saratoga surface before yielding to the favorite and then-perfect five-for-five Unmatched Wisdom. Knoxville would finish third, beaten just a length, but Schnittker made no excuses. "Chuck (Connor Jr.) has a really nice horse," Schnittker said of Unmatched Wisdom. "Tyler (Buter) was having trouble. The horse was running out on the turns."

The scene shifted to Buffalo Raceway on June 3 for the second leg of the Sire Stakes. With just one division the purse swelled to $121K, but this time the posts were switched and the competition was much stronger, as freshman champion Fragment joined the mix, along with first-leg winner Unmatched Wisdom.

Buter had to use Knoxville hard early on, getting parked by Unmatched Wisdom through a 27 3/5 first quarter and then keeping that rival working through a 55 3/5 half re-take. Committed to the pocket this time, Knoxville kept up well as Fragment tried to wear down the leader through the final turn. In the stretch, Unmatched Wisdom drifted out, opening a seam along the pylons that allowed Knoxville to explode on through and get the best of Fragment by a length in a 1:53 2/5 mile.

From a first leg where it appeared Knoxville still had some learning to do, the Buffalo win announced the colt's arrival, and his victory at Vernon signaled that he could be the horse to beat in this division when Fragment returns to Sire Stakes action.

"He is sound now and he really tries hard," said Schnittker of Knoxville. "His next start will be at Goshen on July 4."

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A $75,000 Harrisburg purchase at the 2024 auction, Knoxville is the third foal from the Rock N Roll Heaven-sired mare Let's Fall In Love. The dam is a half-sister to the millionaire Romantic Moment, the dam of 1:46 4/5 winner Rockyroad Hanover. With Rockyroad Hanover a son of Captaintreacherous, Knoxville has a similar pedigree with Huntsville, also a son of Somebeachesomewhere, on the paternal side.

"He's been great," Schnittker said of Huntsville's stallion career. "He sires horses that are a lot like Somebeachsomewhere's. They are big, strong and tough."

The results speak for themselves. The 2017 Meadowlands Pace winner is off to an impressive start, with his first four crops effective at the highest levels in and outside of New York. "He's got two Meadowlands Pace winners already," said Schnittker, referring to the last two winners, Legendary Hanover (2024) and Madden Oaks (2025).

Knoxville will stay in New York, with the Empire Breeders and Sire Stakes legs the primary objectives. "I made him eligible to some of the races late in the year at Hoosier Park," said Schnittker.

Shifting to the promising freshmen in his stable, Schnittker sounded quite excited about a Greenshoe-sired filly named Slave To Fashion. "She's the first foal from Brickhouse Babe, a filly I had that finished second in the Doherty from post 10," said Schnittker.

Brickhouse Babe, a daughter of Walner, lost that 2021 contest to Venerable, who would go on to capture the Mohawk Million. Brickhouse Babe's dam Royal Assets finished second for Schnittker in the 2012 Merrie Annabelle, the precursor to the Doherty.

Slave To Fashion made her second qualifier at Pocono on June 17 a winning one, with Schnittker confidently sitting her third throughout the mile and then allowing her to sprint to a 1:59 1/5 victory capped off by a 28 2/5 final quarter.

On the pacing side, the Huntsville-sired Wardensville, a $160K yearling sold at Harrisburg last fall, is a colt that Schnittker is high on following his first baby race at Pocono. He was third, timed in 1:58 2/5 on June 10 and is slated to make his pari-mutuel debut over that same oval in race five on June 21.