Harness: Rod Allen is not riding off into the sunset just yet

About this time last year Rod Allen was talking about retirement. Competing in the Hambletonian Oaks with finalist Dream Baby Dream, Allen suggested that this would be the last go-round. Late last year when he sold the filly and her dam it seemed to complete the thought and likely send Allen into the next phase of his life.

Turn the page to June of this year and suddenly Rod Allen’s name appears again in the program and it’s next to a 2-year-old filly named Sonnet Grace. Though Allen did sell Dream Baby Dream’s dam I Believe, herself a daughter of the great C R Kay Suzie, he had kept a few foals for himself including the filly Sonnet Grace.

“It’s actually a two-year plan,” said Dawn Allen (Rod’s wife), who has ventured out on the road this year away from their 200 acre Golden Cross Farm in Ocala.

“Last year he did his Eastern retirement tour,” said Dawn Allen, “This year we’re in Western Pennsylvania and doing the Western tour.”

Sonnet Grace is a daughter of Muscle Massive that is unbeaten in four starts this year and has captured the attention of those on the Pennsylvania circuit and beyond. “The phone has been ringing off the hook,” said Rod Allen in regard to those seeking to purchase the filly. “I’ve been saying no so far.”

The truth is that Rod Allen is having a lot of fun right now and though Sonnet Grace could likely sell for a serious amount of money, Allen knows what that would mean. “It’s enjoyable racing and if I sell I have to go back to 200 acres and do a lot of mowing and that’s not much fun,” Allen said.

What Sonnet Grace has done thus far in Pennsylvania is somewhat astonishing, not by pedigree terms but by her presence on the racetrack considering how she trained over the winter. “I think the biggest surprise to me is how composed she is during the race. When I trained her over the winter it was almost always alone. I only had one other horse in training, a Delaware-bred, and they were never on the same schedule,” said Allen.

Considering how Sonnet Grace has progressed winning a qualifier at The Meadows on June 21 in 2:00 2/5 and then reeling off two Pennsylvania Sire Stakes events as well as a Pennsylvania All Stars and Arden Downs division, it would seem that she was well prepared for the season, but Allen didn’t have those expectations leaving Florida.

“I like to train them down more before leaving Florida but we had a lot of rain this year and I was late shipping out. When I put her in to qualify I thought she would go around 2:03,” Allen said.

Sonnet Grace equaled her career best with a 1:56 2/5 victory last Friday in the Arden Downs at The Meadows and it was the first time she had raced on the front end after three pocket trip victories. The official trip to the winner’s circle was extended as the judges viewed the tape that showed Sonnet Grace had in fact cut inside several pylons on the final turn.

“You know they all shift their weight on the final turn getting ready to accelerate into the stretch,” said Allen of the entire group that he has trained and raced from the C R Kay Suzie maternal line.

While those in my business will try to make Sonnet Grace into the next C R Kay Suzie, her trainer-driver makes no comparisons. “The way I’ve raced her so far she’s had like three baby races (her first three wins) and one real race that she won handily,” said Allen. Unlike C R Kay Suzie, Sonnet Grace has a good deal more size than her granddam. “You know we’ve had an incredible amount of success over the years with small horses,” said Allen. “I think Andover Hall (sire of I Believe) put some size into her and that’s carried on to this horse.”

Allen was concerned about that size and that was one of the reasons he staked Sonnet Grace more for later in the season, putting her in the Breeders Crown, Goldsmith Maid and Matron Stakes all at year’s end. He hadn’t expected her to blossom this early and is now more cautious. “I’m looking at the schedule and I’d like to protect her as much as possible. It has helped greatly that she hasn’t had to ship very much since we’re stabled here at Rick Beinhauer’s place,” said Allen, referring to Del Miller’s former Meadow Lands Farm.

Since it was Hambletonian week, we asked Rod to look back at the 1995 event where his filly C R Kay Suzie was not just taking on the boys, but expected to win as well. “It was a very hectic week for her,” said Allen of the filly. “There were people around her stall all week coming to look at her and measure her. I use to shoe her myself and she was never a problem but that week she kicked me.”

As if the pre-week incidents weren’t bad enough, C R Kay Suzie made a break in her elimination and didn’t qualify for the final. “That was my fault,” said Allen without reservation.

Though she went on to become the 1995 Horse of the Year, the Hambletonian defeat was something Allen did not want to see as his legacy or for that matter C R Kay Suzie’s. In 1996 the homebred would come back and capture the $500,000 Breeders Crown at The Meadowlands in dominant fashion over a field that included the French phenom Coktail Jet.

“She had broken a coffin bone late in her 3-year-old year and we were rushing to get her back,” said Allen. “We’d get her down to 2:10 and she’d sore up. There was a great blacksmith at The Meadowlands named Hank Joseph and he suggested a special shoe with an aluminum plate and rubber pad. We put it on her and I was able to qualify her in 1:54 and change.”

“It was her last race here and she deserved to go out a winner,” said Allen.

The book is still open on Rod Allen and Sonnet Grace but retirement seems further down the line than ever.