Harness: Roll With Joe producing results as a stallion

“Yeah, I looked at him as a yearling but thought he’d be too expensive to get,” said Ed Hart of Roll With Joe prior to the colt going into the ring to be sold as a yearling.

“I guess he went for less than expected and we got him,” said Hart, recalling his first experience with the son of Cam’s Card Shark that would go on to an epic two-year career with the conditioner.

“I’d say he was a very smart horse from the start,” Hart said. “The first time we took him out to line-drive him there were three of us and he got away. I’ll tell you he paced around the track incredibly fast that day before we were able to get a hold of him.”

That’s the kind of fright trainers don’t want to have to witness, but when it foretells a story of incredible talent it certainly is worth repeating.

Roll With Joe could have been an afterthought in harness racing simply by virtue of his being a full brother to the great racehorse and sire Bettor’s Delight. That he arrived on the scene 10 years after his more accomplished sibling was perhaps a reason he found his way into Hart’s stable. At the same time, there are no hard and fast rules that suggest broodmares won’t produce greatness on more than one occasion.

“He was a very good 2-year-old,” said Hart, “Just a little short of the top level. But he matured and put it all together as a 3-year-old. I’d say his effort in the Meadowlands Pace was pretty amazing.”

The 2011 Meadowlands Pace saw Roll With Joe blast out from post eight with Ron Pierce in the bike and get the top in a 26 1/5 opening quarter. The now-retired Pierce was never intimidated by the draw and gave the horse every chance. On this night he used Roll With Joe on multiple occasions and managed to hold off the field in a brilliant 1:48 2/5 mile.

Hart also recalled a first heat of the Little Brown Jug where Roll With Joe set ridiculous fractions of 26 1/5, 53 3/5, 1:22 over the half mile track and was victorious in 1:50 2/5.

Yet Hart’s fondness for the horse was borne out of what he saw on a regular basis. “He always showed up and gave it his all,” Hart said of the battle-tested colt that retired with in excess of $1.8 million in earnings.

When Roll With Joe’s brother Bettor’s Delight retired from racing, he was inundated with a host of the sport’s premier pacing broodmares. On the list was the sensational Town Pro. That mating produced $2.9 million winning Darlin’s Delight and paved the way for an impressive stallion career.

When Roll With Joe retired, times had changed and breeders were looking in different directions with the establishment of new lines of speed. Nevertheless, Roll With Joe showed the kind of fortitude in his first year at stud that he did on the racetrack. That he was able to come up with a horse of championship caliber in Racing Hill from a dam (Chasing Ideals) that earned zero on the racetrack is perhaps the best testimony of his capabilities as a stallion. A $22,000 yearling, Racing Hill’s racing career was similar in nature to Roll With Joe. Both had productive freshman careers but blossomed as sophomores. In Racing Hill’s case, he earned nearly $1.6 million as a sophomore with a 1:48 record that eclipsed his sire. Racing Hill’s fastest victory also occurred at The Meadowlands but came at year’s end in the Breeders Crown.

Roll With Joe has but three crops that have been to the races and much like his more famous brother, he appears to be sending out horses that stay sound and are capable of longevity as well as earning power.

A leading stallion in the New York Sire Stakes program, Roll With Joe’s offspring have proven themselves over the half-mile tracks and beyond. Not surprisingly, his first 5-year-olds are already making an impact, with Wishy Washy Girl a leg-winner in the prestigious Blue Chip Matchmaker series at Yonkers.

Roll With Joe stands for a $7,500 fee in New York at Blue Chip Farms.