Harness: Takter's presence felt even in retirement

When Hall of Fame trainer Jimmy Takter sent Hillofamistery out to victory at The Meadowlands on November 30, 2018, it marked the end of an era. The now 59-year-old, in the mold of Sandy Koufax in MLB or Jim Brown in NFL, retired at the top of his game having registered 10 consecutive years of seeing his barn earn at least $5,000,000.

While examining the earnings of the top drivers and trainers in the sport in 2019, as of December 4, 21 drivers had eclipsed $5,000,000 in earnings and 18 trainers saw their stables earn at least $3,000,000. In a vacuum, those numbers don’t reveal much, but when compared with previous years they speak volumes.

Over the last three years (2017-2019), 21 or 22 drivers have reached the $5,000,000 mark, which equates to $250,000 in gross earnings (keep in mind they have many travel expenses). In comparison, only 13 trainers hit the $3,000,000 mark in 2017 and even less at just 11 in 2015, 2016 and 2018. But something amazing happened in 2019 as 18 trainers have arrived at the $3,000,000 benchmark and another trio are within $80,000 of that total.

Knowing that purses and handle were up in 2019, the first thought was that this money most have been evenly spread among the training colony, but wouldn’t drivers have seen that same increase? Plus, purses are up just over $9,000,000, which shared by the hundreds or thousands of trainers currently competing would hardly make a serious dent.

That’s when the “Takter Factor” came into play. With Takter on the sidelines, the $8,616,025 his stable earned in 2019 had to go somewhere. Most would immediately think his lofty totals, earned mostly in stakes races or overnights for younger horses, were completely funneled to protégé Per Engblom and daughter Nancy Johansson, who took over a large portion of the horses under his care. While that is partially true, it only tells part of the story.

Engblom, who didn’t train in 2018, saw his stable earn $2,786,654. Johansson, already a top conditioner, had earnings of $2,331,725 in 2018 and $4,590,442 this year, an increase of $2,258,717. Using a crude calculation of adding the total from Engblom and increase from Johansson, we come to $5,045,371, which means another $3,570,654 was up for grabs to other trainers. Thus, with his decision to retire, Takter, who trained his horses to over $130 million in earnings, has impacted the entire industry.

Check out the leading trainers from the previous five years and you’ll see the top three names of Ron Burke, Jimmy Takter and Rene Allard as mainstays. With Takter gone, Tony Alagna and his band of Captaintreacherous youngsters have boosted to #2 in the standings at $5,937,466, the highest total of the 47-year-old’s career, eclipsing his 2013 season when the OG Captaintreacherous was Pacer of the Year. Marcus Melander, powered by his “G-Squad” of 3-year-old trotters – Greenshoe, Gimpanzee and Green Manalishi S – nearly doubled his horses’ earning total from 2018 to $5,360,896 to check in fourth on the leaderboard. Rounding out the top 5 of 2019 is Ake Svanstedt, whose barn sits at $4,954,337 this year, the highest total for the Swedish import since arriving in the U.S. in 2014.

While it was certainly with mixed emotions that we waved goodbye to Jimmy Takter as a full-time participant, perhaps the rest of the training world is smiling a bit broader (or eating a bit more steak) due to his departure.