Plainridge: Ryder happy with Twin B Joe Fresh heading into Clara Barton pace

Twin B Joe Fresh, the 2024 Dan Patch Horse of the Year, will be making her first-ever appearance in Massachusetts on Sunday (July 20) when she ships to Plainridge Park to start in the $100,000 G-3 Clara Barton Distaff Pace. And new Hall of Famer, trainer Chris Ryder, who co-owns the champion with her driver Dexter Dunn, Peter Trebotica and Barry Spak, couldn't be happier with his mare as she heads to the Commonwealth.

Twin B Joe Fresh is coming in off an eye-popping 1:48 1/5 romp that featured a :25 3/5 final quarter in the $142,000 Dorothy Haughton at the Meadowlands last week, and her preparation for this race was summed up simply by her trainer.

“Bang-on! Just the way we like it. No hiccups, and physically she's fine. Right now everything is good. She's a healthy horse and not that difficult at all. It's her fourth year of racing at a high level and not too many horses do that. Once they have a year or two at the top level they seem to peter-off. But she's been holding her top-line form terrific. She's ready to go,” said Ryder.

Over the past four years, Twin B Joe Fresh has put up unbelievable numbers on the strength of her unbelievable performances. She has won 33 times in only 44 lifetime starts with eight seconds and a third while earning $2,588,647 for her efforts. It takes a special kind of pacer to post stats like that and Ryder said her physical attributes set her apart from the rest.

“I always say good horses do good things, and she's something else. She's very strong and obviously, she's got speed. But she's a bit of an exception when you look at her. Physically, she's exceptionally strong. She's built like a stud horse and as she's gotten older, I think it's helped her carry her speed more. She doesn't look like a filly at all,” said Ryder.

“Her work is fairly light now that she's racing. She obviously jogs everyday, she doesn't swim or anything like that. She's prone to tying up, so she goes in the field every morning before she jogs. And most days we'll just let her pace free-legged and not that fast to keep her loose.”

The field for the Barton is short, but has five other very capable mares competing including last year's Clara Barton winner, Sylvia Hanover, whose rivalry with Twin B Joe Fresh has become long-running and somewhat legendary.

The United States Trotting Association's Media Director, Ken Weingartner, pointed out that the two mares have met 16 times during their careers with Twin B Joe Fresh winning 10 and Sylvia Hanover winning five. The only time one of them didn't win a head-to-head event was when Grace Hill won the Breeders Crown Mare Pace elimination last October.

Despite this fierce competition on the track, Ryder said the rivalry is a friendly one.

“We talk freely in the paddock with the Steacy’s, they’re nice people, and the time is very friendly and competitive. I'm pleased for them if they beat us and I think it's the same the other way around. Sylvia is a lovely mare and it is a good rivalry the mares have,” said Ryder.

When that rivalry gets renewed this week, Ryder feels Twin B Joe Fresh will benefit from the short field that entered.

“Oh, it 100% helps her. And this was an ideal draw for her too. I think she'll control the race. I don't see how she doesn't control it,” said Ryder.

Ryder has raced at Plainridge Park only one other time in his career in 2013, when he was in a pinch to get a filly trotter qualified for a New York Sire Stake final, and he was very impressed with his experience there.

“The track couldn't have been any better. They were terrific, I couldn't say enough good things about them,” said Ryder.

Twin B Joe Fresh is affectionately known as “Joey” around the barn, because Ryder said they couldn't come up with a better name for her.

“Twinbrook Farm was delighted we didn't change her name. The official breeder was Brittany Farms, but they sold the mare in foal at Harrisburg and Twinbrook bought her. So Twin B Joe Fresh was actually foaled at Twinbrook in Canada,” explained Ryder.

Ryder will not be on hand Sunday to watch his mare race due to another commitment. But Joey will definitely be on hand to try and add to her already gaudy career totals and maybe make some history.

The stake and all-time track pacing record is 1:48 1/5. It was achieved twice in the Barton by Shartin N and her stablemate Lyons Sentinel, and it appears to be a number that could be rewritten this week.

The $100,000 Clara Barton Distaff Pace is carded as race seven with an estimated post time of 4:00 p.m. Post time for the first race is at 2 p.m.

-edited release (Tim Bojarski for Plainridge Park)