Scioto: Big Ranger prepping for Hambletonian on Saturday

Many of the top contenders on the road to the Hambletonian were on display at the Meadowlands for the Stanley Dancer Memorial on July 11 and still more will be in action this Sunday in the Zweig Memorial at Vernon Downs, but there are many avenues a trainer can take to prepare for the most important date on the trotting calendar - some by design and others by necessity.

While it is true that many 3-year-olds use the Meadowlands as the preparatory ground for the Hambletonian, it is far from the only route to glory in that trotting classic. Recent history shows that 2022 winner Cool Papa Bell came into the race off a New York Sire Stakes win at Yonkers, Forbidden Trade (2019) off an overnight win at Woodbine Mohawk Park and Atlanta (2019) following a Sire Stakes score at Vernon. Digging deeper, back in 2005 Vivid Photo used a Tompkins-Geers victory at Scioto Downs as his springboard to a history-making win in the $1.5 million final.

Fast forward more than 20 years and another horse will hope that lightning strikes twice, as Big Ranger preps for the August 1 Hambletonian eliminations in a Buckeye Stallion Stake at Scioto Downs on Saturday. For trainer Anette Lorentzon, the colt's appearance in Ohio is more necessity rather than desire.

"He was never paid into anything until the Hambletonian," said Lorentzon, who skipped the fourth leg of the higher Sire Stakes class at Northfield Park on July 12 for the Scioto spot. "We didn't want to go on the half-mile track before the Hambletonian and it is over a five-hour ship. I was hoping when I got him that he was eligible to the Stanley Dancer but he wasn't."

Until late May, Big Ranger was under the care of trainer/driver Ronnie Gillespie. He guided him to nine wins in 11 starts before Madison Global - Anthony Miller, Wes Beachy, Reuben Herschberger and Benjamin Shrock - elected to make the change to Lorentzon, who has more Grand Circuit experience and competed in the 2017 Hambletonian with Guardian Angel As.

Lorentzon had no prior relationship with any of the owners when she received a call one day. "They said, 'you probably don't know who I am but we got your number from someone.' Then we talked about it and I agreed. You never really get a call like that."

Big Ranger, a son of the hot Ohio sire In Range, didn't disappoint in his one and only start thus far for Lorentzon and new driver Tim Tetrick. Racing in the Ohio Sires Stakes at Scioto on June 13, he came away in the pocket, brushed to the front by the 56-second half and uncorked a sizzling 26 4/5 third quarter en route to a shut-down-late 1:50 3/5 track-record victory.

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"Ronnie did a great job with him, and I was just hoping we can keep him as good," said Lorentzon about the first race. "We got him and we put him on our training schedule. I know that's very different from how Ronnie trained him. Everything was new for him - environment, home, driver - and I was just hoping he would stay flat and put in a good race, but he was better than I thought [at Scioto] because we hadn't trained him up or anything."

"He's a big, strong colt that gets around the track so easily," said Tetrick about his first impressions of Big Ranger. "If I would've spoken to him [in the stretch], I think he could've gone 1:49 flat that night."

Lorentzon said she only made minor changes, mostly to the colt's shoeing, and that during the last five weeks when he's been on the sidelines due to no stakes engagements, he's put on some good weight.

"He's a very like happy horse. He loves to work and he's got a great attitude," said the trainer.

While Lorentzon, who trains 28-head from her Paris, Kentucky, farm and has 12 more at Magical Acres in New Jersey with her sister Anna Lorentzon, got the colt by surprise, it was her relationship with Tetrick that secured him the drive. He has driven a number of her stakes horses over the years and is no stranger to the Hambletonian, having been in the race many times and coming up victorious in 2012 with Market Share.

"I worked out on my schedule so I could go try him and I was glad I did, because that way I get to know him and try to teach him different ways of racing besides just leaving the gate and going to the front. To go against the Grand Circuit horses he has to learn the other way too," said Tetrick, who also has the Linda Toscano-trained It Could Be Worse as a potential Hambletonian horse.

Big Ranger has post six in the 15th race on the Saturday Scioto card. He is listed as the even-money morning-line favorite and figured to offer odds of 1-9 at post time in the $20,000 race. Tetrick is once again making the trip from his East Coast home to steer Big Ranger and has also picked up three drives in the four $100,000 races on the stakes-filled card.

He'll sit behind I'm A Lou Lou in the G3 Nadia Lobell for 3-year-old pacing fillies, race 11 on the program. The pair won the G3 Park MGM Pace at Yonkers Raceway on June 26 but struggled in the G3 Jerry Silverman last time at the Meadowlands.

"She's just a step below some of the top ones, but most of them are a step below Loua Dipa and Be Perfect Bg," said Tetrick. "When she's in with this kind of group, she fits in pretty good."

I'm A Lou Lou starts from post two as the 3-1 morning-line favorite.

In the #Senditin Invitational Pace (race 14), Tetrick will reunite with Best Chip for trainer Joe Bongiorno. The 4-year-old is exiting a sizzling 1:46 4/5 mile at the Meadowlands last week and now owns a 9-5-2-0 record in 2026.

"Joe's done a miraculous job with that horse," said Tetrick about Best Chip. "I drove him at Chester [Harrah's Philadelphia] and just trained him around there in 1:48 [3/5]. He gets around the track really easily."

Despite landing with the outside post nine in the field, Tetrick felt Best Chip (6-1) wasn't out of his element facing recent Haughton Memorial winner Lou Hill (post four, 9-2), as well as millionaires Maximus Miki (post one, 6-1), Dandy Ideal (post three, 4-1) and Prince Hal Hanover (post six, 7-2).

Tetrick picks up The Last Martini (6-1) for the first time in her career in the Cleopatra Invitational (Race 13) for older pacing mares. She drew post four and will have her hands full versus divisional leader Miki And Minnie (post three, 5-2), who seeks to rebound after a third-place finish in the G2 Dorothy Haughton at the Meadowlands. Dexter Dunn returns to the bike on the Chris Ryder trainee.

Race 12 features the G3 Moni Maker for 3-year-old trotting fillies. A wide-open group of seven will compete.

The marathon 17-race card at Scioto gets underway at 5:25 P.M. (EDT).