Wild Gams named best of New Jersey-breds

Wild Gams, a winner of two stakes worth $250,000 or more last season, has been named New Jersey-bred horse of the year for 2008 by the Thoroughbred Breeders' Association of New Jersey.

Wild Gams, owned by New Farm and trained by Ben Perkins Jr., also was named champion handicap mare.

She captured the $250,000 My Juliet Stakes at Philadelphia Park and set a track record in winning the $400,000 Presque Isle Downs Masters Stakes. Wild Gams finished her career as the fourth highest earning New Jersey-bred of all time with $1,198,486.

Perkins also trains two other division champions, the 2-year-old filly Love That Dance and top sprinter Joey P.

Other statebred division champions were A Dynamite Time, 2-year-old male; Nistle's Crunch, 3-year-old male and turf runner; Paradise Tonight, 3-year-old filly; and Cuba, handicap horse.

Heckuva Time, whose offspring include multiple stakes winner Heckuva Good Time and top 2-year-old male A Dynamite Time, was named broodmare of the year.

Defrere, the sire of 2008 stakes winners A Dynamite Time, Open Skies, and My Three Sisters, was chosen stallion of the year.