Woodbine Mohawk Park: Hochstetler makes Crown debut with speedy Indiana-bred

There was major news this past Monday (October 17) in the harness racing world. Significantly, the coveted 3-year-old male pacing division saw a shift when the connections of Bythemissal elected to supplement to the Breeders Crown. The Little Brown Jug and Milstein champion had been pointed towards an end of the year campaign, and trainer Ron Burke pulled the trigger on a $72,000 supplemental entry.

Almost simultaneously, the division saw a disappointment as the connections of Meadowlands Pace winner Beach Glass announced the colt from the last crop of Somebeachsomewhere would remain out of action, not fully recovered from throat surgery earlier this month.

One would have thought that both sets of information would have changed the calculations of many owners of eligible sophomores to this year's Breeders Crown but not everyone was reading the headlines. Trainer and co-owner Jay Hochstetler wasn't interested in what the competition would look like.

"We made the decision before Friday night [October 14] that if he won the [Indiana Sires Stakes] Super Final we would go in the Breeders Crown," Hochstetler said on Tuesday (October 18) after his Rockin Image-sired colt had landed post eight in one of two eliminations.

It was seven years ago in 2015 when another son of Rockin Image by the name of Freaky Feet Pete captured the Super Final at Hoosier Park and then went on to win the Breeders Crown, putting the Indiana breeding program on the map for good.

Hochstetler, who at the time was working as an assistant trainer for his dad Homer, had seen his share of quality horses with the family based in Indiana. But it wasn't Rockin Image specifically that led him to purchase Ponda Warrior for $37,000 at the Hoosier Classic Yearling Sale in 2020.

"We raced his mother," said Hochstetler of the American Ideal-sired filly Sweetnsinful. "She was just one of the toughest horses I've been around. She wasn't always the soundest, but she gave it everything she had when she was on the track."

The Hochstetlers parted ways with Sweetnsinful after her 3-year-old season, and the mare would race on the east coast for a few years before becoming a broodmare.

"It was the first year I went out on my own," Hochstetler said, recalling his approach to the purchase of Sweetnsinful's second foal and first colt at the 2020 auction. "I just knew going to the sale that I was going to buy him no matter what the price."

With partners in place, Ponda Warrior was purchased and from the early days of training the young Hochstetler found himself liking the colt. "You could tell right from the start that he was different," said Hochstetler.

So different in fact that the usually conservative trainer went out on a limb. With so much to race for with an Indiana-bred over his home track, there is little reason nominate let alone travel to out-of-state Grand Circuit races. Yet Hochstetler made an exception.

"I put him in the Breeders Crown," Hochstetler said, confirming his high regard for Ponda Warrior.

Ponda Warrior showed his talent from the first time he was entered at Harrah's Hoosier Park in 2021. He won his racing debut in 1:53 2/5 on June 24 of last year and would take his personal-best 1:51 3/5 record in his Indiana Sires Stakes debut on July 11. The season would work out fairly well all things considered, with Ponda Warrior finishing on-the-board in six of his nine starts and grossing earnings of $116,200 for Hochstetler and his partners Finkelberg Racing and South Of The Tracks Racing.

"I had every intention of racing him in last year's Breeders Crown," said Hochstetler, "But his last few starts he didn't race as well as expected and I just stopped with him."

Ponda Warrior again got off to a solid start as a 3-year-old but went through a bit of a mid-season malaise. In his second start of the year Ponda Warrior set a personal-best with a 1:49 1/5 effort over the Harrah's Hoosier Park surface in the first leg of the Sires Stakes on May 30. He would win just one more time prior to the October 14 $270,000 Super Final.

"We had some sickness issues with him over the summer," said Hochstetler. "He had just one bad race."

In the eighth leg of the Sire Stakes on October 7, Hochstetler knew things were headed in the right direction. "I mean he finished sixth, but he flew home in the stretch," Hochstetler said.

As confident as Hochstetler was of his own horse, he felt that the decision to change drivers may have been the decision that led to the pre-Crowning achievement. "What can I say about Dexter Dunn," Hochstetler said. "He's unbelievable."

The good part for Hochstetler wasn't just getting Dunn to drive but perhaps giving him the confidence that Ponda Warrior was up to what would turn into the race of his life. Dunn put Ponda Warrior in play early, taking a seat in fifth with a hot pace in front. Favored Soaring Now had been a dominant force in Indiana throughout the year, but he needed to pace 53 1/5 to get control of the field. With the favorite in front and few following him looking to challenge, the ball was in Ponda Warrior's possession, and Dunn rolled him on a long, coverless march.

Dunn was able to get Ponda Warrior up to the leader moving to three quarters in 1:21 3/5, but he was also providing live cover for other closers. In the stretch, Ponda Warrior not only put away the favorite, but he just kept on digging in, rolling away by open lengths strongly with a 27 2/5 kicker to boot.

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The entry into the Breeders Crown eliminations on Saturday is the second time Ponda Warrior has left Indiana for a race. In August he ventured to the $300,000 Milstein where he was rudely greeted by Bythemissal.

"He left the gate and stayed on the outside and our plan was to get cover," Hochstetler said. "Once Bythemissal got the front no one was looking to pull on him."

The result was Ponda Warrior parked the entire mile but losing by just nine lengths and finishing sixth in the field in the 1:48 4/5 mile. It was his first and only start over the half-mile track.

"I was really proud of that effort," said Hochstetler. Perhaps even more revealing about the Ponda Warrior's character was the aftermath. "The next day when I took him out to jog it was like he hadn't been in a race at all," said Hochstetler.

Saturday will be Hochstetler's first Breeders Crown starter, and he's hoping there will be a second week, notably the Crown finale on October 29.

"If he makes the final, I'm not going to be able to be there," Hochstetler said. The trainer got married to his wife Amy in 2020 in a small ceremony, and as it turns out, his Best Man is getting married on October 29. "I'm his Best Man, and I can't miss the wedding."

In just the second year with his own stable made up primarily of Indiana-bred horses, Hochstetler, just 30, has the opportunity of a lifetime with a sophomore that enters the Breeders Crown as sharp as any in North America. Win or lose the trainer seems happy to be there for the moment and expects his colt to return to Indiana afterwards with a few more stakes engagements for this year and perhaps an even more ambitious 4-year-old season ahead.

"We'll definitely put him in the Graduate," said Hochstetler, thinking ahead just briefly but clearly focused on matters heading into this Saturday night.