Crysta's Best - 2CT
The early sensation in the 1990 freshman trotting ranks was Super Pleasure, a brother in blood to the great Mack Lobell. The flashy colt annexed several of the early colt trotting contests, including divisions of the Reynolds and Historic series, and his Peter Haughton elimination. In the Haughton final, Super Pleasure galloped at the start, spotted the field some 15 lengths and still was beaten just a nose at the wire by Charlie Ten Hitch, a colt owned by Washington Redskin's player Mark May. Charlie Ten Hitch was not staked to many events, including the Breeders Crown, but many considered him the best in the freshman class, that is until the tail-end of the stake season rolled around.
By the end of November the spotlight was on Mr. Chin, a fractious son of Speedy Somolli, owned by Garofalo, Nigito and the Lindy Racing Stable. Under the tutelage of top trotting trainers Oswaldo Formia and Jorn Kvikstad, (responsible for the '89 • '90 Hambletonian winners Probe and Harmonious), Mr. Chin had a mere $2,000 to his name in early October. Their patience was soon rewarded, and Mr. Chin's next three starts tallied a triple stakes wins In the Dancer Memorial, Valley Victory and the Matron at Pompano Harness.
Entries from 14 colts caused two eliminations raced a week in advance of the lucrative final. In the first, Mr. Chin extended his win streak to four, taking control past the quarter and notching an easy 1 :59.4 victory. Peter and Gail McCann's Carry The Message was the highest price trotting yearling of 1989, fetching $315,000 at the Tattersalls Sale in Lexington. Though he, too, was prone to going offstrlde at inopportune moments, Carry The Message was trained by Chuck Sylvester, one of the best in preparing horses for big money events. With John Campbell in the bike, Carry The Message behaved perfectly in his elimination, fashioning a wire-to-wire, five-length triumph in 1 :59.1.
The Ohio-sired Crysta's Best, driven and trained by Dick Richardson, Jr., had accumulated a tidy little bankroll in excess of $140,000, racing almost exclusively in the Midwest. Richardson realized the colt was something special when he set a season's mark in the Ohio Sire Stake Final by some nine lengths. Crysta's Best possessed the discouraging habit of making breaks at the start of his mile, but Richardson still decided to try him in some late-season stakes. In his Valley Victory elimination at Garden State Park in New Jersey, the bad habit cost him a berth in the final, but Richardson opted to send him on to the Breeders Crown anyway.
In the elimination won by Carry The Message, Crysta's Best jumped leaving the gate. He resumed trotting and took off in pursuit of the field, traveling wide most of the mile to finish a convincing third and grab a spot in the next week's final.
At post time, Mr. Chin was the even money favorite, with Carry The Message second choice in the wagering. The last race of the year for freshman colt trotters represented high stakes: the role as winter-book favorite in the Hambletonian, divisional honors and a healthy amount of purse money. True to form, Crysta's Best made an anxious break behind the starting gate, gapping off the field and dropping back to seventh. Carry The Message and John Campbell sprinted out to a secure lead, with Mr. Chin following behind them. By the half, Crysta's Best had just one horse beaten, the wildly galloping Harlan Lobell.
It had to be seen to believed. Crysta's Best, out of contention at the start of the race, regained control and steadily picked off horses, trotting on the outside behind weak cover. Mr. Chin was trapped along the rail, with no possible racing room. By mid-stretch baci...ers of Carry The Message were counting their money, yet a few strides later, Crysta's Best represented a serious threat to their payoffs. The two colts were noses apart at the wire, and after a long photo, it was a stunned group of happy Ohioans running for the winner's circle.
Biddle, Breidenbach, Huber and Montgomery's Crysta's Best thrust his nose through the timer in 2:01.1, denying Campbell and Carry The Message another wire-to-wire score. Somatic, driven by Tom Haughton trotted steadily for third honors. Perhaps the greatest achievement of the evening belonged to entrepreneur K. D. Owen, a successful owner and breeder for more than 60 years, and a wizard with pedigrees. Owen bred both Jean Bi and Crysta's Best, the trotting freshman Breeders Crown and divisional champions, an unprecedented accomplishment for a small breeder.
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