Armbro Keepsake - 2FT
All the ingredients were present in the 1991 freshman colt trot to make it an eagerly anticipated event. Several talented youngsters had taken their turns at the head of the class, and yet by the end of October it was fair to say that divisional honors were still undecided. Eleven colt trotters swelled the entry box, and a case could be made for each one to step forward Into the spotlight on Breeders Crown night.
Royal Strength, a colt out of the top stakes mare Berna Hanover, was made the pre-race favorite. The blaze-faced son of Royal Prestige was the soul of consistency all season long, not missing a single check in his 14 starts. His back-to-back wins in an elimination and the final of the Bluegrass-Walnut Hall Cup at Lexington just prior to the Breeders Crown made him the people's choice. Baltic Striker, a $4,000 purchase in the spring, had made his owners more than $150,000, mostly on the New Jersey Sire Stake circuit. Other entrants included Program Speed, a half-brother to the top performer Cayster. who scored the fastest time in the field, a 1 :56.1 marl<, taken at Springfield, Illinois. Ship's Watch was the richest in the field, having finished second in the Peter Haughton Memorial at the Meadowlands. Canadian invader Sharp S Collins etched a sparkling slate of four wins and two seconds in six starts, including a three-length 1 :57.1 romp at Lexington over many of the same colts that he would face in the Breeders Crown.
Everyone expected a good horse race. What came as a total shock to all involved was a stupendous wire-to-wire world record performance from a somewhat unexpected quarter. Bill Gale, driving the Per Eriksson-trained King Conch, erupted from the starting gate, simply lett the talented field bobbing his wake, increased his lead at every pole and motored under the wire in 1 :56.2 by an awesome eight lengths.
That margin of victory in Crown competition was last seen when three-year-old pacing colt Goalie Jeff decimated his peers on his way to "Horse of The Year" honors. It was to be exceeded one race later by the freshman trotting filly Armbro Keepsake, who trotted off by nine and a half lengths. The longest winning margin was recorded by only one horse, the mighty Mack Lobell, who drew off by 12 3/4 lengths in his sophomore Crown event, also enroute to "Horse of The Year" honors.
The lime, a new world record, obliterated the standard set by Valley Victory in the 1988 Breeders Crown, also at Pompano Harness Track. Thomas Moberg's King Conch, a son of Speedy Crown and the Hambletonian Oaks winning-mare Conch, had left the Continental Farms Stable in early fall and gone into the Eriksson shedrow. Coming into the Breeders Crown, his record of lour wins and three seconds in nine starts was outstripped by many of the other colts, and his earnings of $32,925 and mark of 1 :59.1 were not particularly impressive.
But observers will not soon forget his performance on the racetrack that sultry Florida evening. Though trainer Per Eriksson felt the colt had a decent shotto win he was speechless over the time and manner of victory. For Eriksson, it was the first of two Breeders Crown titles he would claim that evening, as King Conch's sophomore stablemate Giant Victory was "Crowned" in his event. King Conch, bred by Hugh A. Grant.Jr., president of the Hambletonian Society, became the tenth son of Speedy Crown to secure the Crown crystal.
Marshall and Lois Field's Royal Strength finished a solid, if distant second, but would be voted divisional champion after winning the Valley Victory stake at Garden State Park. Herschel Walker finished third for the Continental Farms Stable, and King Conch would assume the role of future book favorite for the Hambletonian.
