Westgate Crown - 2CT
Comparisons are a favorite commodity of the sports world. Whether it's baseball hitters of different eras, old standards of quarterback ratings versus the norms of today, or the speed or distance one athlete achieves in a particular venue, such hypothetical discussions are irresistible. And while speed records have been the traditional measuring stick in the sport of harness racing, the atomic explosion of standardbred speed in the '80s and on into the '90s has forced the sport to look for different rulers to gauge equine greatness.
In modern harness racing, the most recent standards of excellence have been the legendary Niatross on the pacing side of the ledger and the charismatic Mack Lobell on the trotting end of the sport.
As the top two-year-old trotting colts convened in South Florida in the fall of 1993 to annoint a divisional champion in the Cadillac Breeders Crown, the mantle of heir to the throne as the next "Mack" was being held over the head of a Royal Prestige colt named Westgate Crown.
Nothing stirs the interest and imagination of sports fans like the perfection of the undefeated season as harness racing focusing much attention on Westgate Crown's perfect five-for-five streak as he ventured to South Florida.
Paul and John Simmonds came the roundabout way to owning a champion. The Ontario natives wished to be horse owners and claimed a trotting mare. She had to be retired from racing almost immediately. Unwilling to write her off as a complete loss, the Simmonds bred her to Royal Prestige. They named her first foal Westgate Crown and were unaware they were about to reap untold rewards after a four-year wait.
Trainer"Raz" MacKenzie knew early on the colt was something special, and tried to train him accordingly. mapping out a select handful of stake races with careful interim conditioning, a racing season similar to those in thoroughbred racing. Westgate Crown made his pari-mutuel debut in late July in an elimination of the Peter Haughton. Though he won handily, after the race he was spooked by a tractor and ran loose through the parking lot before being apprehended. Though he did not appear hurt, MacKenzie and the Simmonds were on tenterhooks at having to enter the richest race of the year after such a freak mishap. Westgate Crown dispelled any doubts by besting Mr Lavee in the Haughton Memorial and his win slate slowly acquired divisions of the Champlain, Campbellville and Walnut Hall Cup. This five-race win streak, though modest, earned him close to half a million and attracted the attention of not only the sport's diehards, but also sparked interest from the man who knew all about the greatness of Mack Lobell, co-owner and syndicator Lou Guida.
Never one to be shy in his quest to own and control the sport's top performers, beginning with his acquisition of Niatross in 1980, and having purchased as yearlings such greats as Nihilator, Peace Corps and Mack Lobell, Guida's $250,000 (plus incentives) offering to the Westgate Crown camp gave fans more reason to believe that Westgate Crown might be the modern-day Mack Lobell. Westgate Crown with a gap in his schedule until the late October Cadillac Breeders Crown, was time-trialed at Lexington, and responded with a 1 :55.1 world record clocking, elevating both his value and reputation.
In no other division has the phrase "It all comes down to the Breeders Crown" rung truer. Since the series· inception in 1984, all but two of those colts who captured the freshman colt trot have done so in a crowning effort of a divisional championship.
Westgate Crown would be tested by nine opponents, valid contenders to his status as the division's best. When the final chart was printed and the dust had settled, Wes gate Crown retired the year unbeaten and the divisional title, but the victory was harder earned than the numbers might indicate. Given the next amount of support by the public was Castleton Farm's Bosphorus, offspring of 1984 Breeders Crown champion Baltic Speed and Head Hunter, a fourth-place finisher in her event that same year. A son of Baltic Speed, Valley Victory, took this same event in 1988-Valley Victory in turn was the sire of Smasher, a promising freshman eclipsed by the exploits of Westgate Crown.
With the masterful John Campbell in the sulky, Westgate Crown stormed away from the gate in a brisk :28 as outsider Norman Hanover pressed the champ in the early going. Despite getting a breather to the half-mile mark, it was still no easy mile for Westgate Crown. Arlene Traub's Smasher, with last-minute replacement driver Wally Hennessey in the bike, came after Westgate Crown in the third quarter with a tough first-over attack and pressured the leader throughout the panel. Smasher wouldn't back off and Campbell had to keep Westgate Crown going about his business through a 28.2 final quarter that proved the mettle of both winner and runner-up. Campbell urged Westgate Crown to keep a length separating him from Smasher and maintained that margin, reaching the wire in 1 :57 .1 . Smasher easily held the place spot with Bosphorus seven lengths back in third.
Campbell, the leading driver in Breeders Crown events, not only praised his own colt but Smasher as well. "It was not as easy as you think,' he said of the win. "Smasher kept us trotting all we could. The difference in the race was my colt's ability to leave the gate."
And while the true test of a harness champion, according to Campbell, is their ability to sustain greatness over a number of years, at least through the first six starts of Westgate Crown's career, he achieved the consistency needed to make winners into champions.
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