Abundance - 3CT
bay colt, by Armbro Goal
Owners
John & Richard Ducharme
Winning the Hambletonian in August and the Breeders Crown in the late fall is so tough that in the past 12 years of the Breeders Crown series, only eight trotters have tried it. Just three have succeeded: Prakas, Mack Lobell and Giant Victory.
The 1995 Hambletonian winner, Tagliabue, suffered a season-ending injury a few weeks before the Breeders Crown and was not entered in the championship series. The colts were an uninspiring but competitive group, and they trotted steadfastly throughout the Grand Circuit while conceding big money races like the Yonkers Trot and World Trotting Derby to the phenomenal filly CR Kay Suzie.
The Breeders Crown entry box was crowded with a dozen entries. A single 12 horse elimination was held the week before, and the winner was Jacqueline & Theodore Gewertz and the Robins Racing Stable’s Giant Hit, over the Ducharme brother’s Abundance. Giant Hit was easily accorded the role of favorite. He had shown hints of true ability, but those promises had not been fulfilled. The same ownership had raced prior Crown champs Giant Chill and Giant Victory. The team of trainer Per Eriksson and driver John Patterson could usually accomplish what they set out to do. Yet Giant Hit was a strange case. So convinced of his ability were well funded owners Tony Chiaravalle and Lou Guida that they purchased Giant Hit for $600,000. The pair would assume ownership after the Breeders Crown, with the intention of racing on the Italian circuit. Though Giant Hit had only missed one check in 19 starts, it was in the final of the Canadian Trotting Classic, over the same track at Woodbine. He won an elimination of the Yonkers Trot but not the final. He was second in an elimination of the Cadillac Hambletonian, and third in the final. Once again he teetered on the brink, having won a Breeders Crown elimination and embarking as the favorite for the final.
Trainer | Driver
John Ducharme | Bill O’Donnell
Giant Hit was foiled once again, by a homebred son of Armbro Goal, Abundance. His owner, John Ducharme, is an attorney and former counsel for the United States Trotting Association. He was once a presiding judge at Brandywine, and always kept a few trotters to breed, train, and hopefully, race. This method resulted in such names as Quick Work, Crowntron and Ritchie Prospect, all peppered throughout the record books of the 70s and 80s.
Abundance was second in the Hambletonian, runner-up only because Tagliabue was pulling up so quickly near the wire that the onrushing Giant Hit and Abundance were forced to peel off around him to avoid running over driver John Campbell. He was overdue for his share of the glory.
The ten trotters gathered for the last big money purse of the year. Giant Hit and John Patterson trotted smartly from the gate in a fashion befitting a 3-5 favorite. Abundance, driven by Bill O'Donnell, opted to sit behind Giant Hit and see what developed. Doug Brown, driving Canadian favorite son Dell Ridge Image, meant to take control of the race, but was parked throughout most of the first half mile in his attempt to do so. Patterson and Giant Hit yielded to Dell Ridge Image before the mild half-time of :57, probably more out of curiosity as to what the 20-1 shot had in mind. Brown was, after all, the leading OJC driver and didn't make a move like that unless he had the horse to back it up.
Unfortunately Dell Ridge Image chose that moment to gallop, and Bill O'Donnell had seen all he needed to see.
He steered Abundance into a clear lane and trotted powerfully past Giant Hit. Determined to just settle the issue once and for all, O'Donnell turned the whip up and asked Abundance to give all he could around the final turn. Abundance responded. Though leg weary at the end, he was the Breeders Crown winner by a solid length. King Pine, another trotter who could not quite maintain the level expected of him put in a solid effort to be second. Even John Campbell, driving Super Hoot, hurried past Giant Hit in the stretch.
As he has throughout most of his life, Ducharme stood proudly but alone in the winners circle, with his son running to join him. His brother, Richard lived in Seattle, Washington and could not make the trip.
O'Donnell scored his twelfth Crown win. He and John Campbell are the only two drivers to win over $5 million in the Crown series.
The decisive backstretch move paid off, and O'Donnell and the dependable homebred delivered on a lifetime of dreams that Ducharme had harbored.
Purse $515,625
Woodbine Racetrack, Toronto, Ontario - November 3, 1995
Extras
| Chart |
