Jenna's Beach Boy - Open Pace
bay horse, 4, by Beach Towel
Owners
L & L DeVisser Partnership
There was electricity in the air that August night at The Meadowlands. Tthe world’s premier harness track was hosting its first Breeders Crown events since 1988. Normally the championship events are contested in the late fall, but this year the Hambletonian Society awarded the nation’s showplace of racing the three open events, to be raced the closing weekend of the 1996 harness racing session. And with a star-studded cast of eight pacers leading the way in the Open Pace, it promised to be a very special night, indeed.
Jenna’s Beach Boy, one of only four pacers to win back-to-back Breeders Crowns, was attempting to put his mark in the history books. If successful in this year’s Breeders Crown venture, Jenna’s Beach Boy would become the fourth horse and the only pacer to capture three or more championships. Peace Corps has her name etched forever on the list as the only equine to have made it to the Breeders Crown winners circle four times, while Grades Singing and Mack Lobell had done it three times each.
Jenna’s Beach Boy was actually trying to duplicate the feat of Mack Lobell, who is the only horse to have won Breeders Crown events at the age of two, three and four. But what distinguished Jenna’s try for the Crown trifecta, is that he would become the first pacer to do so, with his illustrious counterparts all being diagonally gaited.
For owners Lee and Linda DeVisser, a Breeders Crown victory would put them over the top after an up and down ride with a horse they named after their grandaughter. Lightly raced his freshman campaign, Jenna’s Beach Boy produced a strong second half of the season that included a Crown victory and earned him divisional honors. In 1995, withJenna’s Beach Boy in the midst of an astounding season, and the likelihood of annexing the two richest events for sophomore pacers, the DeVissers were suddenly brought to earth. An earlier minor injury suddenly flared up again while Jenna was warming up for the $1 million North America Cup, forcing trainer Joe Holloway to scratch his star. Holloway also had to reluctantly withdraw Jenna from the $1 million Meadowlands Pace a few weeks later. A fall comeback saw the DeVisser’s and Holloway breathe a sigh of relief, as Jenna became the fastest racing three-year-old of all time with a 1:48.4 score at The Red Mile, and an impressive Breeders Crown winning effort at Mohawk Raceway.
The DeVisser’s startled the harness racing world when they announced they would bring their homebred son of 1990 Horse of the Year and Breeders Crown champ Beach Towel back to the racetrack in 1996. Overjoyed with his performance to date, they were looking forward to one more thrilling season.
After a pair of victories and a second in his first three starts of the season, Jenna hit a bumpy road. The horse inexplicably broke stride in the Graduate Final, finishing ninth, and then one week later, a sizzling 1:20.1 three-quarters duel with arch-rival Riyadh in a Meadowlands Invitational resulted in a third place check. In order to get Jenna’s confidence back, Holloway put the horse through the paces in a winning qualifying effort, and what followed soon after was indeed remarkable. After exacting a measure of revenge on Riyadh in the Driscoll Pace Elim, Jenna’s Beach Boy’s effort in the Final was one for the ages. Wearing down Riyadh down the stretch, Jenna’s Beach Boy crossed the wire in a breath taking 1:47.3, the fastest race mile of all time.
Trainer | Driver
Joe Holloway | Bill Fahy
Going on to a track record performance at Hoosier Park in the Dan Patch Open, Jenna then bobbled in the American-National at Sportsman’s Park, finishing eighth, and some in the harness racing world were beginning to wonder about the sport’s brightest star. The resilient performer bounced back once again, with another sub-1:50 mile in the U. S. Pacing Championship, setting the stage for his Breeders Crown try for history.
It wouldn’t be easy, however, as seven strong rivals stood in his way. Of course Riyadh was there. The richest of the field, with over $2 million in lifetime earnings, was sporting impressive credentials of his own, having earlier won the Battle of Lake Erie, the U. S. Pacing Championship and two divisions of the Levy Series. Trainer Monte Gelrod was also sending out a stablemate of Riyadh, Stand Forever, who was coming off of two 1:49 and change victories of his own at The Meadowlands, and would be handled by John Campbell, the most accomplished driver in both the Crown series and the sport.
Also entered were a trio of millionaires: Ball and Chain, who upset Jenna’s Beach Boy in the Graduate Final, and a pair of rugged mainstays on the Ontario Jockey Club circuit, Historic, who was third in the 1995 Breeders Crown Open Pace, and Village Connection, fourth in the 1994 Two-Year-Old Colt Pace and runnerup to Jenna’s Beach Boy in last year’s sophomore Crown event. Misfit, who won the Levy Series Final, and Hi Ho Silverheel’s, with a Pres Jenuine Pace victory to his credit, rounded out the elite field of eight.
Everyone at The Meadowlands expected an early tug-of-war between Riyadh and Jenna’s Beach Boy. When the two big guns drew the inside posts it was guaranteed. And when the wings of the started gate folded, there wasn’t a disappointed person at the New Jersey oval.
Jack Moiseyev, driving Riyadh, protected his pole position, rocketed to a :26 first quarter, equaling the quickest opening panel in Breeders Crown history, set by Jenna’s Beach Boy in 1995. Bill Fahy, the driving force behind Jenna’s Beach Boy, dropped right into the pocket, but moving down the backside, pulled and brushed by Riyadh to take command.
Paul MacDonell, caught on the outside with Village Connection from the outset, put pressure on the leading Jenna’s Beach Boy, but a :53.1 half and 1:21 three-quarters took its toll and they faded out of it. At the top of the stretch, Fahy asked Jenna’s Beach Boy for just a little more, and the bay horse responded. Late surges down the stretch by Stand Forever and Hi Ho Silverheel’s fell just short, and they settled for place and show money, respectively. Riyadh hung in there until the top of the lane, but ran out of gas and faded to sixth, clearly no match for the winner this time around. Jenna’s Beach Boy’s winning time of 1:48.4 was the fastest Breeders Crown contest in the 13-year history of the series, and earned him a lofty spot in the record books as the first back-to-back-to-back pacing champ ever.
That win really capped off a special night for the DeVisser’s and Holloway. Earlier in the night they swept the top two positions in the Open Mare Pace. Their four-year-old pacing mare She’s A Great Lady atoned for a disappointing eighth-place finish in the 1995 Three-Year-Old Filly Pace with a sparkling 1:50.4 win, while stablemate Armbro Nest followed right behind.
The two victories gave Holloway the distinction of being one in a handful of trainers that captured two Breeders Crown Championships on the same night. Winning the Open Horse Pace with Jenna’s Beach Boy also made him the first non-Canadian trainer to win the event since Clint Galbraith scored in 1988 with Call For Rain.
When the 1996 racing season was put to bed, Jenna’s Beach Boy showed nine wins, seven in 1:49 or better (giving him a record eight for his career), and lifetime earnings just short of the two million dollar mark. His accolades include being honored as the Aged Pacer of the Year, and Pacer of the Year, though he couldn’t beat out the sensational sophomore trotting filly Continentalvictory for Horse of the Year.
Jenna’s Beach Boy and She’s A Great Lady both scored impressive victories on this banner evening. And the two will hook up once again in 1997, though not on the racetrack. Jenna’s Beach Boy, now standing stud at Carter Duer’s Peninsula Farm in Kentucky, will be bred to She’s A Great Lady in 1997
Purse $300,000
The Meadowlands, East Rutherford, NJ - August 9, 1996
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