Running Sea - 3CT
bay colt, by Supergill
For more than 40 years scenic Vernon Downs has been a cornerstone of the New York State harness racing industry. It has produced famous horses and legendary horsemen, and has alway been popular as a summer training destination due to a charming rural setting and a unique three-quarter mile track, with the horses starting on the straightaway and foregoing a standard first-turn.
As a first-time host for the Breeders Crown series, Vernon drew the sophomore trotting divisions, a pair of superior races in 1996. Though the fillies outshone the colts, the colts came on in two distinct sets, early season sensations and those who came to their peak later in the fall.
Mr. Vic, an early darling, did not make the Hambletonian or the Breeders Crown. Lindy Lane, valiant runner-up to the phenomenal filly Continentalvictory in the Hambletonian, raced in the Breeders Crown elimination, but was withdrawn from the final for failing to show at top form.
That left the spotlight solely to Running Sea. When Jorgen Jahre bred his $200,000 earner to the fastest trotter of 1988, he was hoping to capture the best traits of Wish For Speed and Supergill, and add an extra twist of trotting talent. Though it was not evident at first that he had succeeded, the offspring of the two had already begun a march to the races. Relatively unnoticed at two, Running Sea logged on the scene as a solid performer, banking $88,000 under the steady tutelage of trainer Eddie Howard for owners Howard Guggenheim, David French and Don Johnson, who make up the DDH Racing Stable. Abe “Colt-Man” Stoltzfus, with an unerring eye for inexpensive champions, selected Running Sea as a yearling for $8,000. The son of Supergill showed definite promise as a freshman, yet it took until September of 1995 before he posed in the winner’s circle. It would be ten long months before his picture was taken again. At the close of his two-year-old season, Running Sea finished in the money behind Lindy Lane, the late season sensation and eventual divisional champion of 1995, in the Valley Victory. His owners, pleased that he had finished his freshman campaign strongly, entertained winter-long thoughts of having a top colt in 1996. They could never have imagined that by the same time next year, Running Sea would be the headliner, as Lindy Lane slowly faded from the scene.
In the beginning of 1996, Running Sea displayed perfect form -- in qualifying races, that is. In the betting contests, which came with purse money attached, he galloped. That’s pretty much the way April and May, the cruelest months for the DDH Racing Stable, unfolded. Running Sea qualified well, then ran. Qualified well again, then ran. Finally in June, in the Colonial at Woodbine, Running Sea showed a glint of his ability, finishing fourth and trotting in 1:55.4. Unfortunately, with just one flat mile behind him, it was time for Running Sea to head south and hit the Hambletonian trail. Despite a skip behind the gate, Running Sea finished third in a prep race for the Yonkers Trot, the first leg of the trotting Triple Crown. But, for all the marbles the following week, he went offstride and finished sixth, 24 lengths behind the astounding winner. Not that anyone beyond Guggenheim, French and Johnson noticed. All eyes were on the filly, Continentalvictory, amazingly called the third best horse in a trio of juggernauts that included Lindy Lane and Mr. Vic. All were offspring of Valley Victory, and were more or less conceded all the money, all the accolades and all the acclaim for the rest of the year.
Of course, that’s why they call it horse racing.
The owners of Running Sea were not new to the vagaries of racing. Guggenheim is a vice president of Smith Barney, a brokerage firm in his hometown of Boca Raton, Florida. A native of Cleveland, Ohio, he has three children who still live in the horse-saturated Buckeye state, which is where, in the late ‘60s, Guggenheim first became interested in the horse business. Seeking a diversion from the long hours at work, he bought some yearlings to race the county fair circuit, perfect outing opportunities for the family. As the years went by, Guggenheim found himself with a healthy number of horses, his stable usually numbering around a dozen. About three years ago, Guggenheim made a pitch to two of his friends, Johnson, a client of Guggenheim’s investment firm, and French, an attorney in Boca Raton, to invest in a package of race horses. French is the bookkeeper for the stable. Though standardbreds may rate as “high risk” as investment prospects, the partners did well.
Guggenheim wanted more. He wanted a “big” horse, one that would be talked about, written about and feared the way Lindy Lane or Continentalvictory was. And French believed they had one in Running Sea. Time was slipping away.
The owners decided to make a change. Running Sea had the potential to become that “big” horse, and it was their responsibility to give him every opportunity to do so. After that frustrating gallop in the Yonkers Trot, time was running out for Running Sea.
The Hambletonian was less than a month away and they were sure they had a trotter capable of giving a good showing. They approached Chuck Sylvester about taking the colt. Sylvester has long since proved his worth in this business, and has been adamant about keeping the size of his stable scaled down. He doesn’t take horses he doesn’t want or owners just for the sake of a training bill. When Abe Stoltzfus convinced Sylvester that both Running Sea and his owners were first class material, the trotter was moved to the Chuck Sylvester Stable.
Well, Sylvester didn’t win the Hambletonian with Running Sea. But D(avid), D(on) and H(oward), as the DDH stable, were dancing a jig over Running Sea’s third place finish. Their instincts to go with Sylvester were justified. And Sylvester, who needed a driver since Campbell was committed to Act Of Grace in the Hambo final, went with his instincts, and grabbed Wally Hennessey, straight from the winner circle of the Hambletonian Oaks with Moni Maker.
A win in the Zweig Memorial and a proper showing in the World Trotting Derby refueled their hopes.
Running Sea would not lose another race. As the harness world focused on Lexington and the final stage of the trotting triple crown, several dramatic events occurred. Personal Banner beat both Act Of Grace and Continentalvictory in the Bluegrass Stake, a traditional filly prep for the Kentucky Futurity. Continentalvictory would not race again, and the scramble for position among the colts to seize control of top dog status began in earnest. Running Sea romped in the colt division of the Bluegrass Stake.
The Kentucky Futurity was all Running Sea. Sylvester had honed the medium-sized colt to razor sharpness, and Hennessey helped him control and use his best feature -- quick gate speed -- to his advantage. No challenge materialized from Lindy Lane in their Futurity elimination, and the final was a two and a half length jog, a perfect present for Hennessey on his 40th birthday, in the midst of the best year of his driving career. As for Sylvester, he took his seat in the floral Futurity chair for the fourth time.
The Breeders Crown saw a dozen trotters flood the entry box, vying for the last big purse of the season. If Running Sea was going to make voters forget the spectacle of August and the dominant Meadowlands performance of Lindy Lane, a Crown win was a must. First, Hennessey guided Running Sea through the elimination at Vernon Downs, sitting carefully in the bike as if the trotter were made of spun glass.
“I just didn’t want to anything stupid and not make the final,” Hennessey reported afterwards. This horse is so sharp now I just didn’t want to make any mistakes.”
Hennessey did let Running Sea open up four lengths at the wire in his elimination, thinking ahead to the next week and hoping to quell any thoughts of Running Sea being open to challenge, He wanted the others to recognize him for what he’d earned -- the title of the favorite and the best horse in the race. The eternally smiling Hennessey also marked a second personal milestone with a Running Sea victory, chalking up his 4,000th victory in the Crown elim.
Running Sea had no trouble in the Breeders Crown final, winning comfortably in 1:55.2, hardly blowing as the exuberant crowd of owners joined him in the winners circle. Caretaker Krista Williams steadied her charge as a stream of people caromed about him. The only member of the winning team missing was the coach. Sylvester’s wife Sharon had been hospitalized with breathing problems and he had decided to stay by her side, leaving son Troy in command at Vernon.
Another son of Supergill, Super Grit, was also improving his sire’s credits, with six wins coming into the Breeders Crown. John Campbell deftly steered him to a second place finish, and Ron Gurfein’s second-stringer Score A Success, who’d won the Founders Gold Cup at Vernon earlier in the season, was third. With the scratch of Lindy Lane, Edge of Glory moved into the final and picked up the fifth place check.
Supergill lost this event to Firm Tribute in 1988, in one of the closest finishes in Crown history. Vindication came from both Running Sea and Malabar Man, winners of both the freshman and sophomore trots. Supergill would lead all stallions in Crown earnings for the year.
Guggenheim and French were almost speechless. At the beginning of the season they’d hoped to have a solid competitor, a horse who would make a good showing and they ended up with the star of the show. A win in the Matron in Florida, in front of their hometown crowd, capped the year. Nearly the entire staff of Smith Barney crowded the winners circle. The title of three-year-old trotting colt of the year was imminent. Running Sea was an outstanding investment -- the $8,000 he cost turned into $686,338 in purse money and a sale price of $750,000 to Swedish interests and Finnish trainer Juoko Parssinen. The three partners had agreed to dissolve their interests win, lose, or draw, and kept to their agreement when the buyers came calling. Though the financial rewards were vast, the real return came in the thrills department for Guggenheim, French and Johnson, who realized the experience of a lifetime through Running Sea.
Purse $400,000
Vernon Downs, Vernon, NY - October 25, 1996
Extras
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