Red Bow Tie - Open Pace
bay gelding, 5, by Raging Glory-Cheers Lauxmont, by Royce
Owners
Siegel, Scharf, d'Elegance & TLP Stables
By late summer of 1999, rock solid pacer Red Bow Tie was the surest thing in horse racing. The gelded son of Raging Glory with fragile feet but an iron will to win opened up the year with a win in the Presidential final in January and carried that standard right through late June with victories in the Graduate series, the Classic series and the William Haughton final. With half a million in earnings on the year, Red Bow Tie was the richest gelding of all time and was seeking his niche in harness racing history as the first older pacer to win consecutive Crown titles. Red Bow Tie was a cinch to repeat his divisional honors with a Crown win, and with the great Moni Maker out indefinitely, also had a shot at Horse of the Year honors.
Yet even the great ones can falter. In the weeks leading up to the Breeders Crown Red Bow Tie went down in defeat twice – once to the indomitable Tune Town and the following week to Noble Ability in the Classic final.
There was no real doubt that the which Red Bow Tie would show up for the final. But facing him were nine of the stoutest racehorses to grace the scene.
For the third year in a row the Meadowlands Pace winner would return to race in the Crown. No Pace winner had done so successfully since Matt’s Scooter in 1988. The circumstances for ’98 Pace champ Day In A Life were a bit different then when 1997 Dream Away returned for a shot at Crown honors. Day In A Life had just one win on the season and in his first start in high-priced claimers was taken for the tag of $156,250 to join stablemate Bad Bert (also a claim at $150,000) for Perfect World Enterprises. Yet the post draw of nine and 10 respectively for the pair did not bode well.
Millionaire Noble Ability and a hard-knocking son of Cambest, Cam Knows Best, amply represented Bob Glazer’s Peter Pan stable. George Segal’s Brittany Farms, which tops the Crown owner standings, sent out Western Ideal, a son of Western Hanover and former Crown champ Leah Almahurst. Western Ideal was hurt in a racing accident in 1997, missed an entire year of competition and was back against older and far more seasoned contestants.
Trainer Ross Croghan was the current leader at the Meadowlands, set to break the singe season victory mark at that track. He had brought out the best in BJ’s Whirlwind, winning the Battle of Lake Erie and the Dan Patch Memorial with the gritty little pacer, who seemed to have an inexhaustible supply of 26 second last quarters at his disposal.
Two of the most intriguing horses in the race were Color Me Best and Taser Gun, both hailing from the Land of Lincoln. Taser Gun did not possess a blue-ribbon pedigree but luckily he couldn’t read the Sires and Dams books to know that. After a stellar 1998 season, Taser Gun had won three of his six starts this year with $33,875 on his card, which maybe the least amount of earnings shown by any older pacer in the Crown. A 1:51.4 spin around Maywood’s half-mile oval in mid-July made up the minds of owners Tom and Bob Cunningham, and trainer Bob Walker, a retired schoolteacher.
Color Me Best was a $33,000 claim for owners Tim Wilson and Charles and David Yohe. When Wilson realized the kind of horse he had claimed he happily handed the lines to top horseman Joe Anderson when the pacer was ready to head east and try the ultra-competitive Meadowlands circuit.
Anderson, once dubbed the “California Comet”, has called Chicago home for many successful seasons and is one of the last trainers who also drives most of his stock. On this occasion he left Mike Lachance in the bike as he had been through Color Me Best’s incredible tour of the Meadowlands racetrack. The four-year-old gelded son of Cambest joined the select group of Jenna’s Beach Boy, Riyadh and Red Bow Tie as the only horses with four sub 1:50 career wins on the year when he paced to a unexpected 1:48 clocking in early July. Color Me Best ripped off his first sub-1:50 mile in May, followed with two in June and was supplemented by the owners to race in the Breeders Crown with the strongest of credentials as the most likely candidate to upset Red Bow Tie.
Trainer | Driver
Monte Gelrod | Luc Ouellette
But Red Bow Tie had already proven he was no mortal racehorse by winning his Crown title last year. Two weeks before the Breeders Crown and while the $50,000 supplemental fee was due, Red Bow Tie was scratched sick from the Pacing Classic, with a bout of colic. Though surgery was not necessary he was kept for several days for observation at New Bolton Equine Center. He raced, and won the Breeders Crown with a 29-day layoff.
The post draw put Red Bow Tie on the rail, and he was the definitive favorite at post-time. After the first Crown event had produced a 108-1 winner, the chalk players were looking for relief. They got it as soon as Red Bow Tie cleared the pace-setting Color Me Best just before the half in :54.4. Once driver Luc Ouellette put Red Bow Tie on the lead, the battle was joined. Color Me Best came back at him and the pair paced for the glory down the stretch with Red Bow Tie’s lead diminishing as the track unrolled. Ouellette had the finish line measured and waved his whip in triumph, knowing no one could catch him.
On Crown day he was perfect, and the time of 1:50 belied the ease with which he dominated his peers, holding off the pocket-sitting Color Me Best. Even BJ's Whirlwind impetus of three straight wins could not carry him past the Red Bow Tie in the stretch, and that top challenger had to settle for third. Taser Gun was a most creditable fourth and gutty Western Ideal picked up the fifth place check.
Red Bow Tie’s lifetime bank account moved up to $2,171,663 to date for the partnership of Clifford Siegel, d'Elegance Stable IX, David Scharf, and TLP Stable. The connections announced they had in mind to pass Nihilator’s all-time record of $3.2 million. Certainly they had the horse to do it.
It was the second Crown trophy for the Marfisi/Gelrod stable, who sent Red Bow Tie postward in 1998 as well. For Luc Ouellette, the heads-up drive resulted in his fifth Crown trophy. More importantly, the victory helped cement his lead in the Meadowlands drivers standings, where Ouellette finished the meet with 243 wins and more than $5.7 million in earnings. For the first time in six years the driving title went to someone other than John Campbell. Even more remarkable, Ouellette pulled it off in just his third full season of driving at the nations most competitive track.
Though Red Bow Tie continued to race and win after the Crown, he suffered a minor injury that cut short his year. His connections have promised, to the chagrin of all the Breeders Crown eligibles out there, that he’ll be back in 2000. The veteran pacer picked up his second Dan Patch divisional title and Nova Award honors as well.
Purse $380,000
The Meadowlands, East Rutherford, NJ - July 31, 1999
Extras
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