highland kismet

Sent off as the 4-1 second choice in the first Hambletonian elimination, Highland Kismet advanced to the final with a fourth-place result. He fanned out five-wide in the stretch after a fourth-over journey, ended up two lengths behind winner Karl and trotted a 26.1 last quarter-mile.

Highland Kismet did not race at age 2. In 2024 he has three victories in overnight races, plus his elimination and the final of the Goodtimes Stakes, all at Woodbine Mohawk Park in Ontario. His victory in the Goodtimes final came in a career-best 1:51.3. He made his Meadowlands debut in a Stanley Dancer division on July 13 and finished sixth.

trainer Mark Etsell: I thought he raced well. I thought he closed good. He got stopped up a couple times there with the cover, but once he got clear sailing down the lane, he closed well. He was a little bit back to his old form.

On his previous start (sixth in a division of the Stanley Dancer Memorial on July 13) and changes – We dissected it as much as we could. We thought the footing was a little better here, so we let his hobbles out and changed his shoeing a little bit, so he was much better (in the elimination). I think our changes are good right now. We’ll just hope to get a good draw and a good trip, and we should be heard from.

He’s just a nice, easygoing horse. He’s not hot, he’s very easy to maintain. He loves to eat. He’s an easy keeper that way. He looks after himself. I checked on him (Saturday) afternoon, and he was lying down sleeping. He loves people, he loves attention.

We’ve talked about taking the hobbles off, but we’re not sure it’s the right time right now [said with a laugh]. At one time, he couldn’t trot without them. Now, I’ve trained him fast without them, so I think he could go. But maybe we’ll wait one more start.

On being in the final – It’s super for me. We’ve trained trotters for a long time, and it’s always been a dream to race in the Hambletonian. Now, at least, we’re in it. You can’t win it if you’re not in it. But these are tough horses. That was the biggest thing coming down. Yeah, he won (the Goodtimes) at Mohawk, but these are a little tougher horses, and I thought this was the tougher division. But he showed he fit, so I’m happy with that.

I got him in January, and he had a lot of trouble in the turns. The people that had him before were training him on a half-mile track and thought maybe it was just the half. We have a five-eighths at our farm. But it wasn’t just the track, he couldn’t trot the turns. So, we made some shoeing changes and did some vet work, and he just started getting better and better.

I give full credit to his owner, Mary (Clark). I only got him in January and stakes payments were coming up. She asked, ‘What do you want to pay him to,’ and I was kind of, not cheap, but realistic. I said, let’s just pay him to the stuff in Canada and hope we get a racehorse. She wanted to pay him to the Hambletonian, and she was the smart one because he wouldn’t have been eligible. If I had anything to do with it, he wouldn’t have been eligible to the Breeders Crown or the Hambo. Those payments are steep, especially when you’re not sure what you have. The fastest he went as a 2-year-old training down was 2:40 or something. But he’s well-bred and a very personable horse.