Bar Hopping Ties Stakes Record in 3-year-old Crown Trot

Bar Hopping & Tim Tetrick

by Lou Monaco, Hambletonian Society

East Rutherford, N.J. -- The duo of Tim Tetrick and Jimmy Takter has done it again.

Bar Hopping, the 4-5 favorite, kicked off cover and won by a length and a half to capture the $500,000 Breeders Crown for 3-year-old trotting colts and geldings at The Meadowlands.

It was Bar Hopping’s sixth win in his last seven races, and the 30th career Breeders Crown victory posted by Takter.

Bar Hopping, who won $250,000 for his efforts, paid $3.80, 2.60, and 2.60.

“I felt really good [going into the race],” said Tetrick. Last week he raced really well; we opened him up a little bit and he trotted a big mile. Today, off cover, he really responded well.”

“My horse has raced against [Southwind Frank and Marion Marauder] all year, and a couple of times he drew bad and could never get into the race when they raced hard, but we still got checks,” continued Tetrick, who captured his third Crown win of the weekend wit the son of Muscle Hill. “Those are great horses that he has beaten ,and my horse is right there with them.”

Southwind Frank, driven by Yannick Gingras, paid $4.20 and $3.20 for second.  Double L Lindy, driven by Åke Svanstedt, finished third paying $10.40 and Lagerfeld, who dueled with Sutton at the top of the stretch, finished fourth.

Split times were 28.3, 56.2, and 1:24.1, with the mile time of 1:51.4 equaling the stakes record of Father Patrick, established in 2014 (also trained by Takter).

“They’re all very special to me. Any time you win one of those big trophies, they are very, very hard to get,” Tetrick concluded. “That’s why we [start] qualifying in May and we work so hard to get to those big races. It’s very, very special.”