Over the
course of the last half-century there have been several aged trotting mares
with North American roots who dominated their peer group, and in some cases
their male counterparts, for an extended period. They are Moni Maker, Peace
Corps, Delmonica Hanover, Fresh Yankee, Grades Singing, Scenic Regal and Buck I
St Pat. Une de Mai and Roquepine were great mares, and both experienced success
on this side of the Atlantic, but they were European. Fresh Yankee was the
first of these mares to grace our presence, and she also lasted the longest,
racing until age nine and winning 89 of 191 starts—an astonishing 47%.
The story of
Sanders Russell plucking Fresh Yankee from the 1964 Harrisburg yearling sale
for $900 is familiar to most, but her journey from obscurity to stardom is less
well known. She won four times, earning less than $8,000, at two; stepping up
to eleven wins and earnings of almost $47,000 during her sophomore campaign,
the highlight of which was a win over TOY and Hambletonion winner Kerry Way at
the Red Mile.
It was in
her aged form that the Hickory Pride mare made her mark, but success didn’t
come easily: she only beat the Metropolitan New York open trotters once at
four, and for the only time in her career speed was privileged over her ability
to win races and money. A 1:57.1 time trial mark at Lexington for Ralph Baldwin
established her as a world champion.
It was
during the next five years, from age five to nine, that the great mare proved
her greatness. Joe O’Brien had taken over training and driving duties and at
five and six she won 23 races, including the Elitlopp, Challenge Match,
American Trotting Classic, Pacific and Gotham—she was an Amazon from coast to
coast. Fresh Yankee was awarded CTA Aged Trotter of the Year status in 1968 and
was voted HOY in 1970, at age seven, accruing more than twice as many votes as
POY Most Happy Fella. She won 20 of 31 starts and finished second in the other
nine.
In the
spring of that year O’Brien took Duncan MacDonald’s mare to Munich where she
won the Grand Prix of Bavaria over expatriates Dart Hanover and Lindy’s Pride.
And before returning to the states the mare took a heat of the Elitlopp. That
summer she beat the formidable Euro Tidalium Pelo in the $125,000 Roosevelt
International, and rocked his world again the following week in the $30,000
Roquepine Trot. The ten-year-old gelding Earl Laird was third for Jimmy Cruise.
In September the mare was sent away as the 4/5 favorite in the $50,000 Gotham
Trot at Yonkers but came up a half-length short to Dayan. Une de Mai was third.
And in October Fresh Yankee beat the geriatric tandem Grandpa Jim and Earl
Laird in the Galophone at Yonkers. It was her seventeenth win of the year and
she had not finished back of second in 26 starts. The mare had won races in
four different countries and was voted HOY.
In 1971, as
an eight-year-old, Fresh Yankee beat Dayan in the Star’s Pride at Yonkers in
June, tying the track record in the process. At that point she had finished
first or second in 51 consecutive races and trailed only Une de Mai, Roquepine,
Cardigan Bay and Bret Hanover in earnings. Still, the brilliant but
unpredictable Dayan was to Fresh Yankee what Adios Vic was to Bret or the Tar
Heel brothers, Nansemond and Isle Of Wight, were to Albatross. He was the same
sort of pest Songcan was to Super Bowl. The week after the Star’s Pride, Dayan
scratched lame out of the Volomite and more than 25,000 watched the mare cruise
to victory, paying a miserly $2.40. Dayan broke in the Speedy Rodney Trot at
Yonkers a few weeks later and the mare won for the ninth time in thirteen
starts, paying a generous $4.20. She was favored to repeat in the International
but Une de Mai prevailed by a nose, after being parked the mile out of the
eight post. All was not lost, as runner up
Fresh Yankee did pass the million dollar mark.
In the fall
the mare set a world record for a mile and a quarter in Brandywine’s Star’s
Pride Trot and went on to win a PASS race before losing to Cathy Lee—three
years her junior—in the Trader Horn at Yonkers. Fresh Yankee, who had won five
in a row, was sent off at 2/5 from the eight post and dispatched almost $82,000
of the people’s money down a black hole. And the following week, when Dayan
beat her in the Porterhouse, $86,000 was lost, as the eight-year-old was sent
away at 2/5 once more. She finished the season by trading wins with Marlu Pride
at Hollywood Park. He took the $50,000 Pacific Trot but the mare won the big
one—the $100,000 American Trotting Classic.
At nine
Fresh Yankee won 12 times. Her owner questioned Joe O’Brien’s driving tactics
in the International and decided to drive her himself the following week in the
$150,000 Challenge Match against Speedy Crown and Une de Mai. Howard Beissinger
sat back and allowed MacDonald to do himself in as he took his mare to the mile
much too fast, allowing Speedy Crown to blow by her in the last quarter. Fresh
Yankee was retired at the end of October, second only to Une de Mai in
earnings. She is a HOF Immortal and a member of the Canadian HOF. Beissinger stated that Speedy Crown’s
greatness was couched in the fact that he was unfailingly consistent at a very
high level, and never made a break training or racing. One could say the same
about Fresh Yankee.
Peace Corps
won more than forty stakes races and was HOY twice in Sweden in her aged form;
Moni Maker earned well over five million dollars and was HOY twice in the U.S.;
Delmonica Hanover won her division four times, was a two-time winner of the
Roosevelt International and the first American owned winner of the Prix
d’Amerique; but no US bred and North American based trotting mare of the last
half-century has performed to the level of Fresh Yankee through age nine. Her
89 wins, most of them against the best of the boys, on all size tracks, don’t
place her above the others but they do set her apart.
Joe
FitzGerald
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