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It appeared not to be Western Joe’s night in the featured $22,500 winners-over $11,500 pace Saturday night (Feb. 6) at The Meadowlands after getting passed at the three-quarter-mile marker, but the veteran warhorse showed his class through the stretch in a thoroughly dominant performance to chalk up a second win in his last three Big M starts.
“I wasn’t surprised that he came back to win,” said winning trainer Chris Choate. “When he hits that last turn, it looks like he’s going to finish fifth, but then he kicks in.”
Driver Simon Allard had Joe –a seven-year-old gelded son of Western Ideal-Ante Fay–on the go from the get-go, barreling four-wide into the first turn from post 8 in the 10-horse field and taking over the top just after quarter, which was set by Western Fame in :27.3.
Ontario-sired pacing colt Tall Dark Stranger was named the 2020 U.S. Horse of the Year as part of the Dan Patch Annual Awards Banquet held virtually on Saturday (Jan. 16).
The United States Harness Writers Association (USHWA), the leading media organization in North American harness racing, has announced the winners of its Dan Patch Awards balloting for excellence exhibited among both equines and humans. The “best of the best” are normally honoured at the writers’ Dan Patch Annual Awards Banquet, but that event was cancelled this year due to the ongoing health crisis, so a special Virtual Awards show was broadcast Saturday.