Hot Hitter

Last updated
Hot Hitter
Breed Standardbred
Sire Strike Out (USA)
Grandsire Bret Hanover (USA)
DamTimely Queen (USA)
Damsire Good Time (USA)
Sex Stallion
Foaled1976
Country United States
Colour Bay
Breeder Castleton Farms & Anthony Tavolacci
Owner1) Alterman Stables, Inc./SAJ Ranch, Ltd./Soloman Katz
2) Louis P. Guida & Morton Finder
TrainerLouis Meittinis
Earnings$963,574
Major wins
Little Brown Jug (1979)
Messenger Stakes (1979)
Prix d'Été (1979)
Adios Pace (1979)
Awards
1979 USA 3 Year Old Colt Pacer of the Year
Last updated on 29 September 2016

Hot Hitter (foaled 1976), a bay Standardbred Champion racehorse, won two of the Pacing Triple Crown races in 1979 while on his way to setting a single-season earnings record of $826,542 for a harness horse. [1]

Contents

Purchased as a yearling by trainer Lou Meittinis for the bargain-basement price of $21,000, Hot Hitter eventually was sold to various investors for $6 million. [2]

Racing career

For his important races, Hot Hitter was driven by Harness Racing Hall of Fame inductee Hervé Filion. Racing as a two-year-old, he met with limited success, but at age three developed into the 1979 U.S. Champion three-year-old pacer.

Triple Crown races

On June 30, 1979 Happy Motoring nipped Hot Hitter at the wire in the first leg of the Triple Crown series, the Cane Pace at Yonkers Raceway. [3] On September 20 at County Fairgrounds in Delaware, Ohio, though, Hot Hitter soundly beat Happy Motoring in the Little Brown Jug, the second leg of the Triple Crown and North America's most prestigious harness race for pacers. The Cane Pace winner finished a distant seventh in the Jug's eight‐horse field. [4] On October 27 at Roosevelt Raceway, Hot Hitter easily won the third leg of the series, the Messenger Stakes. [5]

World record performance

The Prix d'Été, another of the big wins of Hot Hitter's career, took place August 26, 1979, at Blue Bonnets Raceway in Montréal, Québec. His winning time of 1:54 in Canada's then-richest and most important race set a new world record for a 5/8-mile track. [6] While not a world record, Hot Hitter's win in the 1979 Adios Pace was another memorable performance. He won both heats, on a muddy track, in the process defeating Sonsam, who had set a world record for a one-mile oval in winning the July 19 Meadowlands Pace and was widely seen as invincible.

Stud record

Hot Hitter failed a fertility test that led to a $1.3 million insurance payment. [7] As a result, he produced only a small number of offspring. Of his progeny, the best performance was by his gelded son Willie Mays, who won in a time of 1:53.2. [8]

Related Research Articles

Strike Out (1969–1998) was a Standardbred North American Harness racing champion.

The Little Brown Jug is a harness race for three-year-old pacing standardbred horses hosted by the Delaware County Agricultural Society since 1946 at the Delaware County Fairgrounds racetrack in Delaware, Ohio. The race takes place every year on the third Thursday after Labor Day.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bret Hanover</span> American Standardbred racehorse

Bret Hanover was an outstanding American Standardbred racehorse. He was one of only nine pacers to win harness racing's Triple Crown of Harness Racing for Pacers and won 62 of 68 starts. He was the first horse to be voted United States Harness Horse of the Year three times and remains the only pacer to have received that honor.

The Triple Crown of Harness Racing for Pacers consists of these horse races:

  1. Cane Pace, held at the Meadowlands Racetrack in East Rutherford, New Jersey
  2. Messenger Stakes, held at Yonkers Raceway in Yonkers, New York
  3. Little Brown Jug, held at the Delaware County Fair in Delaware, Ohio

Precious Bunny is a bay Standardbred pacer and sire.

Albatross (1968–1998) was a bay Standardbred horse by Meadow Skipper. He was voted United States Harness Horse of the Year in 1971 and 1972. Albatross won 59 of 71 starts, including the Cane Pace and Messenger Stakes in 1971, earned $1,201,477. It was, however, as a sire that he really made his mark. Albatross's 2,546 sons and daughters won $130,700,280.

Cam Fella was a bay pacing horse by Most Happy Fella out of Nan Cam by Bret Hanover. He was trained and driven originally by Doug Arthur and later by Pat Crowe. His best time for the mile was 1:53.1. Cam Fella was purchased as a 2-year-old by the two Norms, Norm Clements and Norm Faulkner. He earned the nickname "The Pacing Machine" in a career wherein he became the richest standardbred of all time.

Niatross (1977–1999) was an American champion standardbred race horse that many believe was the greatest harness horse of all time.

The Cane Pace is a harness horse race for standardbred pacers run annually since 1955. The race was first run as the William H. Cane Futurity in 1955 at Yonkers Raceway in New York. In 1956 the race joined with the Little Brown Jug and the Messenger Stakes to become the first leg in the Triple Crown of Harness Racing for Pacers.

The Messenger Stakes is an American harness racing event for 3-year-old pacing horses. It was organized in 1956 at Roosevelt Raceway in Westbury, New York to join with the Cane Pace and the Little Brown Jug to create the Triple Crown of Harness Racing for Pacers. The race is named in honor of Messenger (1780–1808), a horse foaled in England and later brought to the United States. As a sire, virtually all harness horses in the U.S. can be traced back to Messenger.

Yonkers Raceway & Empire City Casino, founded in 1899 as the Empire City Race Track, is a one-half-mile standardbred harness racing dirt track and slots racino located at the intersection of Central Park Avenue and Yonkers Avenue in Yonkers, New York, near the New York City border. It is owned by Vici Properties and operated by MGM Resorts International.

Beach Towel was a Standardbred pacer who was named the 1990 American Harness Horse of the Year. He won 18 of his 23 starts with a fastest race mile of 1:50 and earnings of $2,091,860.

Freehold Raceway is a half-mile (0.80 km) racetrack in Freehold Borough, New Jersey, and is the oldest racetrack in the United States. Horseraces have been taking place at Freehold Raceway since the 1830s. The Monmouth County Agricultural Society was formed on December 17, 1853, and in 1854 they began holding an annual fair with harness racing at Freehold Raceway

Somebeachsomewhere (2005–2018) was a Standardbred Race Horse who, as a three-year-old, tied the world record for a mile at The Red Mile with a time of 1:46.4 and earned $3,221,299. In 2008, he had the highest earnings by a pacer in a single season of $2,448,003.

Keystone Ore was an American standardbred horse, who was the son of Bye Bye Bird. He was trained and driven by Stanley Dancer, and was honored as United States Harness Horse of the Year in 1976.

Most Happy Fella (1967–1983) was a bay Standardbred horse by Meadow Skipper. He was voted Pacer of the Year in the United States in 1970 when he won the Triple Crown of Harness Racing for Pacers.

Wiggle It Jiggleit is a champion American Standardbred racehorse. At the age of three, he won 22 of 26 starts including the Little Brown Jug and Meadowlands Pace, earning him the Dan Patch Award for 2015 Harness Horse of the Year. At age four, he repeatedly dueled with Always B Miki, to whom he finished second in the 2016 Horse of the Year balloting.

Bolt The Duer is a bay Standardbred racehorse who set or equaled two World Records for one mile.

Ralph Hanover was a Standardbred colt who in 1983 became the seventh horse to capture the U.S. Pacing Triple Crown. Bred by Hanover Shoe Farms, as a yearling he was purchased for $58,000 by trainer Stewart Firlotte at the 1981 Standardbred Horse Sale Company's Harrisburg, Pennsylvania auction.

Michel "Mike" Lachance is a retired harness racing driver. Widely recognized as among the best drivers of all time, his outstanding career began in 1967 in Quebec City. At retirement, he had won 10,253 races and purses totalling $187,710,149. He has been inducted into both the United States and Canadian Harness Racing Halls of Fame.

References

  1. New York Times - October 28, 1979
  2. Sports Illustrated - October 1, 1979
  3. Sports Illustrated - July 2, 1979
  4. New York Times - September 21, 1979
  5. "Hot Hitter Easily Takes Messenger Stakes Pace". The New York Times . 28 October 1979. Retrieved 26 July 2018.
  6. Montreal Gazette - August 27, 1979
  7. United Press International, Inc. - October 31, 1983
  8. Classic Families - Hot Hitter