Ralph Hanover

Last updated
Ralph Hanover
Sire Meadow Skipper
GrandsireDale Frost
DamRavina Hanover
Damsire Tar Heel
Sex Stallion
Foaled1980
Died2008
CountryUnited States
Color Bay
Breeder Hanover Shoe Farms
OwnerWaples Stable, Inc., Pointsetta Stables, Inc. (Stewart Firlotte), Grants Direct Stable (Richard Dinner & Norman Keyes)
Trainer Stewart "Stew" Firlotte
Record40 starts, 27 wins
Earnings$1,815,395
Major wins
Bluegrass Stakes (1982)
Canadian Juvenile Circuit Stakes (1982)
Geers Stakes (1983)
Queen City Stakes (1983)
Burlington Stakes (1983)
Meadowlands Pace (1983)
Adios Stakes (1983)
Prix d'Été (1983)
Simcoe Stakes (1983)
Tattersalls Pace (1983)<

U.S. Pacing Triple Crown wins:

Messenger Stakes (1983)
Cane Pace (1983)
Little Brown Jug (1983)
Awards
1982 CTA 2YO C&G Pacer of the Year
1983 CTA 3YO C&G Pacer of the Year
1983 USA 3YO C&G Pacer of the Year
Honors
Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame (1986)

Ralph Hanover (1980 - October 18, 2008) 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. [1]

Contents

Racing career

Two-year-old championship season

Ralph Hanover made his racing debut at age two on June 11, 1982. He would win seven of his fifteen starts that year including the Bluegrass Stakes in Lexington, Kentucky and two editions of the Canadian Juvenile Circuit Stakes at Greenwood Raceway in Toronto and at Blue Bonnets Raceway in Montreal. He was voted the 1982 Two-year-old Canadian Colt & Gelding Pacer of the Year. [2]

Triple Crown and World records

At age three, Ralph Hanover won the 1983 Triple Crown for pacers by capturing the Messenger Stakes at Roosevelt Raceway on June 18, [3] the Cane Pace at Yonkers Raceway on August 20, [4] and the Little Brown Jug at the Delaware County, Ohio Fair Grounds on September 22. [5] For trainer & co-owner Firlotte, Ralph Hanover was driven in all three races by co-owner and principal driver Ron Waples who would later be inducted into both the U.S. and Canadian Halls of Fame. [6] [7]

In addition to his 1983 Triple Crown wins, Ralph Hanover won seventeen additional pacing events including the very important Adios and Meadowlands Pace in the United States and the Prix d'Été in Canada at Blue Bonnets Raceway in which Ralph Hanover set a new world record for the fastest mile by a three-year-old on a five-eighths mile track with a time of 1:54 flat. He set a second world record time for three-year-old pacers on a half-mile track when he was clocked in 1:55 3/5. Ralph Hanover set yet another world record for earnings by a Standardbred horse in a single season with his 1983 earnings of $1,711,990. Ralph Hanover was again voted the Champion Canadian Colt & Gelding Pacer of the Year for his age group as well the 1983 Three-year-old United States Colt & Gelding Pacer of the Year Award. In 1986 he would be inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame. [8]

At stud and retirement

Retired to stud after his three-year-old season having been syndicated for $7 million by P. J. "Jack" Baugh, owner of the historic Almahurst Farm near Nicholasville, Kentucky. [9] [10] Ralph Hanover was not as successful as a sire to the degree his investors had hoped. He was eventually sent to stand at Grand Royal Farms in Vienna, Ontario where he was pensioned before the 2001 breeding season at the age of 21. When Grand Royal Farms closed he was sent to Mac Lilley Farms in Dutton, Ontario where he remained until he had to be euthanized after old age brought on a debilitating illness. [11]

Related Research Articles

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

Bret Hanover 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.

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.

Mohawk Racetrack

Woodbine Mohawk Park is a harness racing track in Milton, Ontario. It is owned by the Woodbine Entertainment Group, formerly the Ontario Jockey Club, and is about 30 km west of the company's other racetrack, Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Ontario. Woodbine Mohawk Park also has more than 1000 slot machines, affordable 1 cent slots, and higher stakes room, operated by Elements Casino Woodbine; some of the revenue from this operation is used to increase the horseracing purses.

Kinghaven Farms is a thoroughbred horse racing stable founded in 1967 by Donald G. "Bud" Willmot. Located in King City, Ontario, north of Toronto, the success of the stable would see it expand to the United States with the acquisition of a 660-acre (2.7 km2) farm and training center near Ocala, Florida. Kinghaven became a father/son operation in 1974 when Bud's son David S. Willmot began managing the farm's racing/breeding programs. In 2004, Willmot announced that Kinghaven was shutting down its Thoroughbred operation, although he would continue to race a handful of horses in following years.

Izvestia was a Thoroughbred racehorse who won the Canadian Triple Crown in 1990. A descendant of Nearco, his damsire Personality was the 1970 Co-American Horse of the Year. Owned and bred by Kinghaven Farms, the colt began racing in the United States, winning two Graded stakes races at the Keeneland Race Course in Kentucky. He was shipped north in the spring of 1990 to a base at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto from which he won the Triple Crown. Having won it a year earlier on With Approval, jockey Don Seymour became the only jockey in history to ride two Canadian Triple Crown winners.

Arts and Letters was an American Hall of Fame Champion Thoroughbred racehorse.

Runaway Groom (1979–2007) was a Canadian Hall of Fame Thoroughbred racehorse.

Somebeachsomewhere (2005–2018) was a Standardbred Race Horse who 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.

Meadow Skipper was a Standardbred racehorse and sire. He earned $428,057 as a racehorse.

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.

Nihilator (1982–1991) was an American champion Standardbred racehorse and was the United States Harness Horse of the Year in 1985. \The first standardbred to win $3 million,
at the time of his retirement he was the leading stakes earning pacer in harness racing history.

Ronald W. Waples is a Canadian harness racer. He was inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 1986, the U.S. Harness Racing Hall of Fame in 1993, and the Little Brown Jug Wall of Fame in 2006. Among his successes in an outstanding and ongoing career he was voted Harness Tracks of America Driver of the Year for 1979 and 1980, plus he drove, trained, and co-owned the colt Ralph Hanover with which he won the Triple Crown of Harness Racing for Pacers in 1983.

Armbro Dallas (1982–2001) was a standardbred millionaire and world record setting racehorse who competed in harness racing in Canada and the United States. He was trained, driven and co-owned by Canadian and U.S. Hall of Fame inductee, Ron Waples.

The Queen City Pace was a Canadian harness race for three-year-old Standardbred pacers run each year at Greenwood Raceway in Toronto, Ontario, except in 1978 where it was ran at Mohawk Racetrack. The Queen City Pace was run from 1964 through 1983 after which it was replaced by the North America Cup.

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.

Tar Heel was an American Harness Racing Hall of Fame Standardbred racehorse. Given the State of North Carolina nickname "Tar Heel", he was bred by William Reynolds at his Tanglewood Farm near Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Joseph Cyril "Joe" O'Brien was a Harness racing driver, trainer and owner who won the U.S. Trotting Triple Crown in 1955 and would be inducted into both the U.S. Harness Racing Hall of Fame and the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame, as well as Canada's Sports Hall of Fame. Noted for his quiet dignity and diplomacy, he is considered one of the greatest harness horsemen in history.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.