Bob Hayden
With the 48th annual Meadowlands Pace elimination race scheduled for this weekend, now’s a good time to look back at some memorable (or maybe some not-so-memorable) Pace elimination races of the past.
1977: Back then, qualifying took place on the same night as the final, and this was no different in 1978. BG’s Bunny set a new world record of 1 minute 54 seconds for trainer/driver George Birkner, but never raced again. For Carl LeCose, the Escort won by one second in qualifying and won the final. Team Copas had the unique distinction of being the favorite to win every qualifying/final in 1977.
1978: The only year in the first five Pace races that a qualifying winner also won the final. Falcon Almahurst was a yearling who won $150,000 in prize money.
1979: Songsam placed second in the qualifying round and set a new world record in the final with a time of 1:53.2. He beat Hot Hitter in qualifying, who placed second in the final. Herve Fillion, the first catch driver to place in a Pace final, drove for Lou Meitnis. Hot Hitter, despite not winning the $750G Pace, the highest-paying race of the year, later set a single-season winnings record of 826G.
1980: The year of Niatros. A fourth-place qualifying finish was the last race he didn’t win. There was still no Campbell or O’Donnell in the pace final that would come to completely dominate him later in the decade.
1981: No No Nero won the qualifier but placed in post 12 and finished 10th in the final. Dr. John Hayes won the final with Conquered, who was third in the qualifier. His $13.80 mutuel was the highest until 1986 when Laughs lit up the board with $23.80.
1982: The headline was, ‘Cam Fella misses Pace Final!’ Nicknamed ‘The Pace Machine’ and eventual HOY, he finished seventh in qualifying but then returned to the final and went into full revenge mode, producing four consecutive Pace winners from 1991-1994.
1983: Ralph Hanover accomplishes a feat only Nyatras has managed: he wins the Meadowlands Pace and the Triple Crown.
NOTE: From 1980 to 1988, 12 drivers competed in every Meadowlands Pace final, and 32 of the first 40 drivers to win a Pace final or qualifying event were inducted into the Hall of Fame.
1984: This year saw many all-time records and firsts. 40 horses were entered with a total prize purse of $1,293,000. On The Road Again became the first horse from gate 12 to win.
1985: Neal Shapiro, 1972 Munich Olympic equestrian silver medalist, placed 4th in the Pace Qualifier and 12th in the Final with Pinocchio. Guess who placed 3rd in the Qualifier and 10th in the Final in 1985? 1986 HOY Forest Skipper.
NOTE: Billy O’Donnell had a unique decade at Pace, winning with the Nihilator in 1985 and coming second four times (1981 with the Computer, 1984 with Guts, 1987 with Larg and 1988 with Camtastic).
1986: Guess who Chuck Sylvester won his first million-dollar race? It was Ruffs, who finished fourth in the pace elimination. This was one year before Mack Lovell.
1989: The first time the top four teams in the Pace Finals had the exact same results in the preliminaries: Dexter Nooks beats Casino Cowboy, Barefoot Hanover and Preview Lobel.
1991: Jack Moiseeff piloted Precious Bunny with John Campbell staying at Arts Place. “Bunny” won both the preliminaries and the final, running the mile in under 1:50 and taking the HOY title in 1:49.4. This great Miss Easy took on the boys in the preliminaries but was eliminated just before the start, but came back to beat Cam Best and win the pace consolation prize.
1992: Andrea Chadwick sent a female trainer to the pace competition and made it to the final, but Lord Willing finished ninth.
1993: Brett Pelling’s Pace debut, aboard Mystical Prince driven by Mark Kesmodel, finished seventh with the longest odds in the field at 99-1.
1994: Marvin Katz’s Expensive Scooter won the qualifying round and placed 5th in the final.
1995: The first “shake” (coin toss) for a place in the pace final. David’s Pass finished fourth ahead of CA Connection, with both horses coming out on top. David’s Pass gave Brett Pelling his first pace and CA Connection a consolation prize for trainer Kevin Thomas.
1997: At Point Blank he finished fourth in qualifying for George Brennan and took second in the final for John Campbell from post 10 despite not winning a single race all year. Campbell also became the first driver (Hilarion in 1982) to draw post 10 twice in a Pace final, and won again just two years later in 1999 at Panderosa (after a whopping re-draw).
1999: For the second time in three years, a Triple Crown winner did not finish first or second at the Meadowlands Pace.
2000: The year for Gallo Blue Chip and the first and most expensive supplement, PB Bull Bill ($150,000), which failed to qualify.
2001: The last great rivalry in sport, Real Desire and Bettors Delight, met in a match where both teams won their preliminary matches, with Real Desire narrowly beating Bettors Delight in the final.
2002: McArdle won the heat but finished second in the final to Chris Ryder, who had made his debut in the 1998 pace race with favourite Shields and Delivered but finished last.
2003: All American Theory won a qualifying heat with Dave Miller and won his first final with Mike Lachance. Miller waited 15 years before taking the Pace in 2018 with Courtly Choice.
2004: Holborn Hanover won the final qualifying spot in 2004, earning 58-1, 25 points more than any other horse in the starter, in a race where 95% of the prize money went to New Zealand, which he did, with Mark Harder first and fourth (Camelot Hall), Brett Pelling second with the favourite Times Area Changing and Chris Ryder’s Metropolitan third.
