The brainchild of SBOANJ first vice-president Bob Boni — 15 years in the making Lexington, KY — Moments after his trainee Night Hawk finished second in the second of two Meadowlands Pace eliminations last Saturday night (July 9) at The Meadowlands, trainer Brian Brown thought to himself that now he will need to hold his breath awaiting the post position draw for the $600,000 final this Saturday (July 16), hoping his colt didn’t draw post 10 in the open draw among the non-winners. At the time Brown wasn’t aware that a format change had been made for this year’s Pace final draw and that Night Hawk was guaranteed a spot on the starting gate no farther out than post seven. …. read the complete story

Bob Boni Talks with Dave Brower abou t the Winter Mixed Sale at the Meadowlands On Jan. 17 2022

Toscani nabs Whichwaytothebeach for $390,000  It was the second highest-priced hors e sold in sale history and it came during an auction that set new records for average ($47,259) and median ($29,500). With one significant purchase, Gino Toscani of Mount Hope, ON led the buyers at the Tattersalls Winter Mixed Sale held Monday (Jan. 17) in the paddock at the Meadowlands Racetrack in New Jersey. Bidding online via ProxiBid, Toscani spent $390,000 to collar the sale topper,  Hip 77 Whichwaytothebeach , a 4-year-old gelded son of Somebeachsomewhere out of Swinging Beauty consigned by Bob Boni’s Northwood Bloodstock. “He seems like a nice horse,” Toscani told the USTA’s Ken Weingartner. “I hope he can come through. He’s just going to be 4. His brother, Captain Barbossa, was good as a 4-year-old and hopefully he’s going to be the same for us and we can get our money back.” Whichwaytothebeach will be trained by Desiree Jones. It was the second highest sale-topper since at least 2014. The record was set in 2020 when Lindy The Great sold for $450,000. Previously trained by Brett Pelling, Whichwaytothebeach earned $546,425 with a record of 12-6-6 in 27 starts and a mark of 1:49.2. “He’s a legit horse and he was younger than the others. I think that was a big edge,” Boni said. In all, 90 racehorses, stallion shares and breedings collectively sold for $4,253,300 to produce an average of $47,259 and a median of $29,500. The sale set new records for average and median. This year’s auction also set a record for the fewest offerings sold. “(The record average is) partly a reflection of the number of horses sold, but, on the other hand, it is a fair representation of what we did offer. I was very happy with that,” said sale manager David Reid. “It’s always exciting to have a live sale, for sure.” This year’s gross was up 14 per cent from last year’s total of $3,741,400. The average was up 50 per cent from $41,244 in 2021 and the median was up 55 per cent from $19,000 last year. The record for gross was set in 2018 when 221 horses/stal- lion shares — 131 more offerings than this year — grossed $6,694,000. Northwood also sold  Hip 83 Belmont Major N  to Amanda Kelly of Greenfield Center, NY for $200,000 — “A very strong price. The half-mile track miles he showed earlier really helped him a lot,” Boni said — and  Hip 67 Ethan T Hanover  for $115,000 to Matthew Medeirra of Big Z Farm. Reid’s Preferred Equine consigned both the second- and third- highest-priced horses sold —  Hip 56  mare  Swift Swanda  for $240,000 to Josh Green, agent, of Milford, DE and  Hip 85  2020 Little Brown Jug winner  Captain Barbossa  for $210,000 to Robert DiNozzi of Ossining, NY. “If he’s anything like he’s been all his career, he’ll make money,” DiNozzi told Weingartner. “We’ll race him at Yonkers a little bit, put him in the Borgata Series, but he’s also good on a mile (track) so if he’s racing well, we will put him in everything. He’s raced with the best and either been competitive or beaten them. There is nothing not to like about the horse.” Preferred Equine sold 51 offerings, grossing $2,479,200 for an average of $48,612. Northwood Bloodstock had 28 sales, grossing $1,284,600 for an average of $45,879. Diamond Creek sold eight for a total of $428,000, an average of $53,500. Reid said he was “very happy with the pre-sale traffic and the at-sale traffic. I was very happy with the attendance. I thought the auctioneers, once again, they are a very talented crew that kept a very good pace to the sale and we continued to offer the online bidding as a convenience to owners that can’t make it and it’s working out very well. “I think there were 10 horses sold online today with another 14 (online bidders) ending up the underbidder. Obviously, as a result of the pandemic, we’ve offered other services and tools. I think the results played in today. “The other thing I thought was interesting is that on the stream- ing through  www.tattersallsredmile.com  there was a point in time today where we had more than 1,000 viewers watching the live stream. For the industry, I think it’s great to see the energy and the participation level and it kind of goes off 2021’s sale season, which was favorable.” For historical reference, in 2020, the Winter Mixed Sale sold 128 horses/stallion shares for $5,279,200 to produce an average of $41,244 and a median of $26,500.  In 2019, 150 horses/stallion shares grossed $4,395,300 for an average of $29,302 and a median of $20,000. In 2018, 221 horses/stallion shares grossed $6,694,000 for an average of $30,290 and a median of $20,000. In 2017, 233 horses/stallion shares grossed $6,288,400 for an average of $26,989 and a median of $15,000. In 2016, 258 horses/stallion shares grossed $5,849,400 for an average of $22,672 and a median of $16,500. In 2015, 269 horses/stallion shares and breedings grossed $5,971,500, for an average of $23,291 and a median of $14,000. In 2014, the gross of $5,971,500 for 234 horses/stallion shares produced an average of $25,519 and median of $14,000. In 2013, 206 horses and stallion shares grossed $4,549,600, an average of $22,085.

Kentucky Championship winner  Empressive Hill  brought the second-richest tag of the Harrisburg Mixed session Selling as Hip 1391, KYSS champ  Empressive Hill  was purchased by Jean-Pierre Barjon of Paris, France for $410,000. Consigned to the sale by Northwood Bloodstock, Empressive Hill (Muscle Hill – Slice Slice Baby) sports a record of 1:51.2 taken at The Red Mile as a sophomore, with a 10-2-1 from 19 career starts and $273,775 in earnings.

Adios winner HELLABALOU sold by Northwood Bloodstock Agency! Congratulations to owner Eric Good and trainer Eddie Dennis and driver Tim Tetrick on their exciting new record 1:58.4f winning the $375,000 “Adios” at the Meadows on July 31.. Congratulations as well to breeders Andray Farm and Sergent Stables . HELLABALOU was sold for $42,000 by Northwood Bloodstock Agency at the 2019 Harrisburg Sale. Please visit our Harrisburg and Lexington yearling consignments this fall and look for your next stakes winner. We are now accepting entries for the November 11 & 12 Harrisburg Mixed Sale…the premier mixed sale for racing and breeding stock. If you have any entries or any questions or for further information please contact us via Facebook or email   or call 201 863-2082.

Now Accepting  Entries for the Black Book Mixed Sale NORTHWOOD BLOODSTOCK AGENCY is accepting entries for the Standardbred Horse Sale on November 11-12 . The entry deadline for the SUPPLEMENT is scheduled for Sept. 1 . If you have any entries or any questions or for further information please contact us via Facebook or email nwbloodstock@aol.com or call 201 863-2082. Click here to enter online.

Boni’s Trifecta Nihilator, Camtastic, Always B Miki Many have won more Breeders Crown races, but only a couple of owners have won Crowns 30 years apart. One of them is Bob Boni, who in 1985 owned an interest in Nihilator , who captured the Crown for 3-year-old colt pacers. Last year Boni was standing in the winner’s circle at Woodbine after Always B Miki , who he co-owns as a member of Bluewood Stable, won the Crown Older Pace. In between, Boni shared ownership of Camtastic , a Crown winner in 1987 and ’88. If you enjoy talking horses, Boni’s your guy. By taking a job right out of high school with Pine Hollow Stud, Boni is almost a 50-year veteran of the sport. Raised in Queens, N.Y., his parents took him to Yonkers Raceway and he became a fan of harness racing. After working at Pine Hollow, Boni operated International Standardbred Agency, beginning work as a bloodstock agent, which he continues today as Northwood Bloodstock. In between the tenures of those agencies he managed racing partnerships (such as Nihilator’s ownership group, Wall Street Stable) and the combined racing-breeding venture of Dreamaire. He also served as president and general manager of the North American Sale at Garden State Park, with that experience now putto work managing the Goshen Yearling Sale. In addition to his bloodstock and sales company work, and in 2016 following Always B Miki around from track to track—he didn’t miss a race—Boni also serves as a director of the Standardbred Breeders and Owners Association of New Jersey and is a trustee of the Harness Racing Museum and Hall of Fame. From top: (from left) Boni, Lou Guida, Billy  Haughton, Albert Adams and Jack Baugh  welcomed Nihilator to Almahurst Farms,  where he began his stallion career in 1986.  Bill O’Donnell and Camtastic on the track for the 1988 Adios final. Nihilator and catchdriver O’Donnell at the Meadowlands in 1985.  Boni holds Camtastic’s Adios trophy, joined  by Delvin Miller, O’Donnell, St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Famer Stan Musial, Bob Bencal,   What do you remember most about your start in racing? One of the things that I’m most proud of is winning Breeders Crowns 30 years apart. Nihilator (winner of the 1985 Breeders Crown 3-Year-Old Colt Pace) we purchased as a yearling early; Camtastic (winner of the 1987 Crown 2-Year-Old Colt Pace and ‘88 Crown 3-Year-Old Colt Pace) was a homebred; and Always B Miki (winner of the 2015 and 2016 Crown Older Pace) was purchased in training. My first brush with great horses came when I went to work for Pine Hollow Stud in 1969. It was a great education because we boarded 600 head of horses during some periods of time. And the horses weren’t numbers to me. I knew Tiffy Time, and Noreen Napoleon, and Speedy Rodney and Romeo Hanover. Then in 1982-83 I was a part of Dreamaire Stable and we raced Tanzy Lobell, Time O Nic, Lushkara, Madam Madusa those mares were world champions. Dreamaire owned 20 mares and five of them had records of 1:55 or faster. The significance of that is there were only 20 mares in existence with marks of 1:55 or faster, and no one else owned more than two. And we had another three mares in 1:55.1.  I always liked mares that performed. The mission was to breed, and when you’re trying to breed, if you can have that one more extra quality of good performance, it seems to carry on. That’s what motivated us to buy those mares. You could buy lots of yearlings and never come up with the mares we bought. Lushkara was the crown jewel of that group of mares because she produced Camtastic. How did you become an owner of Nihilator? I had been very active trying to buy mares in foal to Niatross. Through Lou’s (Guida) assistance, I had any info I wanted about Niatross. In those days, there was no Pathway. I was trying to buy Margie’s Melody so I developed a relationship with Bob Gangloff, the owner of the mare and the breeder of Nihilator. Unbeknownst to most people, Hempt came very close to buying Margie’s Melody in foal, carrying Nihilator. And she carried 12 months for him! I always remember something Delvin (Miller) said about Niatross, that it was like the horse skipped a generation. Remember, when he went 1:49.1, the record was still 1:52. And I felt the same way. I don’t think we’ve seen a jump in generations like this again. Maybe the closest to it is Muscle Hill. When the Niatross foals were born, I asked Lou to get me a list. His first crop was about 148-150 and it was pretty much split 50-50 colts and fillies. I noticed a lot of the foals were owned by small breeders. I’m starting to get an idea that if you could own 10 percent of Niatross’ colts, it might be big. I remember exactly when and where I was when I came up with this. It was a dreary Saturday morning, I was in the city (New York) and walking to Bloomingdale’s when it dawned on me. I can tell you exactly where the pay phone was, and I called Lou. Lou was a great idea guy. He loved anything new. He said, ‘Great! Let’s do it.’ Since Niatross stood his first season at Castleton, Castleton owned a fair number of colts, but I didn’t like the mares. So I traveled around to look at the colts. I went to Blue Chip because they had three colts there and I liked Pershing Square. He was a nice, plain, correct bay colt with a good pedigree. The only surprise with him came later when we found out he was ridgling. When we first bought the colts, we didn’t have a plan. We thought of putting them in a sale. But that quickly changed to ‘Let’s race them.’ And so we put together Wall Street Stable and we got the financing because Lou had a very friendly banker. We paid $825,000 for seven colts. In addition to Nihilator the group included Pershing Square, Flight Of Fire, Cruncher and Port Stanley. Nihilator was the last one of the group that we bought, and the cheapest. I said we’d pay $100,000, and he (Gangloff) said $105,000. So I flew out to Indiana and Gangloff picked me up at the airport and we drove out to his farm. There was snow on the ground. It’s February or March and Nihilator is an early yearling. I asked him to kick him out in the paddock, but he had cows in the paddock that day, they alternated with the horses, so that didn’t happen. Nihilator was very much like Niatross, but it was like you took a piece of sandpaper and smoothed the rough edges off. Now Gangloff wants $125,000, and I want to pay $100,000. I  flew home and the next day we Federal Expressed him a check for $100,000, with a return Fed Ex envelope if he didn’t want to sell the colt. He called the next day and asked if we could wire the money instead. I later found out he wanted money for his business. Subsequently, when Nihilator won the Woodrow Wilson we bought the dam and granddam of Nihilator for $750,000, plus a breeding to Nihilator. Then we sold Margie’s Melody for $750,000. She had the one we wanted, and she was never going to have another Nihilator. We sold her in foal to John Signorelli’s Saratoga Standardbreds. It turned out she was carrying twins and aborted and became a problem breeder. Nihilator was raised by Schare Adams at Standardbred Pacers & Trotters in Lexington. We decided who would get the horses and Billy Haughton got Nihilator. He went into training with Haughton and the first call I got from Billy, he says, ‘Do you mind if we freeze his splints?’ He had two big splints so I was thinking, here we are freezing splints in December. That was probably the last significant vet work he had until he had quarter cracks as a 2 year old. The quarter cracks were only a problem early in his 2-year-old season. Right away, Billy wanted to try the piano wire, which was a new thing, and he was going to try to do it himself. And Ernie (Gaskin, a Haughton assistant trainer) said, ‘Let’s just send him to the University of Pennsylvania.’ So they sent him over there. He wore a window bar shoe, and where the quarter crack was, there was no shoe. Instead of the patches used today, they literally wove piano wire, like a shoelace, to close up the crack. Then on the night of the (Woodrow) Wilson eliminations, he had a quarter crack on another foot. But by the end of his 2-year-old season, it was never an issue again. After the splints and the quarter cracks, I think his hocks were only injected once. The first time I saw him train I thought he looked like a quality colt. And the faster he went, the better he went. I’m a big believer in fate. The first day they put Nihilator and Pershing Square in to baby race, Billy (Haughton) gave Tommy (Haughton) his choice of who to drive, and Tommy picked Pershing Square. As far as how Billy O’Donnell came to drive Nihilator, first of all, the fact that in 1984 O’Donnell, who was a leading driver at the Meadowlands, would not have a mount in the Woodrow Wilson, that was fate. Billy (Haughton) decided on his own to take himself off of Nihilator. It was 100 percent his decision. I remember getting a panicked call from Lou. He wanted to know what to say to Haughton. I said to tell him thank you, and he would still get his five percent (driver commission). What do you consider to be Nihilator’s greatest race? His race as a 2 year old the first week of the Grand Circuit in Lexington. (Ni- hilator beat Niafirst despite starting from post 12, in the second tier, and being parked until he pulled away in the stretch drive, delivering a :27.3 final quarter to win by 2 1⁄2 lengths, with Marauder third.) That race separated him. He wasn’t just fast, he wasn’t just good. He was parked the mile and in the stretch he just drew off. It stunned me. Nihilator was part of one of harness racing’s most sensational races of all time, the Breeders Crown at The Meadows, which was won by Dragon’s Lair, the hometown horse. Why did Nihilator get beat? He didn’t race the second week in Lexington, then he went to The Meadows and won the first heat of the Breeders Crown, but he wasn’t good. He just got beat. Later, Guida went out and bought Dragon’s Lair. But the two horses never met again. As a 3 year old, Nihilator suffered another defeat—while in the midst of an undefeated season—in the Adios at The Meadows. What happened that time? Originally, we were never going to the Adios because the plan was to go from the Meadowlands to Springfield and time trial there. Nihilator won at the Meadowlands on Hambletonian day in 1:49.3 while On The Road Again won the U.S. Pacing Championship in 1:51.4 that same day. After the races we were sitting with Delvin (Miller, who founded The Meadows and created the Adios and maintained close ties with the track). Del Miller is asking us if we’ll bring our horse to the Adios. How can we say no? In the first heat of the Adios, Nihilator had the rail and got away seventh, and 15 years later O’Donnell admitted over lunch, ‘Boy, did I drive bad.’ (Nihilator finished fourth after being parked out by winner Marauder.) He won the second heat and we scratched from the race-off. And the funny part was two years later, when Camtastic won the Adios, we’re standing there with the trophy and O’Donnell says something like, ‘I didn’t know there was a trophy with this race.’ In Springfield it rained. Then DuQuoin came and his feet were bothering him. He was much better gaited, and much faster, with the aluminums, but they took their toll. There were no trackside indicators at Du Quoin, so it’s hysterical to think what happened. Ernie Gaskin was standing at the half, up on a little hill, with a bull-horn, yelling the times. O’Donnell laughs about how all he heard was a blur of noise as he went by. The funniest line of the day was Haughton wrote down all the splits on a piece of white paper—quarter, three-eighths, half, five-eighths, three-quarter pole. And when Nihilator comes up short (he hit the wire in 1:50.4, far short of his sire’s mark of 1:49.1),O’Donnell and Haughton are looking at each other and O’Donnell says, ‘One problem, Bill. You forgot to put down the final time.’ He’s about the only guy who could get away with saying that. After that, the pressure was off. Nihilator went to Garden State Park and won the Dancer—that’s when Freehold was closed because of the fire. In the winner’s circle, Haughton and I asked O’Donnell, ‘You think he’d be OK on a half?’ O’Donnell said he’d have no problems. So I turned to Guida and told him we were going to Delaware. Initially, we weren’t planning to go to Delaware. Leon Caston, who took care of Pershing Square, thought he would have his moment in Delaware, and then the truck pulls in with Nihilator. In order to be comfortable, at 7 a.m. on Monday morning, after Haughton had his Bob Evans breakfast, he buzzed Nihilator, going into the first turn there as fast as he could go. There was a big crowd and most of them left convinced Nihilator wouldn’t have any problems. At the draw, the first pill that came out was Nihilator, then post one. But the Jug was a tough race for him. The only time I’ve seen a horse tired was after the Jug. I went back to the barn afterwards and he almost had his eyes closed. If we needed to race a third heat, I’m not sure he would have won. (Nihilator won the Jug with heat victo ries in 1:53.1 and 1:52.1, and in the second heat he won by a mere head over stable mate Pershing Square, with Dignatarian a neck back in third. O’Donnell and Nihila tor started from post one in the second heat and Nihilator raced with a horse on his flank or at his neck the entire race.) After the Jug, Nihilator went to Lex ington and he raced another two heats, so he raced four heats in two weeks. Part of the Nihilator experience was having a horse with Billy Haughton and being around him. How he related to people, from grooms to his biggest own ers, was unbelievable. He could sit in a track kitchen with a groom to his left, the billionaire Lloyd Lloyds across from him, and some harness racing dignitary and make everyone comfortable. And the big moment didn’t faze him, and he was not afraid to make changes, to do something different.  So two years after Nihilator is retired to stud duty, Camtastic comes along. The thing I’ll always remember about Camtastic is early on, when Bob (Bencal) was jogging him, obviously second to the colt showing talent, Bob said the horse would stay on the track all day and he would be just as happy. The horse was happy being on the track. He always showed he wanted to do it. And for a guy who was labeled a conservative trainer, Camtastic didn’t get to Florida until mid December—because he was in partner ship we were selling out and the attorneys advised us not to do anything until it was done—and still the colt made his first start on May 29 in a baby race. He was ready in 3 ½ months!  Camtastic won a lot of races relatively easily. As for his best race, the one that comes to mind is when he set the two-heat world record (in Lexington). In both races he was dead game. He did all the work and was dead game and unbelievably tough. He hung on by a nose. The rest of the year he was untouchable. Before Lexington, he didn’t win the Woodrow Wilson at the Meadowlands. He won an elim, but that year there was a week off between the eliminations and the final. O’Donnell wanted to qualify him, maybe Monday. But before that, I went to the barn late after the races, and he wasn’t throwing his head. He would not have been a good horse in detention barns because he would always throw his head. So I saw he wasn’t throwing his head and all I said to Bencal was, ‘What’s wrong?’ The colt had a temperature. Camtastic was owned by a limited partnership and I had made 170 reservations in the dining room. Some people thought we scratched so our other horse Threefold would have a better chance to win, but we scratched early enough to let another horse in the race. Even Odds ended up winning. (Camtastic finished off his freshman season by capturing the Breeders Crown by 5 3⁄4 lengths—his 13th victory in 14 starts—and was voted the 1987 Two-Year-Old Colt Pacer of the Year and Pacer of the Year.) So as a 3 year old Camtastic earned $1.1 million and won 16 of 22 starts, but it wasn’t a smooth season. O’Donnell trained him in Florida during the winter and didn’t like how he trained, and when the season got started he didn’t have confidence in the horse. He didn’t do any good in the North America Cup, but he won his Meadowlands Pace elim (by 6 1⁄2 lengths). He won the first heat of the Jug. He won races in Lexington. At the Breeders Crown, O’Donnell was insistent after the elim that the horse’s hocks needed done. Bencal says the horse is fine. So I get to the track the next week for the final and I see Cindy Mikita (the colt’s caretaker) and I tell her that if O’Donnell asks if we did his hocks, tell him yes, even though we didn’t. O’Donnell goes the last trip and brings him back and says, ‘He’s good. But he was running out a little bit in the stretch; he’s probably just needle sore from where they did his hocks.’ The horse won the final and he dominated. Then he had a good 4-year-old season. He beat everyone he faced, but he had to race Matt’s Scooter, who was a great horse. Twenty-five years after you raced Camtastic, you buy an interest in Always B Miki. What has this experience been like? Like my other top horses, so many people were wrapped up with this horse, and that makes it special. Always B Miki became the sport’s fastest horse, what was his best race? The Ewart first, and then the Breeders Crown. The Ewart because first-over to Wiggle It Jiggle It. To go :26 up the backside, and you’re parked by Wiggle It Jiggleit, as he was, you’ve got to give the edge to the Ewart. Then the Breeders Crown. When horses win races that they’re not supposed to win, that makes it more remarkable. Late in the stretch, I had him losing the race. His 3-year-old season was remarkable too. The Meadowlands Pace (when he was parked three wide the entire mile and finished second in1:46.4) was significant, but we saw that he wasn’t a fluke because he went to being the best 3 year old. He won both weeks in Lexington and then went and won the Monument Circle at Hoosier Park. All the big ones were in it and he dominated on a really miserable night. He paced in 1:52 and that same night Bettor’s Edge and Sweet Lou finished on the wire together (a neck apart) in 1:53. That race made me realize he was more than just a very good horse. Miki just never stops. I remember Jimmy (Takter) and his whole crew always commenting on how he never gets tired or stressed. He never knows the end of a mile. With the world record in Lexington, at the top of the stretch I still didn’t know what to expect. Then after he paces in 1:46, to go back and see him at the barn, he was no worse for the mile. He just wanted his dinner. And all that race did was make him better, as we saw with the Breeders Crown and TVG. Miki just did things horses aren’t supposed to do, and to see him in the winner’s circle when he was retired, to see how good he looked, it was a testament to anyone who knows horses.

“One of a Kind” Always B Miki enters the Living Horse Hall of Fame story by Anne Doolin A lways B Miki , the co-fastest horse in the history of the sport, has a long string of accomplishments, accolades, and fans. The stallion blazed to his lifetime mark of 1:46 in the Allerage Farms Open Pace at Red Mile in 2016.  He won three Dan Patch Awards that year—Horse of the Year, Pacer of the Year, and Older Pacing Horse of the Year. He retired to stud with earnings of more than $2.71 million and 30 wins from 53 starts.  What makes his accomplishments even more amazing is that he was away from the races with what could have been a career-ending injury not just once, but twice.  “It always starts with extreme talent. Perhaps the difference with Always B Miki was his ability to carry his speed as long as any horse I have seen,” said Bob Boni, one of Always B Miki’s owners. “And he never stopped trying. Many of his most memorable miles saw him parked first-over and he would wear down any horse he could get to. He truly never knew the end of the mile.”  Hall of Fame member David Miller was his regular pilot the last two years of his career and had driven him earlier, as well.  “I only drove him a couple of times at 2, then again at the end of his 3-year-old season,” he said. “Then at 4 and 5.  “[I was impressed] right off the bat. His first baby race he went like [1]:55 and he did it handily. He was so big, but he handled himself very well. He has the biggest heart in a horse that I’ve ever seen in my life. His will and determination—I’ve never seen another horse have it like that. He is a very special horse. That’s all there is to it. He’s very dear to me.”  Always B Miki was bred by Joe Hurley’s Roll The Dice Stable. Boni and Mitchel Skolnick purchased half of the colt for their Bluewood Stable after his third 2-year-old race at The Meadowlands.  Always B Miki is by Always A Virgin, who was also bred by Hurley, as was the horse’s dam, the Artsplace mare Artstopper.  Skolnick and Boni also co-own Always A Virgin with Hurley.  “We bought half of him right before his 3-year-old season started, honestly just hoping to have a nice Jersey sire [stakes] type of horse,” Boni said. “He ended up being much better than that.  “We kind of followed up with Miki the same way. Since we had a relationship with Hurley, I told Mitchel after that first baby race, ‘Maybe you ought to get a hold of Joe and see if he wants to do something.’ Miki was that impressive.”  Several trainers had a hand in making the horse who would go on to make history.  “Rich Ringler broke and trained him down, and Joe Holloway got him right when he was ready to race and trained him as a 2- and 3-year-old,” Boni said. “We also sent him out to Roger Welch to race in Indiana for a while. Miki was making breaks here [in New Jersey.] He was a tall colt and very immature at 2 and he couldn’t put everything together and would make breaks.  “Mitchel and I both credit Roger for teaching him how to be a racehorse. He may have sacrificed some speed, but he taught him to be a racehorse and he finished up the year nicely at 2. We turned him out after that at Elizabeth Caldwell’s Cane Run Farm. He was still tall and lean and a colt that hadn’t really grown into himself. He trained down OK [for his sophomore season], but it wasn’t until right before he was ready to qualify that he trained a couple of times where he really was impressive. That season had its ups and downs, but he went on a hell of a run at the end, and then ended up breaking that bone.”  That bone was his left hind pastern. Always B Miki had won two of 12 outings as a freshman, then 12 of 19 starts at 3 with a mark of 1:47.4 at Red Mile. He was favored in the 2014 Breeders Crown but was scratched right before the race. He kicked the stall wall in the paddock the night of the Breeders Crown final and underwent surgery the following Monday.  Always B Miki was sent to Jimmy Takter to prepare for a return to the races early in 2015.  “Jimmy and Christina asked about buying into him early May, maybe end of April,” Boni said. “What I remember vividly, in the interim of getting our check, he broke another bone. This time it was his right hind pastern. Mitchel and I talked about it and decided if they didn’t want to conclude the deal, we didn’t have a problem with that and weren’t going to push, because here he’s going to have to rehab again.  “They were rather insistent that, ‘No, we made a deal and we’re going to live up to it.’ I think 99 percent of people I know, especially if given the opportunity to back out of the commitment, most would have said, ‘Thank you and we’re going to pass.’ All in all, the stars lined up right, and there you go.”  Boni credits a certain veterinarian in New Jersey for Always B Miki’s recovery.  “Dr. Patty Hogan’s expertise put him back together both times,” he said.  It was almost a year before Always B Miki returned to the races. At 4 he qualified twice in the fall—once at Pocono and once at Red Mile before his first pari-mutuel start on Oct. 3 at Hoosier. A win there tuned him up for wins in his elimination and final of the Breeders Crown at Woodbine and then the American-National at Balmoral. He ended his season going four-for-four.  Takter explained Always B Miki’s injury could have been difficult to overcome.  “[A pastern break] is a nasty break,” Takter said. “It’s quite painful when it happens. With me, he did it with the other leg. It was in May and he was just about ready to race. Then we had that setback. That healed very well, but the first break was much worse than the second.  “Have you seen the movie War Horse? That is Miki. He’s a war horse for sure. One of a kind.”  At 5, Always B Miki tuned up for stakes season in the Open ranks before capturing the Ben Franklin at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono, the William Haughton Memorial at The Meadowlands, the Jim Ewart Memorial at Eldorado Scioto Downs and the Hoosier Park Pacing Derby. He ended the season on a dominating four-race win streak beginning with his 1:46 score in the Allerage, followed by a trio of Meadowlands races—an Open, the Breeders Crown, and his career finale, the TVG.  His first crop of foals are 2 this year, and he was the leading first-crop sire in 2019 with his yearlings averaging more than $63,000 at public auctions.  He is now owned by 146 Stable, which includes his original owners, and stands at Diamond Creek Farm in Pennsylvania.  “So far, I have heard good things on his 2-year-olds, and I have very much liked the few that I have seen at Nancy Takter’s and with Per Engblom,” Boni said.  Miller has yet to sit behind one of Always B Miki’s foals but is looking forward to the opportunity.  “I’m pretty excited for them to get going,” he said.  He is not the only one anticipating the stallion’s first crop to hit the track.  “My daughter Nancy has five or six of them,” Takter said. “Reports about them are super. We are very excited. It looks like he’s for real.”  Anne Doolin is a freelance writer living in Kentucky. Photos by Mark Hall Article courtesy of Hoof Beats July 2020

Always B Miki to the Hall of Fame Goshen, NY — The Living Horse Hall of Fame nominating committee of the Harness Racing Museum and Hall of Fame has announced the results of recent balloting to determine the 2020 inductees into the Harness Racing Living Horse Hall of Fame.