One More Laugh had the last laugh. The 3-year-old gelding pacer won the $300,000 Cane Pace at Freehold Raceway, Freehold, on Labor Day, Sept. 6, and joined legends of the sport including Bret Hanover, Albatross and Niatross.
The Cane Pace is the first leg of the Pacing Triple Crown. The 2010 edition of the Cane Pace was the 56th running of the race.
Sent off as the favorite, One More Laugh proved his superiority by not only going wire-to-wire for the victory, but by setting a new track record of 1:50.3 for the mile in winning by four-and-one-quarter lengths over Rockin Image.
Longshot Urgent Action got up for third place.
The previous track mark was 1:50.4, which was equaled by I’m Gorgeous in the Cane Pace elimination (Aug. 23). I’m Gorgeous ran out of the money in the Cane Pace final.
Driver Tim Tetrick said after the race that One More Laugh “responded like the powerhouse I knew he was.”
One More Laugh is the fifth horse to win the Meadowlands Pace and the Cane Pace. The win at Freehold Raceway increased his lifetime earnings to $1,698,920, which includes 14 wins and six second-place finishes in 23 carrier starts.
The horse’s trainer and part-owner Ray Schnittker, who notched his first Triple Crown victory, said One More Laugh will go to the Little Brown Jug in Delaware, Ohio, where he will try to win the second leg of the Pacing Triple Crown. The Little Brown Jug will be run on Sept. 23.
The third leg of the Pacing Triple Crown, the Messenger Stakes, is scheduled to be run on Nov. 6 at Yonkers Raceway, Yonkers, N.Y.
If One More Laugh sweeps the remaining two legs, he will become the 11th Pacing Triple Crown winner since the series was inaugurated in 1956. The last horse to win all three races was No Pan Intended in 2003.
No matter what transpires in the upcoming Triple Crown races, harness racing fans can expect to see One More Laugh around for a long time. Schnittker said he wants to race the pacer for four or five more years.
In other harness racing news, on Sept. 10 at Freehold Raceway, Flex The Muscle extended his winning streak to four races and posted a stakes record time of 1:55.4 in the $80,000 Charles I. Smith Final.
Driver David Miller moved the trotter quickly to the lead out of the gate, held it at every call, and then drew off in the homestretch to a four-and-three-quarters-length victory over Flashback and Jetblue Volo.
Flex The Muscle, a son of Muscles Yankee, erased the previous record of 1:57 established in 2007 by Princetonian.
In August, Flex The Muscle, trained by Schnittker, swept two preliminary legs and the $100,000 final of New Jersey Sire Stakes at Freehold Raceway. He now has six wins and three second-place finishes in 14 starts this year.
Flex The Muscle’s victory on Sept. 10 pushed his career bankroll to $383,949 for Schnittker and his partners, Jerry Silva of Long Beach, N.Y., and Arden Homestead Stable of Delhi, N.Y.
Sponsored by the Standardbred Breeders and Owners Association of New Jersey, the Charles I. Smith Trot was named in memory of a New Jersey harness racing pioneer, founder of the New Jersey Sire Stakes program and owner of trotters.