Bardis in an alliance

When Easton Alliance N, the pre-race favorite in Saturday’s Breeders Crown Mare Pace, won the Overbid Series final at the Meadowlands in March, she caught many people by surprise. Katherine Bardis, however, wasn’t one of them.

Bardis, the mare’s 18-year-old owner, saw something she liked the previous week when Easton Alliance N finished a late-charging third in the second leg of the Overbid.

“You can see when she leaves (the gate) that she’s a fighter,” said Bardis, who lives in Pebble Beach, Calif. “She’s fighting all the way to the finish. Most horses don’t have that. In her race before (the Overbid final), I saw that in her.”

Easton Alliance N, driven by John Campbell and trained by Ross Croghan, won the Overbid at odds of 15-1, beating Loyal Opposition and Burning Point by a neck. Loyal Opposition, the three-time Dan Patch Award winner, and Burning Point are two of just four female pacers to top $2 million in lifetime earnings. The others are Eternal Camnation and Bunny Lake.

“She came out of nowhere for everyone else, but I thought she could win,” Bardis said. “I thought I was getting ahead of myself because it was her first big race, but everything worked out.”

Easton Alliance N was purchased privately for Bardis from New Zealand’s Brian Norman in November 2005 by her father, California attorney and horse owner Chris Bardis, who once operated harness meets at Cal Expo and Los Alamitos Racecourse. The mare followed the Overbid victory with three more triumphs and a second-place finish in the Strada Memorial before going off stride in the Matriarch. Overall, she has won nine of 15 starts in North America while earning $187,500.

“She just woke up one day and we had a winner,” Bardis said. “We saw a lot of great potential, but you never know. It just took off. She’s very kind and very calm. Everyone loves her. We talk to the trainer about her all the time. He’s very keen on her.”

So keen, in fact, that Bardis family was willing to supplement Easton Alliance N to Saturday’s $331,500 Breeders Crown Mare Pace for $37,500. The move looks good so far as Easton Alliance N returned from a two-month layoff to win the event’s prep on July 22.

“It was a pretty big decision to supplement, but I think we have a pretty good chance,” Bardis said. “We’d like to have two races in her before the big one, but I still think we have a pretty good chance. She’s come back so well; I think she’s ready.”

Only one of nine previous supplemental entries – Ron’s Girl in 2000 – has won the Breeders Crown Mare Pace.

Katherine and Chris Bardis will be in attendance Saturday for the Breeders Crown. It will be the first time Katherine sees the mare in person.

“It will be exciting,” she said. “It could be an amazing experience, hopefully.”

Harness racing is not Bardis’ lone equine outlet. The teen, who will be a freshman at Loyola Marymount this fall, is one of the top show jumpers in the nation. Next week, she will be heading to Virginia for the Young Riders’ Championships.

“Right now, it’s pretty exciting; I’m the leading open jumper rider in the western United States, ahead of all the professionals,” said Bardis, who has been riding since she was 9 and competitively jumping for five years. “I’m showing right now in the Grand Prix and larger divisions. I’d like to take it as far as I can go. Hopefully the Olympics, but I’m not sure. So much can happen in two years (until the 2008 Games in Beijing). I don’t like to get my hopes up.

“I just enjoy the connections I have with the horses,” she added. “It’s a big adrenaline rush. I started out doing this for fun. It’s still fun, it just takes me to bigger places.”

As for which would be more exciting, winning a jumper competition or winning the Breeders Crown, Bardis was uncertain. But she wouldn’t mind finding out.

“Winning the Breeders Crown might be on top,” Bardis said. “Hopefully, I’ll have a decision to make.” (Breeders Crown)

« Back