Crazed named CTC favorite over Dewey

September 12, 2008

Last week, Mohawk race fans witnessed a stunner when dark horse, Crazed, reached past the previously unassailable Deweycheatumnhowe in an elimination for the Canadian Trotting Classic, and demolished a 17-race win streak. On Saturday night, the two will meet again--and this time there�s a cool million dollars at stake.

Co-owner/trainer/driver Ray Schnittker has made no excuses for his superstar trotter, saying merely that his horse had an off night, or that the long trip from Du Quoin, Ill. (where Dewey captured the World Trotting Derby immediately before shipping to Mohawk) might have affected his energy level. "I was surprised when he didn't fire in the lane, but he got beat by a good horse and it's not like he was terrible out there or anything," he was quoted as saying.

Still, the loss has stung, not so much because of the elim purse, a modest $40,000, but because Dewey�s unbeaten status had him rated as the most impressive trotter in a generation, now made somewhat mortal in defeat, and because Schnittker also lost the privilege of choosing his post position in the $1 million final.

The post position gods were as unkind as they could possibly be, handing Deweycheatumnhowe post 10, while Crazed will leave from the prime post three, with fellow elim winner, Clerk Magistrate, inside of him in post two.

Add to that the complicating factor of a track probably made wet by predicted storms Friday and Saturday, and the outcome of the Canadian Trotting Classic is far from the sure thing it might once have been.

Mohawk�s morning line handicappers have given Crazed the edge in the early odds, rating him at 6-5 to Dewey�s 8-5. But they haven�t discounted Canadian entry, Clerk Magistrate, who is listed at 5-1 following his impressive score in last week�s CTC elim for trainer/co-owner Per Henriksen of Norwood, Ontario.

Nor should fans overlook a horse named Celebrity Secret, a son of Yankee Glide who has been second to Dewey on multiple occasions in his sophomore season. Staffan Lind trains for co-owner Sam Stathis, who operates Celebrity Farm near Goshen, N.Y., right next door to Ray Schnittker�s farm.

Stathis has pledged a portion of Celebrity Secret�s earnings to a foundation named for the teenaged son of a good friend, who recently died of a rare form of vasculitis. And with 7-1 odds, it�s entirely possible that Celebrity Secret could play the dark horse on Saturday night, and make an extremely substantial donation to the foundation possible.

Will Dewey find redemption, or will a new king be crowned? However you slice it, the Canadian Trotting Classic is shaping up to be one of the most exciting million-dollar match-ups of the decade. It�s race seven on a stakes-laden card at Mohawk, Saturday. Post time for the Canadian Trotting Classic is 9:36 p.m. (WEG)

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