Hambo winner returns

Although trainer-driver and co-owner Roger Hammer stated last Friday he planned on scratching 2005 Hambletonian winner Vivid Photo out of his 2007 debut race at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs on Monday, he decided to start his star trotter and the result was a 1:55 win in the $20,000 Open.

Hammer told harnessracing.com Monday afternoon shortly after the victory that after Vivid Photo won a pair of qualifiers at The Meadows late last month he sent the 5-year-old gelding to the University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Equine Center to check for a possible leg problem.

“We knew there was something in the foot but we wanted to make sure there was nothing else. They told me the horse was dead lame. They said there was heat in his left front foot so they took X-rays and nothing was there,” said Hammer. “Meantime, they had his shoe off the whole time he was there and when we got home I put the shoe on to see how bad he was. On Saturday morning I jogged him and he was 95 percent better. He was no different than he’s always been.”

Hammer believes he knows the reason for Vivid Photo’s tenderness in his front leg.

“I think what happened was when they pulled the shoe off there might have been a nail too close,” he said. “I saw a couple nails up close to the white line of his foot and there might have one pinching him and bothering him. Stuff like that won’t show up on the X-rays.”

About Monday’s Open victory, Hammer said, “I was hung the first quarter in :27, went a half in :57.4 and the mile in 1:55 flat” before winning by open lengths. He now plans on racing the $2.1 million-winning Vivid Photo in the opening round of the Classic Series Monday, April 9, at Dover Downs.

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