Looking for a Crown diamond

Adam Bowden and his father Chris decided to get into the breeding and racing of harness horses in mid-2005. After 25-year-old Adam “spent half my summer riding around Kentucky with real estate agents,” the pair was able to purchase the ACL Farm of Swedish horseman John Magnusson, renamed it Diamond Creek Farm, and then sought out to populate the operation.

“At first we thought about eight broodmares and a couple of racehorses would do it,” Adam recalls with a chuckle.

Fast forward exactly one year: Diamond Creek Farm now owns no fewer than 98 horses (according to USTA records) and two fillies racing in the Breeders Crown 2-Year-Old Pace – Western Montana and Speed Date – when most owners might consider two Crown entrants a good career.

“We decided to enter the business because the timing seemed right for what we wanted to do, and there being all kinds of broodmare dispersals last year,” recounted Adam. “And as we got more into it, we felt that there were just too many good deals to pass up.”

Indeed, there were 21 such “good deals” at the Harrisburg mixed sale last November, to the tune of $880,000, making them the biggest buyers in the second half of the Harrisburg Sale and doubtless leaving many people saying, “Who’s Diamond Creek?”

Diamond Creek is Adam and his 55-year-old father, Chris, who had owned some modestly-talented horses in their native Maine. “I spent many an afternoon at the races,” said Adam, who still describes himself as “primarily a fan of the sport; Diamond Creek and I will be learning and growing (the business side) all the way along.”

Western Montana, a daughter of Western Hanover, seems the more promising of Diamond Creek’s two Crown entrants, having put in a big uncovered trip to be second in her elimination. But she drew post 10, on the far outside, for the final, which compromises the chances of the best horses – but maybe not Western Montana as much as one thinks: “She’s a little bit anxious behind the gate, and she has to be taken back a bit, but she can pace very fast in the last quarter.”

And don’t dismiss the Western Ideal distaff Speed Date, who has a bigger bankroll than her stablemate ($155,427 to $113,137). Adam noted that “after her race at Freehold on Oct. 14 (where she was third), we had her scoped, and she had some sickness. We weren’t sure if we were going to put her in the Crown, but (trainer) Ray (Remmen) called and said she’d be OK.” So, recovering from illness, Speed Date has a license to improve from post five.

And where will young Adam Bowden, master of the Diamond Creek empire of 100 horses, be on Saturday? “At home, in front of the television,” he said ruefully. “I was in an accident recently, and I can’t travel. But just being in the Breeders Crown, let alone with two horses, is full of excitement for me.” (BC)

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