Muscle Hill/Lucky Jim match-up could have happened in Crown

Trainer Greg Peck told harnessracing.com Thursday that although he had an option of entering Hambletonian winner Muscle Hill in the upcoming Breeders Crown Horse Trot at the Meadowlands—and a showdown with the 4-year-old star Lucky Jim—he decided to give his 3 year old a short break until the American National Aug. 29 at Balmoral Park. Just six horses were entered in the Crown Trot on Aug. 22, and although Muscle Hill could have raced in both that race and the Breeders Crown 3-Year-Old Colt Trot in October, Peck said he had no regrets. 

 

“I did think about it but I just thought that if it had been the end of the year, like the Thoroughbreds where they put in a 3 year old against the aged horses for the last race of the year, maybe it would be something we would have been interested in,” said Peck. “But that wasn’t the case. I didn’t want to do anything to divert from the plan that we’ve tried to manage his races and be as kind to him as we could.”

 

Peck said he plans on sending Muscle Hill to The Red Mile in Lexington, Ky., on Wednesday, Aug. 19, and then start him in a qualifier on Friday, Aug. 21. Muscle Hill was not nominated to either the Yonkers Trot or American National, but Peck decided to go the supplemental route for the American National. Peck said the trotter will then start in the World Trotting Derby (Sept. 5 at Du Quoin, Ill.), the Canadian Trotting Classic (elims Sept. 12 and final Sept. 19 at Mohawk) and then back to The Red Mile for the Oct. 3 Kentucky Futurity.

 

“We’ve raced him so lightly, I’m aiming to race him a few weeks in a row in the fall,” he said.

 

Five days after Muscle Hill’s world-record 1:50.1 effort in winning the Hambletonian by six lengths, the second-biggest margin in stakes history (behind only Mack Lobell’s 6 ¼-length win in 1987), Peck said he has now had a chance to pause and look back.

 

"It was phenomenal, but it goes back to what I’ve said, that he always does something to amaze even me in each race. And I was pretty amazed,” Peck said. “I did say to Ken Warkentin before we did an interview on NBC that I thought he’d trot in (1):50, and I told Brian that at the news conference. When I took the rail I thought the same thing, that he’d trot in (1):50, and he did. Still, the way he did it so amazingly was great.”

 

As for any possible assault on a sub-1:50 trotting mile, whether at Du Quoin in the World Trotting Derby or The Red Mile, Peck said that decision will be left to driver Brian Sears. “That’s up to Brian, whatever he wants to do. But I’ve always said you have to win it first; I don’t take anything for granted,” he said.