Napoleon: only Trotting Triple Crown eligible in Hambo

There’s only one horse eligible to complete the Trotting Triple Crown this year, and his name doesn’t start with Dewey; the hopeful is Napoleon, who won the Yonkers Trot late last month at Yonkers Raceway and will now take aim at the Hambletonian when elims are held at the Meadowlands this Saturday.

It will likely be an under-the-radar quest for Napoleon as the perfect 13-for-13 streak of favorite Deweycheatumnhowe will overshadow him. But don’t count out Napoleon, whose $368,629 in earnings makes him the richest 3-year-old colt trotter in North America in 2008.

Napoleon, trained by Noel Daley, has won four of six starts this season, including the first jewel of trotting’s Triple Crown in 1:57.1. If he finishes in the top three in his Hambo elim—actually he can also finish fourth as the final spot in the $1.5 million final Aug. 2 goes to the fourth-place finisher with the highest lifetime earnings—he will take aim at becoming the sport’s ninth winner of trotting’s Triple Crown. The final leg is the Kentucky Futurity final at the Red Mile on Oct. 4.

This Credit Winner colt has one factor that could be cause for concern and that is that although he has qualified twice this year at the Meadowlands, he has never raced in a pari-mutuel race on a mile track. Vernon’s seven-eighths mile track is the closest he has come to seeing a mile oval where he finished in 1:55.2, his career mark, on July 15 in a New York Sire Stakes contest.

“I think he’ll be better on the mile than he is on the smaller one,” said Daley. “I think that’s an asset to him, not a liability.”

In the Hambletonian elims, Napoleon will start from post two in the third tough elim with Stephane Bouchard in the bike.

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