Savage still Hambo bound

Keystone Savage will try to break a 27-year jinx and become the first Peter Haughton Memorial winner to capture the $1.5 million Hambletonian, harness racing’s most coveted prize, on Aug. 5, at the Meadowlands. No colt has gone from winning the Peter Haughton, the Meadowlands’ signature event for two-year-old trotters, to Hambletonian glory at three.

Keystone Savage takes his next step on the Road to the Hambletonian for trainer Dane Snyder in the $90,900 Historic Dickerson Cup on Friday night at the Meadowlands.

He has drawn post position four in the Dickerson, which is carded as the evening’s first race and shares the spotlight with the $87,900 Historic Coaching Club Oaks for fillies. He is rated 5-1 in the morning line.

As a freshman, Keystone Savage won eight of 14 starts and was off the board only twice. In addition to the $460,000 Peter Haughton, he also captured the $116,000 Helen Dancer at Freehold.

The colt has made four starts this season. He won his 2006 debut in a New Jersey Sire Stakes division at the Meadowlands in 1:56 on Memorial Day.

“You couldn’t have blue-printed his first start of the season any better,” Snyder said. “[In the second leg], he had nowhere to go and might have still won if he got through up the rail. I’d like to have a buck for everybody who’s asked if he’s okay. Brian [driver Brian Sears] and I talked before the race. He thought it would be nice to give him a trip, and things just didn’t work out.”

He was locked in on the rail and finished third in the second leg of the New Jersey Sire Stakes and was third again in the final preliminary leg after enduring a first over trip. In last week’s $175,000 New Jersey Sire Stakes Championship, he was again forced to come first up and finished eighth.

“He made 14 starts as a two-year-old, but actually I wish he had made more,” Snyder said. “When we quit with him he wasn’t eligible to anything else. We would’ve kept going because he was sound, and just getting better and better. It was almost eight months before he came back, so he had a long break. I think it took him about four starts last year to get himself going. I assume he’ll do the same this year.”

The son of Yankee Glide out of the Speedy Crown mare Keystone Suzie Q was a $12,000 yearling purchase at Harrisburg by a partnership of Pennsylvanians: Thomas King III of Valencia, Michael Hartley of Renfrew, Leo Stepanian of Butler and Brian Shoplik of Monroeville.

“His co-owner, Tom King III, who’s an attorney, has his own theory [when choosing yearlings],” Snyder said. “He likes anything with Super Bowl blood and he has to have a good sized horse. Mr. King is about six feet, six inches, and if he can see over them they’re too small.”

While Snyder did not see any significant changes in the colt from two to three, he has been surprised by how handy he is on the half-mile track, as evidenced by his victory in the Helen Dancer at Freehold last September.

“I did a little changing of his shoeing, and I’m not sure it made a difference,” Snyder said. “Other than that, he’s almost exactly like he was. He grew and matured a little bit, but not that much. He was a pretty big 2 year old. He’s a good sized horse with a lot of leg on him. I never dreamt he’d get around Freehold the way he has. Now I wish I had entered him in the Dexter Cup [Freehold’s major event for 3-year-old trotters raced in May]. I wasn’t concerned about starting him too early.”

Keystone Savage is stabled at the Meadowlands and is in the care of Snyder’s daughter, Danielle. Snyder is planning on racing him solely at the Meadowlands this summer and plans to start him in the Stanley Dancer Memorial [elims July 7, final July 15] as a final prep for the Hambletonian. (Meadowlands press release)

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