Two named to Horse HOF

Continentalvictory and Cam's Card Shark have been elected into harness racing's Living Horse Hall of Fame, with Stanley Bergstein, chairman of the Living Horse Hall of Fame nominating committee of The Harness Racing Museum & Hall of Fame, announcing the results.

Annual members voted for the two horses they felt exemplified greatness. Continentalvictory received 26.1 percent of the votes cast, and Cam’s Card Shark received 23.3 percent of the votes cast.

Continentalvictory won 10 of 17 starts at two, earning $432,810. Her wins included the Breeders Crown elimination and final (equaling the national season's record of 1:55.3), Review Stakes, a division of the American National and a New Jersey Sire Stakes.

She was voted October Horse of the Month by the USTA. and 1995 Two-Year-Old Trotting Filly of the Year.

As a 3 year old, Continentalvictory won nine of 12 starts, earning $1,178,360. This made her the richest Standardbred in North America, with the most earnings ever by a trotting filly in a single season.

She won the 1996 Hambletonian, the first heat in 1:52.1 (a world record for a 3-year-old trotting filly, equaling Mack Lobell’s mark for the fastest race mile ever by a 3-year-old trotter). Her two-heat winning time of 3:45 was a world record for a trotter of any age on a mile track.

Other wins included the Yonkers Trot in 1:56.2h, the American National in 1:56.4 (a new track record for sophomore trotting fillies) and the New Jersey Sire Stakes final. She won the World Trotting Derby in a race-off, with one heat in a stakes and all-age track record 1:52.3, setting a world record for three heats divided of 5:45.2.

Continentalvictory's 1996 outstanding season earned her USTA's August Horse of the Month and at year-end she was named USHWA Horse of the Year and 3-Year-Old Filly Trotter of the Year. She was also New Jersey Standardbred of the Year.

Continentalvictory was bred by Brittany Farms of Versailles, Ky. She is currently owned by Scuderia Bolgheri of Bolgheri, Italy.

Cam's Card Shark won five of 14 starts as a 2 year old, earning $233,490. He was victorious in the Lou Babic Memorial final and two New Jersey Sire Stakes.

As a sophomore in 1994, Cam's Card Shark was named Horse of the Year, Pacer of the Year, and 3-Year-Old Colt Pacer of the Year. That year he became the leading single-season money-winner of all time, earning $2,264,714. He was the fourth pacer in the history of harness racing to earn more than $2 million in one season and only the second Standardbred to win two $1 million contests in the same year.

Cam's Card Shark won 15 of 18 starts in '94. He won the Meadowlands Pace in 1:50, equaling the season's record. He also secured wins in the North America Cup, Berry's Creek, Messenger Stake, New Jersey Classic, Adios, James B. Dancer Memorial, Art Rooney, and the Miller Memorial. His time of 1:50.3f in the Miller Memorial was a season's record over a five-eighths-mile track.

Cam's Card Shark was the leading first crop pacing sire in 1998 with earnings of $1.1 million. He has sired 881 starters with 624 in 2:00, 316 in 1:55, and 25 in 1:50. Their earnings total over $68 million with 168 $100,000 earners, eight $1 million earners, and three $2 million winners. Impressive offspring include Holborn Hanover p,1:46.4 ($1,926,109), who set a track and world record for the fastest race mile in history in the 2006 U.S. Pacing Championship, the 2001 3-Year-Old Colt Pacer of the Year and Little Brown Jug victor Bettor's Delight p,3,1:49.4 ($2,581,461), Four Starzzz Shark p,1:47.4 ($2,537,267), Riverboat King p,4,1:48.3, Timesareachanging p,3,1:48.4, and Royalflush Hanover p,4,1:49.3 ($2,153,893).

Cam’s Card Shark was bred by Jef’s Standardbred Country Club of Sacramento, Calif., and is currently owned by a large consortium led by Hanover Shoe Farms, Inc., where he presently stands.

Induction ceremonies for these two extraordinary racehorses will take place on Hall of Fame Day, Sunday, July 1, at the Harness Racing Museum’s annual dinner. For information on the Hall of Fame weekend and other festivities surrounding this important occasion visit www.harnessmuseum.com or call or write the museum at P.O. Box 590, Goshen, NY 10924. Phone: (845) 294-6330.

Standardbreds are only eligible for nomination to harness racing’s highest accolade if they comply with the following strict criteria:

All Standardbreds must be retired from racing for five years and had a drug-free career. In addition, racehorses must have won 70% of their lifetime starts, or gone undefeated in a single season campaign of 12 or more races, or been the winner of $2 million lifetime or named Harness Horse of the Year.
Stallions must rank among the 10 all-time leading money-winning sires at their gait or have sired at least 100 $200,000 winners or been a leading money-winning sire at his gait in three or more seasons. (with files from Harness Racing Museum & Hall of Fame)

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