World champion Holborn Hanover dies

Holborn Hanover, whose 1:46.4 win in the U.S. Pacing Championship in 2006 at the Meadowlands stands as the fastest race mile in history, died Tuesday following complications from surgery to repair a fractured cannon bone. Trainer Bruce Saunders told harnessracing.com the injury occurred last week during a training mile as he prepared the 7-year-old son of Cam’s Card Shark for an April 7 start in the opening round of the Classic Series at Dover Downs.

“Warming up for qualifiers on Thursday (March 20), as I turned him to go a trip he took four or five good steps and then made a break and pulled up lame in the right rear. I took him back to the barn and would have bet it was a broken sesamoid,” said Saunders, who began training Holborn Hanover last fall. “The x-rays reflected a fractured cannon bone and they did surgery on him (Tuesday at the clinic at the Meadowlands). Complications after the surgery resulted in him being euthanized.”

Holborn Hanover vaulted to prominence in 2004 when he won the $1 million Meadowlands Pace at odds of 58-1, but he went on to prove over his career that the victory was no fluke. Owned by John Fielding and Canamerica Capital Corporation, Holborn Hanover earned $2,104,143, posting 27 wins in 114 starts. One of his wins, in the 2006 American National at Balmoral Park, resulted in a positive test and is still under appeal. He was trained at the time by Brett Robinson.

“What a great horse! I raced against him for years and he was always at the very top of his class,” said Saunders. “He won the Meadowlands Pace and went on from there. I watched him go some vicious miles.”

Holborn Hanover made one start earlier this year, that coming in the opening round of the Presidential Series at the Meadowlands in January when he finished ninth.

“He was sick the first leg of the Presidential and we decided it was a good time to shut him down,” explained Saunders. “That’s what we did and I couldn’t have been more pleased with his demeanor, the way he looked and acted. He always wanted to go more than we were going. I had nothing but high hopes and great expectations because he was the best that I had seen him physically and soundness-wise.

“I trained him the Saturday (March 15) before a vicious mile but he was well in hand, and then a really slow trip on Tuesday (March 18). He was terrific. You only get to be around horses like that every so often in your racing career, and I was lucky enough to have two world champions in the barn at the same time in Casimir Camotion and him, and I felt pretty good in the morning when I walked in and saw them.

“He had been on stall rest for five days and was taking good care of himself. There was a certain amount of risk in shipping him anyplace and shattering it en route to a place to do surgery. We did it here (at the Meadowlands) when he didn’t have any ride at all, and we had a very competent surgeon do the work.”

Saunders said Holborn Hanover will be cremated and the ashes sent to breeder Hanover Shoe Farms to be buried in the farm's cemetery.

“It is a devastating loss for the ownership group and for the game of racing,” he said. “Special and talented individuals like him show up periodically…and give great thrills and excitement.

“Holborn Hanover was such a special horse, not only talent-wise but his intelligence and personality. He loved his work, he loved his people, and made life for the people around him as easily as possibly could. He left everything he had on the racetrack every time he showed up.”

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