Warrawee Needy matched the fastest race mile in the sport of harness racing with a breath-taking 1:46.4 victory in the first William R. Haughton Memorial Pace elimination for the father-son, trainer-driver team of Carl and Jody Jamieson on Saturday night at Meadowlands Racetrack.
Warrawee Needy rallied home off cover and wore down the leading Golden Receiver (Corey Callahan) for the record victory. Harness racing’s richest pacer Foiled Again (Yannick Gingras) finished third with Razzle Dazzle (John Campbell) fourth and Hugadragon (David Miller) fifth.
When the wings of the gate closed, outside post nine starter Foiled Again worked his way to the lead ahead of his fellow Ron Burke stablemate Hugadragon to take over command past the :26-second opening quarter mark with Golden Receiver hot on his heels after getting away in the top three.
Golden Receiver cleared to command during the second panel and reached the half in :52.3. Meanwhile, A Rocknroll Dance (Ron Pierce) and Warrawee Needy began to advance first and second over from mid-pack chasing Golden Receiver past the 1:20.2 third quarter mark.
Golden Receiver continued to lead the field into the stretch, but Warrawee Needy kicked off cover and was quickly closing in with a :26-second final quarter. The top two battled down the lane with Warrawee Needy eventually drawing clear for the historic victory.
The time of the mile equalled Holborn Hanover’s world record, originally set in the 2006 U.S. Pacing Championship at The Meadowlands. The 1:46.4 clocking was also matched by Somebeachsomewhere in the 2008 Bluegrass Series at The Red Mile.
“This horse has showed week in and week out that off a helmet he can be vicious,” noted Jody Jamieson after the victory. “And how about Golden Receiver? I thought I was by him about three times in the stretch and he was still right there.
“He’s just an amazing horse,” continued the winning reinsman. “I can’t tell how fast we’re going at The Meadowlands. I saw :52.3 flash up and I thought it must have been an illusion or something. It’s just a huge half and a huge three-quarters. I knew we were going fast down by the wire and I gave him a couple of little flicks of the tail to keep going and he deserves that mark.”
Bred by Warrawee Farms of Rockwood, Ont., the four-year-old son of E Dees Cam is owned by his 2013 Canadian Horse Racing Hall Of Fame trainer along with Dr. Michael Wilson of Rockwood, Ont., Thomas Kyron of Toronto and Floyd Marshall of Jarvis, Ont.
The victory pushed Warrawee Needy’s career bankroll over the $1 million mark.
Warrawee Farm congratulates Warrawee Needy and his connections. Warrawee has a Sportswriter yearling half-sister plus 12 other beautiful yearlings for sale in the 2013 Forest City Yearling Sale this October.
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