Harmonious charged from behind the two favorites at the top of the stretch Saturday to win the $1,346,000 Hambletonian at the Meadowlands.
Harmonious, which also won the second division of the first heat, clocked 1:54.1 over the mile course in the decisive second heat. The time is the third fastest run in the Hambletonian. Mack Lobell, the 1987 winner, holds the two fastest times.Embassy Lobell was second in the second heat to Harmonious, 1 1-2 lengths behind, and Royal Troubadour faded to third, another 1 1-4 lengths back.
The victory was driver John Campbell's third Hambletonian victory in four years. He drove Mack Lobell to the record times in 1987 and Ambro Goal in 1988.
Campbell said Harmonious was well tuned for the special demands of the Hambletonian, in which both heats are run on the same day.
"You don't know how they're going to take a second heat," Campbell said. "He's a big, strong horse, so that's in his favor and he's calm, easy-going. Nothing bothers him."
Royal Troubadour, the favorite entering the day, took the lead coming out of the gate and held on with Embassy Lobell and Harmonious right behind.
The trailers made their move through the back turn, passing the leader and coming down the stretch neck and neck. Campbell pulled the plugs out of his horse's ears at the pole and Harmonious surged ahead.
"I didn't want my horse to get soft in the lane, because Embassy Lobell can close so well," Campbell said.
"He's not a pretty horse," said Harmonious trainer Osvaldo Formia. "In fact, he's pretty ugly, but he's just a bull on the race track. When (owners Lindy Racing Stable and Sal Garofal) bought him, I didn't like him. I think I've changed my opinion today."
Stanley Dancer, the driver of King of the Sea, who chased Royal Troubador out of the gate in the second heat, saw Harmonious up close in the second division of the first heat when Harmonious ran away from his horse and Royal Troubador down the stretch.
"Prior to the race I would have said Embassy Lobell and Royal Troubador were the horses to beat, but now I'd say it's Harmonious," he said after the first heat.
Harmonious passed the favored Royal Troubadorat the top of the stretch and won by three lengths at 1:55.
"I knew around the turn I was going to beat Carl (Allen, Royal Troubador's driver)," Campbell said. "My horse felt stronger than Carl's looked."
Embassy Lobell was pinned to the rail through the second turn of the first division of the first heat and appeared to be out of the race. But driver Mike Lachance found a hole and got his horse into the open. He won going away in 1:56.1.
"I got lucky and had a lot of horse," Lachance said. "He trotted home like a tiger."