As stakes season rapidly approaches, some of harness racing's most talented athletes — including five defending Breeders Crown champions — are among the 102 horses programmed to qualify at The Meadowlands on Friday morning (April 30).
Two-time Crown winner Amigo Volo headlines a stacked field of stakes-tested trotters in the eighth qualifier on the 14-race program. A winner of nine of 15 races — including the Breeders Crown, Kentucky Futurity — and nearly a million dollars in his three-year-old campaign, the gelded son of Father Patrick will return from a 5-1/2-month layoff after capping his sophomore season with a decisive 1:50.2 win in the Matron Stakes at Dover Downs. Usual driver Dexter Dunn is slated to drive the Nifty Norman trainee from post nine. The field also includes the last two Hambletonian champions in Forbidden Trade (post three, Bob McClure) and Ramona Hill (post seven, Andy McCarthy), as well as 2019 Hambletonian Oaks winner When Dovescry (post four, David Miller).