Superstar Trotter Father Patrick Breeds, Wins in the Same Week

by Bill Finley
Earlier this year, T.D. Thornton wrote a story in the TDN about the superstar trotter Father Patrick doing double duty–breeding and racing at the same time–a common practice in European harness racing but not in the U.S., and virtually unheard of in Thoroughbred racing. 

This week, the 4-year-old champion trotter had a particularly busy week, winning his 2015 year-debut by two lengths in Sunday’s $150,000 Maxie Lee at Harrah’s Philadelphia. He had been bred three times during the prior seven days. 

“He is just amazing,” trainer Jimmy Takter said. “He was bred three times this week. I was a little worried because it was three times and I tried to get (co-owner) Adam (Bowden) to go down to two, but he had quite a few mares to cover this week. He doesn’t seem to mind it. It’s the individual. I know horses that wouldn’t do it at all. You start breeding them and they lose all interest in racing. In his case it hasn’t been a negative at all. It was something I thought of and I told Adam about it and he thought it was a great idea. All the partners agreed upon it. So far so good.” 

Making the victory even sweeter was the fact that Father Patrick defeated 2013 Horse of the Year Bee A Magician. A mare, she had started out this year with three wins from three starts, all of them against males and was the betting favorite Sunday. 

It was quite a day for horse pulling double duty. Takter also won the $150,000 Jerry Taylor Invitational at Harrah’s with a 7-year-old pacer named Great Vintage. The horse had been retired but when he failed to attract a sizeable group of mares to be bred to it was decided to return him to the races. He, like Father Patrick, bred a mare in the days prior to win Sunday. 

“It’s such a foreign concept that there were questions about us being out of the box,” Bowden told Thornton earlier this year. He bought Father Patrick as a stallion prospect but then saw no reason not to keep campaigning him. “To this point it’s been a huge success. He’s done a fantastic job in the shed in getting mares pregnant, has never trained any better, and seems happy,” he said.

Could it change minds in the Thoroughbred industry? Only time will tell.