Muscles Yankee Falls Short in His Bid to Make History

Muscles Yankee’s bid for the first harness racing triple crown in 26 years fell short Friday, as the winner of the Hambletonian and the Yonkers Trot was eliminated in preliminary heats of the $340,000 Kentucky Futurity.

Instead, it was Trade Balance who defeated Conway Hall in a two-horse race-off to win the 106th running of the Futurity at the Red Mile.

Muscles Yankee’s hope of becoming trotting’s first triple crown winner since Super Bowl in 1972 may have been literally choked off in the first of two preliminary heats. The colt was running second past the half-mile mark when he was boxed in by then-leader Kick Tail and Trade Balance, who was swinging outside on the right.

Driver John Campbell said he had to pull hard on the reins to restrain his horse, apparently cutting off Muscles Yankee’s airflow.

“I just didn’t want him to be going that fast,” Campbell said, adding that, after that, “The horse just wasn’t himself.”

“When he got parked down the backstretch, he just didn’t race like I thought he would, that’s for sure,” Muscles Yankee trainer Chuck Sylvester said.

Muscles Yankee led briefly in the second heat and was a close second behind Trade Balance at the top of the stretch, but fell back when Conway Hall surged, finishing seven lengths back in third place--and out of the race.

Few expected Muscles Yankee to say his goodbye so early. The Valley Victory son had won easily in the first two legs of the triple crown and looked strong winning by six lengths in a tuneup race last Saturday.

The bettors sent Muscles Yankee off as a 1-9 favorite in the opening heat, and Trade Balance driver-trainer David Wade, whose horse was second to Muscles Yankee in the Yonkers Trot, may have been the only person convinced Muscles Yankee would not win the triple crown.

“I wasn’t so impressed with him at the Yonkers Trot,” Wade said. “He beat me because we were on a half-mile track and he got a jump on me at the head of the stretch.

“I thought I would get a clean shot at him here because of the big stretch and the long straightaway. We weren’t going to get a cheap race out of this, that’s for sure.”

Trade Balance’s owners paid a $25,000 supplemental fee to enter him in the Futurity, and the colt immediately showed the investment was a wise one. When Wade swung the horse three-wide on the backstretch--the same move that caused Campbell to restrain Muscles Yankee--Trade Balance blew past Muscles Yankee and Kick Tail, romping to a five-length victory.

Trade Balance could have avoided a race-off by winning the second heat, and he took the lead from Muscles Yankee at the half-mile mark. But Conway Hall caught him with a surge down the homestretch, winning by a neck to force the final race.