One year ago, owner Barbara Bongiorno was part of a large and happy crowd, beaming from the Woodbine winner’s circle after Pilgrims Taj won the Breeders Crown for freshmen colt trotters
over the favoured Lucky Chucky. That win was the culmination of a season that saw the Broadway Hall colt win seven of ten races and finish second in the other three, winning $746,939.
On October 9, she and her partners are once again in search of a Crown, but after a season filled with more downs than ups, Bongiorno is still hoping for the best.
“Winning the Breeders Crown last year was an absolute dream come true. I never would have believed I would have been lucky enough to own part of a champion horse like Pilgrims Taj,” she said.
But for much of this season, luck seemed to abandon Pilgrims Taj as he struggled to return to last year’s form for trainer Monte Gelrod. Bongiorno said there were no early indications of looming trouble.
“Obviously, after last season, we had high hopes for his three-year-old campaign,” she recalled. “He trained back strong and everything seemed to be on track.”
Indeed, Pilgrim’s Taj won his first qualifier by 2-1/2 lengths in 1:57.2, but made a break in his next qualifier.
“Our rollercoaster year began with a win in a qualifier and then an unthinkable break in the second. He starting hitting his shins and that was sort of his undoing,” said Bongiorno. “He had a couple of wins (in Pennsylvania Sire Stakes), an equipment malfunction – a broken headpole - and then another dreaded break.”
By now it was July and the Hambletonian was just weeks away. All of the trotter’s connections were feeling the pressure. Hall of Famer Mike Lachance, who had driven the colt in all but one start, cited interference as the reason for the breaks.
“He said that when it came to the point in the mile where he’s called on to make speed, he just wasn’t able to, because he was hitting himself too much.”
Finally, the owners [the other partners are Bix DiMeo, Val D'Or Farms and The Pilgrims Taj Stable which is Peter Heffering, Carol Beneke and William R. Kent] decided to make a tough decision.
“We were unable to make the proper shoeing adjustments and with the Hambo looming - and after careful consideration, we decided to send the horse to Trond Smedshammer, so that he could shoe him himself and try to straighten out his gait issues. He was able to accomplish that, as Taj won his next start which was the Hambo elim.”
In his Hambo elimination, Pilgrims Taj went his best race of the season and possibly his career, gutting it out first over for a half-length, career-best 1:53.3 win over the favored Muscle Massive. But luck would once again elude him in the million-dollar final.
“In the Hambo, Taj never really had a chance as there was a horse that sat outside of him the whole mile and never had any kind of clearance until very late in the stretch, when the top two had already drawn off on the field,” said Bongiorno of the ultimate fourth place finish. “We were very hopeful coming out of that start and heading into the Colonial at Chester.”
But their hopes were dashed when Pilgrims Taj faded to fifth after another first-over trip in a race completely dominated by Lucky Chucky in 1:53.
“In the paddock, after the race, he was in great distress. We scoped him and he’d bled,” Bongiorno said.
The rollercoaster continued its downhill trajectory when Pilgrims Taj, now racing with Lasix, made a break in the $200,000 final of the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes as he was challenging for the lead.
His next start was north of the border in the elimination for the million-dollar Canadian Trotting Classic. Once again things appeared to be looking up, however briefly.
“He sat last and qualified for the final,” said Bongiorno of the colt’s eighth-place finish.
But as if bad racing luck was not enough in several starts, for the rich final the luck of the draw would also desert Pilgrim’s Taj and he drew post eight, made a break at the start and wound up a distant tenth. Bongiorno was just about ready to get off the rollercoaster.
“At that point the thought crossed everyone’s mind that maybe we should stop with him and call it a year but after discussion with Peter (co-owner Heffering) and Monte (trainer Gelrod), the decision was made to bring him back to Monte and then take a “wait and see attitude.”
With no Crown eliminations for the three-year-old colt trotters, Pilgrims Taj prepped with a 5 ¼-length winning qualifier at Chester in 1:56.1. Bongiorno is taking a realistic attitude.
“So here we are, as the rollercoaster twists and turns around to the end of the season, we’re giving it a shot in the Breeders Crown. I surely don’t know what’s going to happen but I just know that I am still very fortunate to have had the privilege to own a two-year-old Breeders Crown champion. Whatever the outcome [next week], he surely doesn’t owe us anything.”
Bongiorno and her husband Robert have owned racehorse for nearly 30 years and Barbara is a descendant of harness racing “royalty” - her father, Harold (Sonny) Dancer, uncles Stanley and Vernon, and grandfather, Harold Dancer, campaigned some of the sport’s greatest trotters. Pilgrim’s Taj is poised to carry on that legacy as only three freshmen Breeders Crown champions have repeated the following year - Muscle Hill [2008-09], Malabar Man [1996-97] and Mack Lobell [1986-87].
(Breeders Crown)