Breeders Crown champion Freaky Feet Pete won his four-year-old qualifying debut on Saturday (April 2) at Hoosier Park.

With his regular reinsman Trace Tetrick in the sulky, Freaky Feet Pete cruised through fractions of :27.2, :56.1 and 1:24.3 before kicking home in :27.4 to win his 2016 qualifying debut by nine and a quarter lengths in 1:52.2. Ira Chief, Shooters Dream and Justa Cowboy completed the field.

Hoosier Park's Racing Publicist and Commentator Emily Gaskin noted via Twitter that conditions for the qualifier were 43 degrees with about a 30 mph wind.

“He was strong,” Tetrick noted after the qualifier. “He felt like Larry [Rheinheimer] could drop him in the box tomorrow. He was maybe a little aggressive, but I think that’s to be expected when he’s been away from work for a few months. The weather wasn’t perfect, the wind was definitely a factor, but he felt great.”

Trainer Larry Rheinheimer explained in a mid-March interview that the son of Rockin Image-Skyway Lori will likely make his first pari-mutuel start at his home track before shipping to Northfield Park for his first major stakes race of the year, the $200,000 Battle of Lake Erie on May 21.

“We staked him a little heavier this year,” said Rheinheimer. “Obviously, we staked him to everything close to home -- the Dan Patch, the Hoosier Park Pacing Derby -- but we also included a few of the bigger races at The Meadowlands and in Canada.”

The career winner of almost $1.2 million won 15 of his 17 races in his sophomore campaign last year for owners Mary Jo and Marty Rheinheimer. In addition to winning the Breeders Crown, Freaky Feet Pete scored major stakes victories in the Indiana Sires Stakes Super Final and Monument Circle defeating U.S. Horse of the Year Wiggle It Jiggleit, and also won the American National.

Elsewhere in qualifying action, another Breeders Crown winner was in the spotlight. Divine Caroline, the 2015 Dan Patch Three-Year-Old Pacing Filly of the Year, won her second straight qualifier in wire-to-wire fashion (:28.3, :57, 1:24.4, 1:52) at The Meadowlands. The daughter of Rock N Roll Heaven-Loving Caroline was driven by David Miller for trainer Joe Holloway and owners Val Dor Farms, Theodore Gewertz, Rojan Stables and Michael Ouriel.

Also during the Big M qualifying session, double-millionaire pacer JK Endofanera turned in a 1:51.4 winning mile in his first qualifier of the year with John Campbell in the sulky. The five-year-old son of Art Major-Presidential Lady followed pacesetter Fool Me Once (:28.3, :57, 1:25.3) and sprinted by in the stretch with 26-second final quarter speed. Rock N Roll World closed for second, finishing three and a half lengths behind. JK Endofanera, who was the 2015 Breeders Crown runner-up to stablemate Always B Miki, is trained by Jimmy Takter and owned by the 3 Brothers Stables.

(With quotes from Hoosier Park)