It might be cliché to say a horse’s personality offers “the best of both worlds,” but it also can be rare to find. Trainer Jeff Gillis may well be there with Mister Herbie
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“He’s the closest thing to a perfect horse in all aspects of being a horse that I’ve ever encountered,” said Gillis, who owns the four-year-old trotter with Mac Nichol of Burlington, Ont.
Translation: he’s well behaved in the stable and an assassin on the track, having won nine of his last 10 races heading into Saturday’s $210,000 Arthur J. Cutler Memorial for older trotters at the Meadowlands.
“He’s a gentle soul, you could have an eight-year-old look after him,” said Gillis, who purchased Mister Herbie in October. “He’s quiet as a kitten, doesn’t get too wound up. Nothing bothers him, he sleeps a lot, has a pretty good appetite. You really can’t fault him.”
And you really can’t beat him these days.
“On the track he’s even better,” Gillis continued. “There’s not many horses that really enjoy their preferred racing style as first over and I really think he rips the hearts out of a lot of other horses. He’ll just kind of ambush them past the half or going into three-quarters and trot right past a horse that’s going as fast as he can go. That tends to rip the confidence out of some horses. There are very few with his mental toughness. He wants to fight and battle.”
If that isn’t the best of both worlds, it’s hard to say what is.
“Yeah,” Gillis said. “That’s so rare. Most horses, you make sacrifices somewhere. He’s just the perfect horse.”
Mister Herbie, coming off his nose win over defending Horse of the Year San Pail in the $125,000 Glorys Comet Series at Woodbine Racetrack in Ontario, will face eight foes in Saturday’s Cutler. Mister Herbie, to be driven by regular pilot Jody Jamieson, drew post No. 2 for the race – his first trip outside of Canada.
The Cutler field also includes Hot Shot Blue Chip, Looking Hanover, Ice Machine, Big Rigs, Dig For Dollars, Take My Picture, Magnum Kosmos, and Winning Mister.
Winning Mister won last week’s Cutler prep by three and a lengths over Big Rigs in 1:51.3. Mister Herbie was the only finalist not entered in the prep. (Magnum Kosmos was scratched sick.)
Gillis had his eye on Mister Herbie (Here Comes Herbie-Independent Lassie) when he was a yearling. He had seen video and liked the horse, who was purchased by Carl Jamieson for $67,000 at the Canadian Open Yearling Sale.
“Carl and I go way back,” Gillis said. “I had watched video and I liked him, but I preferred not to bid against Carl. And [sire Here Comes Herbie] was also in his first yearling sale so there were a lot of questions.”
Gillis continued to follow Mister Herbie’s career and was impressed. But the colt “kind of had problems throughout his two-year-old year that kept him from realizing his potential.”
When Mister Herbie was entered in a mixed sale as a three-year-old, Gillis still saw enough potential to buy him.
“We didn’t want to take the chance of letting him go through the ring and maybe someone wanting him also, so we bought him privately,” he said. “I don’t know what his problems were because we didn’t have him, but you could tell he wasn’t right.”
When Gillis acquired him, however, he felt that Mister Herbie was trending in the right direction and didn’t feel many changes were necessary.
“His last start before we bought him, he was charted in [1]:58.4 over a half-mile track and allowed three seconds for slop. That’s a pretty legitimate mile. He wasn’t terrible by any stretch.
“I think Carl had put flip-flops on him up front and that’s made a difference. We’ve kept him that way.”
Mister Herbie’s only loss under Gillis was a second-place finish to San Pail in the opening round of the Glorys Comet. Mister Herbie, who was recovering from a quarter crack and later discovered to have an ulcer on his palate, and San Pail both went off at 6-5 odds in the race.
“The fact he was the favourite tells you what other people thought as well,” Gillis said. “But with those issues he had, we skipped the second leg of the series. The next start was the final and we had reason to believe he would be better.”
In looking at the Cutler, Gillis is going with the status quo.
“There’s obviously some speed there,” he said. “It will probably depend on the post draw, but we tend not to stray too far from what he’s done best so far, and that’s generally get away mid-pack and come first over.”
After all, why tamper with near-perfection?
Here is a look at the field in post position order for the $210,000 Cutler Memorial at the Meadowlands, with listed drivers and trainers:
1. Hot Shot Blue Chip, John Campbell, Jonas Czernyson
2. Mister Herbie, Jody Jamieson, Jeffrey Gillis
3. Looking Hanover, Yannick Gingras, Edwin Gannon Jr.
4. Ice Machine, Andy Miller, Walter Carroll
5. Big Rigs, David Miller, Kelly O’Donnell
6. Dig For Dollars, Jim Oscarsson, Oscarsson
7. Take My Picture, Ron Pierce, Nikolas Drennan
8. Magnum Kosmos, Brian Sears, Tony Dinges
9. Winning Mister, Tim Tetrick, Larry Remmen
This story courtesy of Harness Racing Communications, a division of the U.S. Trotting Association. For more information, visit www.ustrotting.com.