Deweycheatumnhowe Victorious in Futurity
Trainer and co-owner of Deweycheatumnhowe, Ray Schnittker, was also his driver during the Kentucky Futurity heats. He has always been very vocal on the fact that harness racing in heats is cruel to horses, but even though he does not agree with how it is done, his horse most certainly showed everyone how it is done. On Saturday, 4 October 2008, Deweycheatumnhowe walked away victorious as the Kentucky Futurity champion, pushing his total career earnings to over $3 million. In a nail biting finish, Schnittker and Deweycheatumnhowe added one more harness racing event to their winning list in what seems to be the second last racing event of this magnificent horse’s career.
Three heats were needed to finalize a winner of the Kentucky Futurity, which was only the twentieth time in the race’s history that a third heat was needed. Usually, if a horse wins both heats, he is crowned the winner, but on Saturday, the horses were far too determined and the competition fierce. In the first heat, Deweycheatumnhowe chased down Clerk Magistrate to beat him to the wire, but in the second heat he had to settle for a third place behind Celebrity Secret in first and Crazed in second. This led to a race-off between Deweycheatumnhowe and Celebrity Secret to establish who would be the winner of the Futurity.
In the final heat, Deweycheatumnhowe allowed Celebrity Secret to set the pace, and remained comfortably in second place. Schnittker kept Deweycheatumnhowe just behind Celebrity Secret until the start of the stretch, where he moved in next to Celebrity Secret and then asked Deweycheatumnhowe for that little extra effort, which he gave without question and cemented the Kentucky Futurity victory.
Schnittker confirmed that after the Breeders Crown, which is being held on 29 November 2008 at Meadowlands Racecourse that Deweycheatumnhowe will be heading for Walnut Hall. He has already been to the Lexington farm previously, resting there for the winter after a very successful 2007 campaign. He will enter into the breeding program at Walnut Hall after his last race. To date, after winning the Kentucky Futurity, Deweycheatumnhowe has won twenty-one of his twenty-three career starts, and it is almost a certainty that he will be able to produce champion progeny as well as he produced winnings.
