Chris Ryder knows this about the three-year-old male pacer division: there is still much that is unknown.
Ryder might have one of the unknowns in Saturday’s $500,000 SBOA/New Jersey Classic at the Meadowlands. Load The Dice, driven by David Miller, enters the final after winning his elimination race May 21 by a length over Jo Pas Shark in 1:51. He has won three of nine lifetime starts and earned $29,914 – considerably less than what two-year-old champ Village Jolt or world-record holder Rocknroll Hanover have earned.
"He’s been under the radar, but he’s legit," said Ryder, who trains Load The Dice for breeder-owners Brittany Farms and Daisy Acres.
"He’s no surprise to us, believe me. We’ve been pretty happy with him all along. He’s a tough horse. You’ve got to respect Rocknroll Hanover and Village Jolt, but really, I always respect them all. If it’s a 10-horse race, you’ve got nine to beat regardless of who they are. There are too many unknowns right now. I’m sure they’ll be a ton of [unknowns] surfacing as everyone starts back."
Load The Dice was sixth in last year’s Metro and eighth in a division of the Bluegrass last October, which was his final race of the season.
"He got run into halfway down the stretch and we stopped with him. It was just a minor injury, a skin cut right on the leg, but it blew up. We thought he had a good shot at being a top colt. I wanted to race him in the Governor’s Cup [last December], and he probably could have come back, but we let him alone rather than race him. We didn’t want to take any chances."
Rocknroll Hanover, who in last year’s Metro became the first two-year-old to pace in less than 1:50, winning by a length over Village Jolt in 1:49.4, won his New Jersey Classic elimination race by a half-length over Strong Player in 1:52.3. Village Jolt was third while George At Bigs was fourth and Dr Zip fifth. Following Load The Dice and Jo Pa’s Shark in their elim were Cam’s Fool, You Tell Gordy and South Park Hanover.
Two horses, including Load The Dice’s sire, Cam’s Card Shark, won the SBOA/New Jersey Classic en route to Horse of the Year honors. Four winners of the race, which was first contested in 1984, have been named Pacer of the Year and eight have been honored as three-year-old champ.
"I’m happy with the horse," Ryder said about Load The Dice. "He’s got good preparation and I think he’s ready to race very well. He’s got a tough mission, but what are you going to do? It’s going to be up to him."
Below is the field in alphabetical order, for Saturday's $500,000 SBOA/New Jersey Classic:
Cams Fool, Dr Zip, George At Bigs, Jo Pas Shark, Load The Dice, Rocknroll Hanover, South Park Hanover, Strong Player, Village Jolt, You Tell Gordy.
