Refer extract below from Harnesslink article 9 Sep 09
New Jersey trainer Jimmy Takter has trained more than 800 harness racing winners since 1992 but he believes yesterday's (Monday) $325,000 Cane Pace winner Vintage Master is the best pacer of them all - even better than his former Little Brown Jug and Interdominion winner Mr Feelgood.
"Vintage Master is the best I have trained. He raced them off their feet yesterday. He's a very good racehorse and it takes something special for a horse to be better than Mr Feelgood," Takter told Harnesslink yesterday from his Canadian hotel.
That's some statement considering Mr Feelgood has won 21 races in Hemispheres, $2,863,647 and counting.
But after watching this year's Cane Pace at Freehold Raceway you could see where Takter is coming from. The 3-year-old Western Ideal colt didn't just beat his opposition - he and driver Daniel Dube annihilated them. In fact Vintage Master won by five-and-a-half lengths equaling Art Official's track record time of 1:50.4 set in his Cane Pace Elimination last year. He also slashed two-fifths off of the stakes record of 1:51.1, shared by Always A Virgin (2007) and Art Official (2008).
Takter rates Vintage Master so highly he believes the 3yo Triple Crown is not beyond his reach. The Cane Pace was the first leg while the second and third legs are the Little Brown Jug on September 24 in Delaware, Ohio, and the Messenger Stakes on November 7 at Yonkers Raceway.