Bee A Magician truly a magic horse,
Bee A Magician racking up wins, earning raves in U.S.
In more than half a century of owning and racing harness horses, Ottawa’s Mel Hartman has never seen anything quite like Bee A Magician, who is in strong consideration for horse of the year honours in the United States.
Hartman, who owns the fabulous three-year-old filly trotter with partners Herb Liverman and David McDuffee, gushes with joy when talking about Bee A Magician. She is undefeated in 15 starts this year, including an easy 4½-length victory in the $500,000 Breeders Crown final for three-year-old filly trotters Saturday night at Pocono Downs in Wilkes-Barre, Penn. Driver Brian Sears barely had to move his hands in the win. The filly basically did it all on her own.
Bee A Magician went postward as the prohibitive 1-20 favourite in the field of nine.
Hartman had a good evening all around in the Breeders Crown. Spider Blue Chip, which he owns with McDuffee, won the $500,000 threeyear-old colt trot race. Struck By Lindy, which Hartman owns with the stables RA Equine and Adam Victor and Son, finished second in the two-year-old filly trot race.
“That’s a hell of a night, a dream come true,” Hartman said. “I just don’t know how I’m going to repeat it.”
The $250,000 Bee A Magician collected for the win pushed her lifetime earnings over $2 million. Bee A Magician was purchased as a yearling for $90,000.
“She’s just a unique, unique athlete that only comes along once in a lifetime, for sure,” said Hartman, a 70-year-old who owned his first horse at age 18. “Even for people such as myself who’ve been in this business 40, 50 years, it’s just unbelievable. Every time she races, it’s so effortless. It looks even better when you have the top drivers in the world driving her. It makes it look that much better and these guys know exactly what to do and it’s easier on the horse. It’s unreal.”
Sears spoke effusively about the filly’s incredible talent.
“It’s an honour to get the chance to drive a filly like that,” Sears said. “Whenever you go behind the gate, you’ve got an awful lot of confidence. She’s awesome. She’s really good. There are trouble spots I don’t want to be in when I’ve got a horse like that and I try to avoid those situations and let the horse do the rest. There’s always pressure (with an undefeated horse). If you win, you’re supposed to. If you don’t, it’s a big disappointment. You have to get it done.”
Earlier this season, Bee A Magician won the Hambletonian Oaks, one of the premier races of her division, in record time.
“She’s just a fantastic horse,” said trainer Richard (Nifty) Norman, who added he couldn’t have fathomed a season in which the filly would go undefeated. “It’s amazing. I just think it’s her attitude.”
The Breeders Crown card featured another potential horse of the year candidate in Captaintreacherous, a three-year-old pacing colt. He won his race by a neck and has faced tough competition all year compared to Bee A Magician, who has towered over her competition. Captaintreacherous has won 12 of 13 races this year, his only loss by a nose. The filly and the colt have taken turns in the weekly harness poll for horse of the year consideration.
Hartman, who owns Orléans Fresh Fruit, say he’s really not overly concerned whether or not Bee A Magician is crowned horse of the year.
“Like I say to anyone that says anything to me, ‘ What will be, will be.’ If she’s going to be horse of the year, she’ll be, if not so what? She has accomplished so much as a trotting filly. People who have trotters can really appreciate what she has done more than people who have pacers. On the other hand, Captaintreacherous is a hell of a horse and has done almost everything that has been asked of him. But so has Bee A Magician.
“I think next year we’ll be forced to race her against male horses just to give her enough starts and to be competitive. I’m looking forward to her racing as a four-year-old and even more so as a five-year-old because we would like to go to Europe with her and race her against some of the best trotters in the world. If she stays (physically) healthy and sound, she’ll do very well.”