MONI MAKER AND PEACE CORPS -- BY THE NUMBERS

Let me say at the outset this week that what I am going to attempt here is to analyze the careers of two of history’s greatest modern trotting mares to determine where the current star Moni Maker stands in a purely historical perspective. This seems the right thing for us to examine as the great Speedy Crown mare prepares for her date with destiny in the Prix d’Amerique just two weeks hence.

This sort of exercise is absolutely not going to tell us how Moni Maker will fare in her Prix d’Amerique, but perhaps it will help us to understand the now 6-year-old mare’s place in history, regardless of whether or not she can succeed on January 31 over the historic up-and-down course at Vincennes.

STRICTLY BY THE NUMBERS

Moni Maker’s recent exploits have pushed her career earnings close to the $3 million mark. Only four trotters in history have won more, topped by Peace Corps, the all-time money-winning Standardbred of either gait, whose incredible career peaked at more than $5.5 million. Also still ahead of Moni Maker in the money chase are Mack Lobell at $3.9 million; Reve d’Udon at $3.6 million and Sea Cove at $3.1 million. With any kind of in-the-money showing in the Prix d’Amerique, Moni Maker will slip past the Canadian-bred Sea Cove into fourth on the all-time earning list.

Peace Corps also tops the money-winning female list, and Moni Maker has vaulted into second place behind her, although Moni Maker’s total earnings are still just a little more than half of that accumulated by Peace Corps in her legendary career between 1988 and 1992. Moni Maker’s current total of $2.8 million has moved her past the former number two spot held down by Grade’s Singing, while Jef’s Spice is the only other mare to have topped $2 million in her lifetime. The former French star Une de Mai is next among females at $1.8 million, with the U.S. breds Kit Lobell, Continentalvictory, CR Kay Suzie, Park Avenue Kathy and Lookout Victory coming next in line.

My plan here is to confine this analysis to recent events, because it is virtually impossible to compare modern horses to those in even the most recent past. Peace Corps’ exploits, however, are current enough for us to make a comparison between the two greatest money-winning trotting mares of all time.

PEACE CORPS WAS THE BETTER TWO YEAR OLD

Peace Corps won just about everything that was offered to her as a two-year-old on the Grand Circuit in 1988. She began winning the Merrie Annabelle early in the year, and capped off her freshman season with a world record score in the Breeders Crown at Pompano Park, winning nearly $1 million on her way to being named the top two-year-old filly of the year, with a mark of 2,1:56 2-5.

By comparison, Moni Maker trotted in 1:58 at two, won only $72,610 and won just six times in 14 starts, three of which were New York Sire Stakes events. Her only major score in open company was in a Merrie Annabelle consolation.

AT THREE, PEACE CORPS AGAIN HAD THE STATISTICAL ADVANTAGE

Moni Maker did better at three, winning 19 of her 20 starts, and adding $675,000 to her bankroll. Her only loss of the season came in the season-ending Breeders Crown, where she dropped a heart-breaking head decision to Personal Banner in a stakes record 1:54 1-5 mile at Vernon Downs. At three, Moni Maker won the Hambletonian Oaks, Zweig Memorial, Currier & Ives, Matron, Simcoe, Reynolds Memorial and six New York Sires Stakes. She ended 1996 with a mark of 1:54.1 taken in the Hambletonian Oaks on the same day that Continentalvictory trotted in 1:52 1-5 winning the Hambletonian Open division. Moni Maker won 25 of 34 starts at two and three, and clearly had done a lot of improving from two to three, as she was beginning to show the mature brilliance that we would later see in greater quantity. Although Moni Maker's three-year-old season was a great one, she did not meet the queen of her division, the sensational Continentalvictory, in a head-to-head battle. The two great fillies never met at three in the same stakes. And some observers questioned Moni Maker’s speed after she fell to the pocket-sitting Personal Banner in the fast Breeders Crown finale.

Peace Corps was even more remarkable at three than she had been at two, winning in 1:52 4-5 at Du Quoin in the World Trotting Derby and bringing her two and three-year-old career totals to 35 wins and more than $2.1 million. Peace Corps not only won the World Trotting Derby over males, she repeated that victory in the 1989 Kentucky Futurity, and capped her three-year-old season with another Breeders Crown victory for regular U.S. driver John Campbell. At the end of her 3-year-old season, Peace Corps was again named the top female in her division. Unlike Moni Maker, Peace Corps did start against the boys in the Hambletonian open division, but she was not sharp that day since she entered the race without having faced the gate in more than four weeks. This was about the only modest race of her brilliant career, although she did finish second in a heat.

AS FOUR-YEAR-OLDS, MONI MAKER CLOSES THE GAP, BUT STILL TRAILS.

As four-year-olds, both Peace Corps and Moni Maker competed on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1990, Peace Corps won the Momarken Grand Prix, the Aberg Memorial, the Gran Premio della Nazione and the Federation du Nord before returning to North America to capture her third Breeders Crown for Stig Johansson, again in a stakes and world record 1:54 2-5f effort.

Moni Maker’s biggest wins at four were in the Nat Ray elimination and in a leg and final of the Classic Oaks series, the latter race contested over 1 5/16 mile at Mohawk Raceway in Canada. In Europe, Moni Maker’s biggest wins were an Elitlopp elimination and the Fina Cup. Moni Maker, however, was also disappointed in another Breeders Crown effort, this time dropping the important Open Trot final to the aged male star Wesgate Crown. However, the great mare rebounded the following week, winning the Nat Ray final against virtually the same field, including Wesgate Crown, trotting in 1:52.2-5. Moni Maker’s lifetime earnings increased by nearly $943,000 in 1997, putting her past $1.6 million lifetime.

PEACE CORPS CONTINUED TO AMAZE WITH HER MOST SPECTACULAR YEAR AT AGE FIVE

At age five, in 1991, Peace Corps put together what is, without question, the most memorable season of any aged mare in history. In that remarkable year, she won the Elitlopp, the Gran Premio della Lotteria, the Gran Premio Renzo Orlando, the Gran Premio Costa Azurra, the Oslo Grand Prix, the Fina Cup and the Aberg Memorial for the second straight year.

In my mind, however, one of the greatest races of Peace Corps' career was her unbelievable performance the 1991 Yonkers International. To all of us who knew the mare when she raced, it was widely known that Peace Corps was not at her best on a half-mile track. She interfered badly and therefore had a hard time handling the sharp corners. However, Peace Corps found a way to win the International that year, even when she was parked the entire 1 1-4 mile distance, was forced three wide in the final turn and then ran down the acclaimed French star Reve d’Udon in the short Yonkers stretch. Her time for the mile and a quarter was a then world record effort of 2:28h. From my point of view, it was one of the best races of her entire career, if not THE best.

MONI MAKER BLOSSOMED AT FIVE TO FULFILL HER GREAT PROMISE

Moni Maker has just completed her five-year-old season, and it is somewhat easier for us to assess her performance against that of Peace Corps only seven years ago. Moni Maker won 11 times in 1998, and she had three major, important scores in Europe, including the same Gran Premio della Nazione stake that Peace Corps had won. Moni Maker also won the Copenhagen Cup and showed her heels to Euorpe’s best in the prestigious Elitlopp at Solvalla in Stockholm in world record time. With her effort at Solvalla, Moni Maker’s status really began to take on a whole other dimension.

When the marvelous mare returned to the U.S. and won the Nat Ray and finally won her first Breeders Crown, it was clear Moni Maker had acheived the high esteem and veneration that few before her have ever acquired. With 46 wins from two through six, Moni Maker’s career must be appraised for the tour de force it has become. She had finally reached Peace Corps’ high ground.

PEACE CORPS WAS NOT THROUGH AT SIX

Unbelievably, Peace Corps returned to the racing wars again at six, in 1992. She was clearly not the trotter she had been the year before, but was still a major force everywhere she appeared. Her only major European victories were the Grand Criterium de Vitesse and the Klosters Memorial. But Peace Corps was shipped back to North America, to Mohawk Raceway in Canada, for what was an unprecedented attempt to win a fourth Breeders Crown. Driven by Torbon Jansson, Peace Corps swept around Mohawk Raceway in 1:58f, capping off a remarkable odyssey that had begun as a baby at Stoner Creek Stud in Paris, Kentucky. Peace Corps finished her remarkable saga with a staggering $5,506,443 in international earnings. In an unparalleled career, Peace Corps won classic trotting stakes in eight different countries. She is the only four-time Breeders Crown winner in history, at either gait. Her superb career scorecard reads 93 starts, with 62 wins, 14 seconds and five thirds. No trotter of any generation can even approach these kinds of numbers, not even Moni Maker.

MONI MAKER NOW HAS A CHANCE TO SHOWCASE HER OWN TALENT

Moni Maker is now also embarked on her 6-year-old season in 1999, and her date with destiny in the Prix d’Amerique. Even if she does not win it, her career will certainly be appraised positively. She has matured into a commanding, fast, reliable, sound mare, capable of truly outstanding performances, and she can take her place amongst our most accomplished and seasoned trotters. Moni Maker is no longer a work in progress. She is a complete, finely tuned racing machine.

BEYOND THE RACING RECORDS -- THE INTANGIBLES

Now, let us examine some of the intangibles of these two great mares. Both were bred and raised in Kentucky, and both were sold as yearlings at Tattersalls. Peace Corps was sold for $47,000 by Stoner Creek Stud--Moni Maker brought $87,000 for her breeder Cane Run Farm. Both mares are the result of breeding a Speedster line stallion with a Star's Pride line mare.

Peace Corps is a daughter of Baltic Speed, a granddaughter of Speedy Somolli and three generations removed from her paternal great grandsire, Speedy Crown. Moni Maker, is, of course, by Speedy Crown, a grandson of Speedster.

Maternally, the two mares share strong maternal backgrounds. Peace Corps is from a mare by Super Bowl, a son of Star’s Pride--Moni Maker is from a mare by Bonefish, a grandson of Star’s Pride. Each hails from a prolific and strong maternal family.

MONI MAKER HAS THE PHYSICAL EDGE

Physically, I must grant Moni Maker a huge advantage over Peace Corps in several different areas. Moni Maker is a much more appealing mare in terms of her conformation and overall physical quality. She could be used in a breeding class to show a classroom of trotting enthusiasts what a trotting mare should look like. Peace Corps is not a good-looking mare, nor was she a good-showing yearling, and she was not particularly a good-gaited mare, especially on half-mile tracks. She is but an average-looking mare who simply, and amazingly, over-achieved throughout her life, in part due to her dogged determination. Every driver who ever crawled into the stirrups behind her always remarked that she was the most determined horse they had ever driven.

MONI MAKER HAS DEVELOPED THE MYSTIQUE OF A WINNER

Moni Maker has developed that same kind of winning habit, although she did not develop as rapidly as Peace Corps, particularly at two and three. She never demonstrated Peace Corps’ speed in her two and three-year-old form. While Peace Corps was the best trotter of her year, I do not believe, for instance, that Moni Maker could have trotted with, or beaten, her contemporary Continentalvictory at three, and might have had trouble with Lindy Lane, Act Of Grace and Running Sea, all prominent performers of the 1996 stakes. Moni Maker did achieve Horse of the Year status in 1998, and in this way she finally earned an honor that somehow had eluded Peace Corps. The latter mare was Trotter of the Year as a three-year-old in 1989, but lost out to world champion pacer Matt’s Scooter for Horse of the Year honors in North America. However, Peace Corps was named the best trotter in her class in year-end voting every year of the five she raced from two through six.

MONI MAKER IS ALSO THE BETTER-GAITED MARE

One area where I find Moni Maker exceptional over Peace Corps is in her gait. Moni Maker is a superior mare in every way in her locomotion when compared to Peace Corps. Moni Maker is the most genuinely solid, dependable trotter of this generation. She trots very cleanly, and this is, no doubt, partly due to her remarkable physical quality. She is not only tall, (she is more than 16 hands now) but she is extremely long and has a great, high wither and high back. Her only fault is that she is far from a pretty mare, but racing has never been about beauty.

Moni Maker has a somewhat elongated head, inherited from her dam, Nan’s Catch. To examine Moni Maker at repose, one would have to conclude that she is a bit on the coarse side, although very correct in every conceivable way. Moni Maker is, to my mind, the classic trotting mare, clearly superior to Peace Corps in all of the important physical components--size, gait and conformation. The latter two qualities have been vitally important, for instance, in allowing Moni Maker to perform at such a high level for so long. The mechanics of her gait are very fundamentally sound.

In the conclusive analysis, Moni Maker is plainly a mare who is a superb combination of her sire, Speedy Crown, and her dam, Nan’s Catch. In her color, she is very much a Speedy Crown. The great sire himself had the same kind of light, red-bay tint as a young horse that Moni Maker has, and her excellent size and proportions can be traced to her rugged Bonefish dam. She will have to go some to catch up with Peace Corps in the record books, as far as earnings, accolades and important stakes victories, but all of us who will travel to Paris in two weeks to see her in the Prix d’Amerique will see one of the greatest trotters in history competing in a European classic that could produce one of the most memorable races of this generation of trotters.

Moni Maker carries the heavy weight of expectation as the race favorite, and the hopes of all of North America with her in this latest challenge. I do not know if she is up to that challenge, but I am very impatient for the final Sunday in January to find out.