I had cautiously high hopes for this fellow when he first galloped, being a freak late bloomer after the harness adjustment where "freak" now has a greater chance to mean something. He worked nicely and I thought maybe he could win a stakes or two, maybe even scrape his way to 350k.
He has blown right past that marker and is now sitting at just over $1.1 million coming into his four year old season. The second half of this past year was a remarkable time, where he ran the fastest Emotonian in sim history BEFORE blooming (ending the undefeated Ernie Kovacs' streak), picked up nice checks in other races (Ernie got his revenge), won the American Trotting Derby, and rounded off the year with a Steward's Cup win in another speed duel against Ernie from the 11th post. He only peaked during midseason last year, so I'm excited to see how he fares as a mature horse.
Being a millionaire mixer is reason enough to be a favorite, but what makes him extra special is that his second dam, Hot Pick, was the first horse ever given to me by another simster, right when I started playing and expressed interest in trotters in the newbie forum. His pedigree is as "legacy" as it gets for my relatively young stable. He's also sired by Devon Trickster, the same sire as my other Steward's Cup winning trotter The Groke, so I've got a lot of affection for the sire line as well. I get the song stuck in my head far more often than is really reasonable, and always figured it would make a good horse name; I couldn't have picked a better yearling to carry it. (Listen here if you're unfamiliar and don't mind an earworm).
After a pretty rough week, it was a wonderful surprise to see him get a headshot. Major thanks to Em for deeming him worthy enough of one to make it an early gallops requirement, Brian for supplying it, and Sara for doing a beautiful job on it; he looks exactly as I've pictured him, and carrying his Steward's Cup number really is the cherry on top. And thank you to everyone who voted for him as Trotter HOTY! Hopefully he will live up to the honor in the coming season.
