by Adam Hamilton
A chance meeting on a private jet in the hours after the 2022 Hambletonian helped shape one of harness racing’s most global and unlikely ownership groups.
Down Under’s top harness racing media presenter Brittany Graham, who also boasts over 300 wins as a driver, snapped up an offer to fly from New Jersey to Kentucky that night.
The jet was owned by Michelle Crawford, of the leviathan Crawford Farms, and another passenger was leading trainer Nancy Takter.
But expat Aussie Todd McCarthy, a good friend of Graham, hogged the limelight, having won his first Hambletonian that day with Cool Papa Bell.
Maybe it was the inspiration for Takter to then win it herself the next two years with Tactical Approach (2023) and Karl (2024).
But wait, there’s more… Karl was bred and part-owned by the Crawfords.
Graham was humbly surrounded by harness racing royalty, but they all clicked.
Takter and Graham were already buddies, having met through a video interview on Australian TV during the pandemic.
“One of the unexpected gifts from the pandemic was my friendship with Brittany,” Takter said. “We met through that interview and immediately hit it off and she later came to the U.S. to visit, tour the sales and look at yearlings.
“From there, Brittany began sending me Australian sales catalogs and asking my thoughts on various horses.”
Graham said: “We’d spoken about racing one together, but at first was leaning on Nancy’s amazing knowledge and experience with trotters to help me find one.”
In the midst of a cold and miserable winter in the U.S., Takter said she had “nothing better to do” than dive into the catalogs.
“Although I wasn’t overly familiar with Elite Stride [first season sire], I liked that he was a son of Muscle Hill, a sire I’ve always admired, and the colt had a decent maternal line, especially with Kadabra in it,” Takter said. “I’d previously enjoyed success with Sorella, a Muscle Hill out of a Kadabra mare.
“Brittany walked the sale grounds, sent me videos, and FaceTimed until we agreed to buy the colt.”
Elite Stride was fully U.S.-bred, being by Muscle Hill and out of the talented U.S. mare Real Babe. He was a brilliant young trotter with just 14 starts netting nine wins, three seconds, and a third.
“We took a bit of a risk with a first season sire, but as a result he didn’t cost much ($A25,000),” Graham said. “Nancy said she’d race him with me, and then Michelle, who I’d met through Nancy and is good friends with her, said she’d take a share, too.”
Fittingly, the colt was named Howdy Mate.
“Nancy named him,” Graham said with a laugh. “She thinks that’s how we all talk down here.”
Takter said: “It was a perfect nod to both our countries’ cultures.”
The initial plan was for Graham to train Howdy Mate with her father, accomplished trainer Darrel, who has trained 2,800 winners and driven almost 2,200 winners.
“We took him back to Queensland [where Brittany lived at the time], and dad broke him in; he’s never broken-in a trotter before,” Brittany said. “Nancy was adamant he went home with us to break in. She thinks it’s such an important part of a horse’s success.”
Early this year, Brittany jumped at an opportunity to further her career with a move to the passionately strong harness racing heartland of New Zealand as its “face” of harness racing through the Trackside TV channels.
It sparked D-Day on Howdy Mate’s career.
And the timing meant Takter was actually holidaying Down Under in New Zealand and Australia.
“Nancy came down for the big Ladbrokes Ultimate Driver Championship at Albion Park [in Brisbane] in February, but came early so she could have a couple of weeks with me in New Zealand going to the races, some farms, and the yearling sales, too,” Brittany said.
It gave Takter the chance to drive Howdy Mate.
“Right away I could feel his natural ability and, most importantly, his speed – something you simply cannot teach,” Takter said.
While in Brisbane, a chat between Brittany, Takter, Jess Tubbs and her late husband, the great Greg Sugars, led to Howdy Mate moving to Myrniong where Tubbs and Sugars trained, an hour outside Melbourne.
Takter had met Tubbs a few weeks earlier in New Zealand.
It added a fourth female power player in Tubbs to the mix.
“Jess and I have become great friends, we talk multiple times a day and it’s refreshing to connect with another female trainer who truly understands this business,” Takter said.
But it was Sugars, who tragically died in his sleep at the age of just 40 on April 26, who first alerted Brittany and Takter to Howdy Mate’s potential.
“To be honest, we weren’t sure about him when dad broke him in and did the early work with him, but I vividly recall getting that video from Greg saying, ‘Hey, I think he goes well, this horse,’” Brittany said.
A little like his sire, Howdy Mate was a real handful early and his manners at the races reflected that.
He did plenty wrong at his first three starts and his behavior around the stables and track was a nightmare for Tubbs.
“Jess wanted him gelded, but I remember Nancy saying, ‘Michelle and I don’t race geldings,’ and that sort of shut me down,” Brittany said with a laugh. “I get it, it’s a different world in the States and a good colt can be so valuable, but we just don’t have that domestic market down here.
“In the end, Jess said he had to be gelded or she wasn’t sure if he had a racing future; I just let her work that out with Nancy.”
The result, a first-up win in the $20,000 Gavin Lang 2YO Trotting Classic at Bendigo at Howdy Mate’s first race after being gelded.
“It certainly turned him around,” Tubbs said.
Most recently, Howdy Mate delivered on the potential the late Sugars saw, Tubbs felt was there and driver James Herbertson had hinted at, when he brilliantly won the $75,000 Nutrien Equine Sales Classic final at Melton on Sept. 13.
“What a thrill,” Brittany said. “I was on FaceTime to Jess after the race, she was FaceTiming Nancy in the States… We were all so excited for ‘MJ’ to win a big race like that, especially when everyone knows he’s still really just doing it on raw ability.
“Herbie [Herbertson] said he wanted to switch-off when he hit the front and didn’t know what to do, or he’d have won by further and even more impressively.”
Takter, with some help from Crawford, can also claim Howdy Mate’s stable name “MJ”.
“Nancy’s son, Marcus, Jr., is called MJ and Michelle’s son is MJ, too. So that just made sense,” Brittany said.
The penny may have dropped at just the right time for Howdy Mate.
The Nutrien final win could be just the first of a few big wins, if he keeps it all together and keeps improving.
“He’s paid-up for everything, so there’s the Vicbred series next, then the Redwood, which is a standing start, and then the Breeders Crown, too,” Brittany said. “They’re all just options at the moment, we leave all the planning to Jess.”
Tubbs thinks the best is still ahead of Howdy Mate.
“It seems like he’s got a bit of bottom to him,” she said. “He’s handling the work a lot better this time in [since being gelded] and we know he’s got the speed.
“If he can get the manners down pat and be more reliable, it will stand him in good stead going ahead.
“It’s been an incredibly hard year for me and to win that race [Nutrien final] with Herbie, who has been such a great supporter, in the bike and for Nancy, Britt, and Michelle really does mean a lot.
“Winning good races with great people is what it’s all about and hopefully there’s more to come with this guy.”
Takter agreed.
“Jess has done an exceptional job developing ‘MJ’ into the racehorse he is today,” she said. “I’m excited to see what’s ahead for Howdy Mate and grateful for the friendships, lessons, and experiences that have come from this international adventure.”