{"id":447474,"date":"2025-09-24T04:13:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T04:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/447474\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T04:13:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T04:13:11","slug":"howdy-mate-unites-global-friendship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/447474\/","title":{"rendered":"Howdy Mate unites global friendship"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Adam Hamilton<\/strong><\/p>\n

A\u00a0chance\u00a0meeting on a private jet in the hours after the 2022 Hambletonian helped shape one of harness racing\u2019s most global and unlikely ownership groups.<\/p>\n

Down Under\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

The jet was owned by Michelle Crawford, of the leviathan Crawford Farms, and another passenger was leading trainer Nancy Takter.<\/p>\n

But expat Aussie Todd McCarthy, a good friend of Graham, hogged the limelight, having won his first Hambletonian that day with Cool Papa Bell.<\/p>\n

Maybe it was the inspiration for Takter to then win it herself the next two years with Tactical Approach (2023) and Karl (2024).<\/p>\n

But wait, there\u2019s more\u2026 Karl was bred and part-owned by the Crawfords.<\/p>\n

Graham was humbly surrounded by harness racing royalty, but they all clicked.<\/p>\n

Takter and Graham were already buddies, having met through a video interview on Australian TV during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the unexpected gifts from the pandemic was my friendship with Brittany,\u201d Takter said. \u201cWe 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom there, Brittany began sending me Australian sales catalogs and asking my thoughts on various horses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Graham said: \u201cWe\u2019d spoken about racing one together, but at first was leaning on Nancy\u2019s amazing knowledge and experience with trotters to help me find one.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the midst of a cold and miserable winter in the U.S., Takter said she had \u201cnothing better to do\u201d than dive into the catalogs.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough I wasn\u2019t overly familiar with Elite Stride [first season sire], I liked that he was a son of Muscle Hill, a sire I\u2019ve always admired, and the colt had a decent maternal line, especially with Kadabra in it,\u201d Takter said. \u201cI\u2019d previously enjoyed success with Sorella, a Muscle Hill out of a Kadabra mare.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrittany walked the sale grounds, sent me videos, and FaceTimed until we agreed to buy the colt.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe took a bit of a risk with a first season sire, but as a result he didn\u2019t cost much ($A25,000),\u201d Graham said. \u201cNancy said she\u2019d race him with me, and then Michelle, who I\u2019d met through Nancy and is good friends with her, said she\u2019d take a share, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fittingly, the colt was named Howdy Mate.<\/p>\n

\u201cNancy named him,\u201d Graham said with a laugh. \u201cShe thinks that\u2019s how we all talk down here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Takter said: \u201cIt was a perfect nod to both our countries\u2019 cultures.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe took him back to Queensland [where Brittany lived at the time], and dad broke him in; he\u2019s never broken-in a trotter before,\u201d Brittany said. \u201cNancy was adamant he went home with us to break in. She thinks it\u2019s such an important part of a horse\u2019s success.\u201d<\/p>\n

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 \u201cface\u201d of harness racing through the Trackside TV channels.<\/p>\n

It sparked D-Day on Howdy Mate\u2019s career.<\/p>\n

And the timing meant Takter was actually holidaying Down Under in New Zealand and Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cNancy 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,\u201d Brittany said.<\/p>\n

It gave Takter the chance to drive Howdy Mate.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight away I could feel his natural ability and, most importantly, his speed \u2013 something you simply cannot teach,\u201d Takter said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Takter had met Tubbs a few weeks earlier in New Zealand.<\/p>\n

It added a fourth female power player in Tubbs to the mix.<\/p>\n

\u201cJess and I have become great friends, we talk multiple times a day and it\u2019s refreshing to connect with another female trainer who truly understands this business,\u201d Takter said.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s potential.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, we weren\u2019t 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, \u2018Hey, I think he\u00a0goes well, this horse,\u2019\u201d Brittany said.<\/p>\n

A little like his sire, Howdy Mate was a real handful early and his manners at the races reflected that.<\/p>\n

He did plenty wrong at his first three starts and his behavior around the stables and track was a nightmare for Tubbs.<\/p>\n

\u201cJess wanted him gelded, but I remember Nancy saying, \u2018Michelle and I don\u2019t race geldings,\u2019 and that sort of shut me down,\u201d Brittany said with a laugh. \u201cI get it, it\u2019s a different world in the States and a good colt can be so valuable, but we just don\u2019t have that domestic market down here.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the end, Jess said he had to be gelded or she wasn\u2019t sure if he had a racing future; I just let her work that out with Nancy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The result, a first-up win in the $20,000 Gavin Lang 2YO Trotting Classic at Bendigo at Howdy Mate\u2019s first race after being gelded.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt certainly turned him around,\u201d Tubbs said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat a thrill,\u201d Brittany said. \u201cI was on FaceTime to Jess after the race, she was FaceTiming Nancy in the States\u2026 We were all so excited for \u2018MJ\u2019 to win a big race like that, especially when everyone knows he\u2019s still really just doing it on raw ability.<\/p>\n

\u201cHerbie [Herbertson] said he wanted to switch-off when he hit the front and didn\u2019t know what to do, or he\u2019d have won by further and even more impressively.\u201d<\/p>\n

Takter, with some help from Crawford, can also claim Howdy Mate\u2019s stable name \u201cMJ\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cNancy\u2019s son, Marcus, Jr., is called MJ and Michelle\u2019s son is MJ, too. So that just made sense,\u201d Brittany said.<\/p>\n

The penny may have dropped at just the right time for Howdy Mate.<\/p>\n

The Nutrien final win could be just the first of a few big wins, if he keeps it all together and keeps improving.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s paid-up for everything, so there\u2019s the Vicbred series next, then the Redwood, which is a standing start, and then the Breeders Crown, too,\u201d Brittany said. \u201cThey\u2019re all just options at the moment, we leave all the planning to Jess.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tubbs thinks the best is still ahead of Howdy Mate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems like he\u2019s got a bit of bottom to him,\u201d she said. \u201cHe\u2019s handling the work a lot better this time in [since being gelded] and we know he\u2019s got the speed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he can get the manners down pat and be more reliable, it will stand him in good stead going ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWinning good races with great people is what it\u2019s all about and hopefully there\u2019s more to come with this guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Takter agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cJess has done an exceptional job developing \u2018MJ\u2019 into the racehorse he is today,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m excited to see what\u2019s ahead for Howdy Mate and grateful for the friendships, lessons, and experiences that have come from this international adventure.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by Adam Hamilton A\u00a0chance\u00a0meeting on a private jet in the hours after the 2022 Hambletonian helped shape one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447475,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-447474","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-racing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115257331136234197","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}