Confederate smashes world record
At 0h23, on September 5, 2023 • By Kimberly French, for The Red Mile
The sport’s top ranked horse demonstrated why he deserves that ranking as Confederate stopped the clock in 1:46.1 in the $80,000 fourth round of the Kentucky Championship Series to become the swiftest 3-year-old pacer in harness racing history on Monday (Sept. 4) at Red Mile. Champion Special Way took the other division for sophomore filly trotters in 1:51.2 to remain undefeated in 2023.
The 13-race card also included three $30,000 fourth round divisions of the Kentucky Commonwealth Series and three fourth round legs of the $15,000 Kentucky Goldenrod Series.
Heavily favored Confederate (Tim Tetrick) made his world record appear like just a jog around the red clay oval. The colt and his reinsman left from post position three in the field of five and settled in third for the first fraction of the mile. For Once Inmy Life (Andrew McCarthy) established the first split of :27 but Command (Todd McCarthy), Confederate’s stablemate, did exactly that and set hot fractions of :53.1 and 1:19.2.
Despite pacing his final quarter panel in :28, Command could not stave off Confederate who moved into second by a head at the top of the stretch and simply glided home with a :26 final quarter-mile. A Cool Moment (Joey Putnam) crossed the line a full second behind Confederate with Command in third.
Trained by Brett Pelling, Confederate bested the previous world standard on a mile track for his age, gender and gait of 1:46.4 shared by Somebeachsomewhere (2008), He’s Watching (2014), and Cattlewash (2020).
The Meadowlands Pace victor improved his seasonal record to 8-7-1-0. He is now 15-12-2-1 lifetime with the only blemish this year a second-place finish in the North America Cup behind It’s My Show.
