Freehold, NJ --- Rivals might consider her a pest, but Mosquito Blue Chip has brought nothing but joy to co-owner John Swider.
Swider, who lives in Atlanta and travels regularly to watch Mosquito Blue Chip compete, is looking forward to the New York Sire Stakes champion’s seasonal debut Friday (May 1) in the $39,416 Simpson Memorial Stakes for 3-year-old female pacers at the Meadowlands.
It will be Mosquito Blue Chip’s first foray into open stakes competition. Swider hopes it is the first of many.
“We’ll be a little more aggressive this year, but the horses tell you where they need to race,” said Swider, who owns Mosquito Blue Chip with Donato Falcicchio and trainer Paul Jessop. “We like to dream, but it’s one race at a time.
“She’s eligible for all the big ones. I’m not suggesting she could win every week, but I don’t think she would embarrass us.”
Delaware Standardbred Breeders Fund champion Totally Rusty -- who has won 11 of 12 career races -- starts from post six with Corey Callahan at the lines. Stakes winner Happiness drew post eight.
Mosquito Blue Chip brings a four-race win streak to the Simpson. She will start from post seven in the eight-horse field, with John Campbell listed to drive.
The connections decided to stop with Mosquito Blue Chip following the Sept. 13 New York Sire Stakes final rather than continue racing into the fall.
Last year, Mosquito Blue Chip raced nine times -- all on the New York Sire Stakes circuit. She won four starts, including the $225,000 championship by a nose over Bossers Joy, and hit the board a total of eight times. She set a track record at Tioga Downs with a 1:52.1 victory and she finished the campaign with $240,551 in purses.
Mosquito Blue Chip is a daughter of stallion Bettor's Delight out of the mare Sandfly Hanover. She sold for $27,000 at the Standardbred Horse Sale and her family includes two Breeders Crown winners -- Always Cam and Dragon’s Lair -- as well as stakes winners Bruce’s Lady and Cole Muffler.
"We’re a small stable; we buy a couple yearlings every year and have a couple of broodmares,” Swider said. “So every year we start with two or three yearlings and go from there. We don’t have the numbers of the larger stables, so (Mosquito Blue Chip) was a blessing for us. I liked the family and we got lucky at the sale.
“It was a little tough, but we were trying to do the right thing by the filly,” Swider said. “She did good by us and we had a goal to do what we could in the New York Sire Stakes, and if she is good enough, to chase the other ones this year as a 3-year-old. We wouldn’t do anything different. We wanted to try to bring her back as a fresh 3-year-old."
Swider, who is in the publishing industry, grew up in New Jersey and got interested in harness racing by going to Freehold Raceway with his father. His interest blossomed into a passion with the opening of the Meadowlands in 1976 and, after relocating to Florida, by the late 1980s he was racing horses at Pompano Park.
“Right from the beginning, it wasn’t a question of whether she would be a race horse, it was a question of how good she could be. Last year was probably as deep a 2-year-old filly class as you could imagine and it’s just a blessing to have a horse that can compete with fillies like that. I give all the credit to Paul Jessop.”
“When I was a young man in Florida I worked with (trainer) Ron Cusimano,” said Swider, who was an executive vice president with American Media, where he was head of distribution services for publications such as the National Enquirer and Star, and now works for the Jim Pattison Group.
“Back in the ’80s I did jog my own (horses) with Ron. But based on my job and my family, I never went for the license. I do still jog them when I’m in New Jersey. I’m comfortable behind a horse, but I have no aspirations to get out there behind the starting car. I don’t think that’s for me.”
While Swider is looking forward to seeing Mosquito Blue Chip in open stakes company, he knows the filly could face plenty of challenges on the New York Sire Stakes circuit.
Five of last season’s top-six earning 2-year-old female pacers -- Horse of the Year JK She’salady, Sassa Hanover, Bettor Be Steppin, Mosquito Blue Chip and Bettor N Better -- are eligible to the New York Sire Stakes. So is Bedroomconfessions, who was ninth in earnings.
“We’re looking forward to the challenge (of the Simpson),” Swider said. “We’ll jump back into the sire stakes racing after that and then we’ll decide what to do next. It’s no embarrassment to be racing in New York. There’s no soft spot to be found.”