The Freak of Nature
by Lisa Harkema
When Googoo Gaagaa burst onto the Maryland scene many didn’t know what to think. A world record for 2-year-olds on a half mile track was impressive, but could he really be that good? As it turned out, at his best he was even better. Persistent injury problems caused an early retirement, but the hybrid-bred trotter then went from impressing on the track to impressing at stud.
At two, Googoo Gaagaa started six times in Maryland, against moderate opposition, and won all six races, and earned $38,512 in the process. But winning six out of six is one thing, it was how he won those six that caught the attention of the trotting world. He won the Maryland Sire Stakes final by 41 lengths, racing in 1:56 (1.12,1) at the half-mile Oceans Down and shattering the world record. After the race, driver Jim Morand enthusiastically declared that, “he’s a fantastic horse with a huge step. He can trot in 1:55 (1.11,5), even in a bull ring.” In another race the two-year-old won by 32 lengths. But against poor opposition it is easy to look good, and skeptical minds looking for things to put their finger on didn’t have to look far.
For starters, Googoo Gaagaa is by pacing sire Cam’s Rocket out of the trotting mare Kora’s Trotter. Mixing trotters and pacers has not been overly successful in the last 50 years, though there are a few exceptions, the most notable being 1976 Hambletonian heat winner Zoot Suit. Conventional wisdom is that trotters trot and pacers pacer – and mixed offspring are usually good at neither. His breeder, owner and trainer Richard Hans did not intend to try out anything new, either; he had simply sent Kora’s Trotter to be covered by Revenue, but she failed to conceive. Instead of her going empty for a year, he let her be bred by his own pacing sire Cam’s Rocket. This unplanned mating, however, produced a freak of nature. An untraditional pedigree was one thing, another was that he was from Maryland and finally, he was trained by his owner-breeder, a smaller trainer with little experience at the Grand Circuit/top level.