The Pokemon Trotter
by Lisa Harkema
Named for a Pokemon character, the Illinois-bred trotter proved that you don’t need the most fashionable pedigree to beat the best. Kadabra was a spectacular trotter who set a world record at 4 before he retired to become an elite stallion.
It is rare for the top trotter in the US not to contest any of the Triple Crown races, but in 2002 the crop-topper Kadabra wasn’t found in any of the Triple Crown races. Bred, owned and trained in Illinois by Homer and Connie Hochstetler, Kadabra started his career with two wins and a second at Balmoral Park before going up against Andover Hall in the Hanover Stake at the end of July as a two-year-old. Kadabra showed he belonged among the best by finishing second to the Garland Lobell son in 1:58 (1.13,3) – Andover Hall won in 1:57.4 (1.13,2) – and then proceeded to win 8 races in a row, including elimination and final of the Illinois State Fair, the Darn Safe Stake, the American-National, elimination and final of the Lincoln Land and the Sarah Myers Breeders Stake. He was also first in both the elimination and final of the Matron Stakes, but was stripped of the wins after a test revealed bute in his system.
A break-through horse for the Hochstetler family, the story of Kadabra starts several years prior to his birth in 1999. Five years earlier, in 1994, Beulah Dygert had bought the yearling filly Quillo, bred by Homer Miller and Dennis Yoder, for $10,000 at auction. After suffering a fall at Maywood Park, Quillo never raced, and following health complications, Dygert gifted the mare to the Hochstetler family. Her first foal was Money Minded, a colt by Wall Street Banker, in 1997. A winner of 22 races and $163,067, Quillo then proved herself a true elite broodmare when she was bred four times to the Hochstetler’s unproved stallion Primrose Lane. In addition to Kadabra, this combination also produced 1:54-trotter Lifes A Holiday, winner of 41 races and $729,125.