Last year Chosen Voyageur won 10 races, the fastest in 1:58, and over $50,000 in purse money and was cited as Claiming Trotter of the Year by the local scribes.
Chosen Voyageur’s success was one of the biggest surprises here last season, especially since he was on a truck headed for the Pennsylvania Amish country to pull a buggy. But Amishman –actually a Mennonite-- Stephen Petersheim, a horse peddler who deals with the Amish, knew the asking price of $5000 was too much for a buggy horse. Petersheim liked the 8-year old trotter who had been a good horse in his younger years, and was looking for someone to go partners with him on the asking price. After all, Chosen Voyageur had earned over $350,000 and took record of 1:53.2 in his formative seasons and he thought buying him might be a good investment.
Petersheim found the partner he was looking for in trainer Gary Messenger when he made his annual stop to peddle horses at Monticello Raceway..
“It was the best $5000 we ever spent on a horse,” Messenger said of Chosen Voyageur when he accepted the claiming award at the Harness Writers banquet last fall.
However, prior to receiving that award ,Chosen Voyageur was claimed from them for $20,000 at Yonkers Raceway in October which didn’t really bother both Petersheim nor Messenger since they bankrolled almost $70,000 with their $5,000 purchase.
After being claimed it is safe to say that Chosen Voyageur didn’t race very well. However, after winning a qualifying event at Dover Downs on January 4 (2012) the trotter garnered a second place finish in his second start there in mid-January.. Then sent to Yonkers Raceway, a fifth place finish was the best the trotter could muster in two starts there and Chosen Voyageur had dropped in claiming price to $15,000.
Messenger, always interested in a good deal, joined again with former partner, Petersheim, and they plunked down $12,000 and brought the trotter back to Monticello Raceway.
On March 14th it so happened that Jason Bartlett was carded to drive here that day so Messenger put him down on Chosen Voyageur since Bartlett had driven him in his previous start at the Hilltop oval.
“We put him in for a $15,000 tag and he looked like his old self,” Messenger said of Chosen Voyageur. “He easily wired the field in (1):59:1 and Jason said he could have gone in(1):58 if he had to.
“We were really pleased with his mile today but now we have to keep him sound and if we do I’m sure we’ll get another good return on our investment”
