Somebeachsomewhere

Bay colt, 3, by Mach Three-Wheres The Beach-Beach Towel

OWNERS:Schooner Stables [Brent MacGrath, Garry Pye, James Bagnell, Reg Petitpas, Pamela Dean, Stuart Rath], Westchester Station, Nova Scotia

BREEDER:Stephanie Smith-Rothaug, OH

SALE:$40,000 Lexington Selected Sale

TRAINER:Brent MacGrath

DRIVER:Paul MacDonell

His 1:48.3 clocking in the fifth race was the fastest Meadowlands Pace elimination victory in history and equaled the stakes record set by Rocknroll Hanover in 2005.

"He went around and did his business and he never really got pacing hard until late in the mile," MacDonell said.

"[Runner-up] Art Official is a quality animal and he's proved that before. You can never be too careful with a horse like that on your back. I let him pace a little and halfway down the lane, he seemed to open up a length or two on him.

"I think you have to take into account there was a little bit of a stiff wind in his face coming home. With those variables counted in, it was a very impressive mile."

Somebeachsomewhere enters the Pace final with just four starts under his belt this season. A bruised coffin bone cost him a month of racing in May.

"He stepped on a rock in the paddock and bruised the bottom of his foot," MacDonell said.♦ "The bone bruise is pretty close to being history," said trainer Brent MacGrath.

"He was impressive tonight. He trained big [before the Pace elims]. We've kind of put that bone bruise behind us and he's good now. His training will be light this week. I don't know if I'll go a mile with him. I'll probably go one, but that will be all. He doesn't need a lot of training."

"I was feeling pretty comfortable at the half," MacGrath continued. "I looked down at the TV and I saw Paul had a hold of him. I didn't know he'd kick home in :26 and a piece, but I was pretty sure the rest of them wouldn't too.

He was strong and the only thing that concerned me was that he hadn't raced in a month. It's a month tonight since he raced and he only trained a couple of times. I was trying to get that foot the way we want it, and we've got it the way we want it.

I really think we'll see a different horse next week. Paul said he was a little goofy behind the gate. What you've got to realize is this horse has only had 10 starts. He's green. He wanted to leave with him tonight and he had him leaving. Obviously, he didn't bust him out of there. He floated out. So I would say he was probably telling him, ‘pay a little more attention.' I think you'll see a whole lot different horse here next Saturday."

Somebeachsomewhere will try to become the first colt to sail through the million-dollar North America Cup and Meadowlands Pace in undefeated style.

Somebeachsomewhere was voted top 2-year-old colt pacer in both Canada and the United States last year, earning more than $800,000 while setting a world record of 1:49.3 in the Metro Pace. His major stakes wins in 2007: $950,000 Metro Pace at Mohawk Racetrack; $285,000 Battle of Waterloo at Grand River Raceway; $140,941 Nassagaweya Stakes at Mohawk Racetrack; $110,090 Champlain Stakes division at Mohawk Racetrack.

Somebeachsomewhere is the only horse trained by MacGrath, who is general manager of Pye Chevrolet in Truro, Nova Scotia. His wife, Rhonda, is a preschool director in Nova Scotia.♦ Schooner Stable is a consortium of six partners headed by MacGrath. Three of the Schooners -- Reg Petitpas, Pam Dean and Jamie Bagnell -- are customers of MacGrath's two car dealerships in Truro, Nova Scotia. Garry Pye is MacGrath's partner in Pye Chevrolet and Truro Toyota, while Stu Rath, ironically, is a direct competitor.

"Brent is a partner in the auto dealerships and it's purely because of his passion for racing that I got involved," Pye noted.

Reg and Louise Petitpas are the founders and co-owners of Acadia Fire and Water Restoration, a successful building-restoration business in New Brunswick that services residential, commercial and industrial disasters.

Trainer Brent MacGrath and driver Paul MacDonell have been friends for 25 years, first meeting at Toronto's Greenwood Raceway, where both were stabled at the time.

When the colt is at home, MacGrath and the Schooners monitor the safety and well being of Somebeachsomewhere via a restricted website on the Internet. The colt is watched by closed-circuit television cameras 24/7. Bandwidth is limited, so the URL is kept private.

Breeder Stephanie Smith-Rothaug named Somebeachsomewhere with assistance from her father and the lyrics of a Blake Shelton hit country song.

Somebeachsomewhere was raised in St. Louisville, OH, on the farm of Smith-Rothaug's parents, Roger and Patricia. Stephanie now has her own 64-acre farm in West Jefferson, OH. Somebeachsomewhere was one of five foals she raised in 2005.

"He had a presence," Smith-Rothaug told Harness Racing Communications (HRC). "I guess when they're your horses you always think they're special, but he was such an athlete. The minute he got in the field, he would leave everybody; he was independent. He raced everyone in the field. Some challenge you and fight you, but anything you asked him to do during yearling prep he just did for you. He took everything in stride."

Brent MacGrath bought Somebeachsomewhere for $40,000 at the 2006 Lexington Selected Sale. All three of Somebeachsomewhere's siblings born prior to 2005 (all by Astreos) made money at the races, but that did not influence MacGrath's decision to purchase the son of Mach Three-Wheres The Beach.

"When I go to yearling sales I just look in the stall; I don't look at the catalogue at all," MacGrath told (HRC).

"I really like the lady who raised him, Stephanie Smith, and I liked the way her horses looked. It was a small outfit. He didn't have a video; they had a video with a camcorder with the horse running around in circles. That didn't bother me, but I'm sure that scared some people off. I asked her about it and she told me this was how she was set up and I believed her -- and she was telling the truth. He's not had a bad day from day one."

Brent MacGrath and the members of the Schooner Stable are making their Meadowlands Pace debut.♦ Driver Paul MacDonell [January 29, 1963] of Guelph, Ontario, has two previous drives in the Meadowlands Pace.

He finished 7th in 1997 with Village Jasper and 6th in 1998 with Rustler Hanover, two of the many standouts he drove for the late Hall of Famer William Wellwood. A Top 10 driver on the Woodbine/Mohawk circuit, MacDonell has more than 4,000 career wins and numerous stakes titles to his credit.