Breeders Crown 2026: Blazin Lou's Record Night and How It Works

Breeders Crown 2026: what happened on night one

Breeders Crown 2026 is harness racing's championship weekend, held Oct. 23-24 at Eldorado Scioto Downs in Columbus, Ohio. The headline from Friday night was Blazin Lou, who won the $700,000 2-year-old colt and gelding pace in 1:50 1/5, equaling the track record for 2-year-old pacing colts that Act Fast set in 2022.

Blazin Lou went off as the 6-5 favorite with Dexter Dunn driving. He beat Starstruck Dreamer by a quarter-length, with Shalom Hanover third and Eastie Boy fourth.

Two storylines made it special:

• A first for the trainer. It was Tony Dinges's first Breeders Crown, and Blazin Lou was the first horse he had ever sent into the series.
• A change of trainers. Another trainer broke and trained him first, then fell ill, so Dinges took over. Owner Rick Berks bought him for $110,000 at the 2025 Lexington Selected Yearling Sale.

Blazin Lou is by Sweet Lou, who won this same division in 2011. The win took the colt to six wins from 12 starts and $519,550 in earnings, according to US Trotting News.

Friday's four 2-year-old finals at Scioto Downs

All four freshman finals ran Friday, each worth $700,000. Dunn won two of them.

A few things worth knowing from the night:

• Seaside Ubeaut won by three lengths as the third choice in the betting.
• Wrong Sounds Right broke the record for a 2-year-old colt trotter on a five-eighths-mile track (1:52 1/5, from 2013), despite racing on the outside for almost half a mile. His time also tied the overall 2-year-old trotting world record held by the filly Cooler Schooner.
• Birr Castle came from sixth on the final turn to win by a length. It was Zeron's 10th Breeders Crown and Melander's eighth.

Saturday's eight finals: what to watch

The other eight championships, for 3-year-olds and older horses, were carded for Saturday night, Oct. 24, with first post at 6 p.m. Eastern. Results were not official when this article was published, so we're not naming any winners yet.

Saturday's divisions:

1. 3-year-old colt and gelding pace
2. 3-year-old filly pace
3. 3-year-old colt and gelding trot
4. 3-year-old filly trot
5. Open pace
6. Open trot
7. Mare pace
8. Mare trot

The official results go up after each race on the Breeders Crown and Scioto Downs channels and in US Trotting News and Daily Racing Form. When you check them, look at three things: the winning time, the margin, and whether a supplemented horse won. Six horses were supplemented into this year's 3-year-old and older divisions (listed below), so check whether any of them made a final.

How the Breeders Crown works

The Breeders Crown is Standardbred racing's year-end championship series, owned by the nonprofit Hambletonian Society. Instead of one big race, it crowns a champion in each of 12 groups by age, sex and gait: trotters and pacers; 2-year-olds, 3-year-olds and older horses; males and females.

The series began in 1984 and moves between racetracks. Think of it as harness racing's answer to the Thoroughbred Breeders' Cup, but the two are separate events for different breeds.

Eliminations a week before

When a division draws too many entries for one race, it runs eliminations first. In 2026 the 2-year-old eliminations ran Oct. 16 and the older-horse eliminations ran Oct. 17. The top finishers from each one advance to the final a week later. Blazin Lou won his elimination in 1:50 4/5 before improving in the final.

Paying in, or paying to get in

A horse doesn't simply show up. Owners keep a horse eligible through a chain of payments that starts with the sire's nomination and continues with yearling and sustaining fees. Those payments help fund the purses.

Miss a payment and the horse drops out. For older horses there's a costly way back in: supplementing.

• In 2026 the supplement fee was $72,000 for the 3-year-old races and the open pace, and $48,000 for the mare pace.
• There are no supplements for 2-year-old races.
• This year Best Chip, Francent N, Little Road, Miss Jum Jabber, Redland Rocket Man and Strobe Lite were supplemented.

Trotting vs pacing, and what a driver does

All these horses are Standardbreds. What splits them into separate races is their racing gait.

• Trotters move their legs in diagonal pairs: left front with right hind, then right front with left hind.
• Pacers move both legs on the same side together, which gives them a side-to-side rolling look.
• Hopples (also called hobbles) are straps linking the front and hind leg on the same side. Most pacers race in them to help hold the gait.
• Pacers are usually a little faster and less likely to break stride. Pacing dominates in North America, while trotting rules in continental Europe.

If a horse breaks into a gallop, the driver has to bring it back to its gait. A horse that gains ground while galloping can be penalized.

Driver vs jockey

A jockey rides on the horse's back. A harness driver sits in a light two-wheeled cart called a sulky behind the horse and steers with long reins called lines.

The driver's job is about tactics: when to leave the gate, whether to sit in a line of horses or move outside, and when to pull out for the final run. Top drivers like Dunn often drive for many different trainers on the same night.

How to read a mile time like 1:50 1/5

Nearly all major harness races are one mile. 1:50 1/5 means one minute, 50 and one-fifth seconds. Times are kept in fifths of a second, so in print you'll often see it as 1:50.1. That ".1" means one-fifth, not one-tenth.

Blazin Lou's fractions were 26 2/5 for the first quarter, 55 3/5 at the half and 1:23 4/5 at three-quarters. Subtract the last fraction from the final time and you get his last quarter: 26 2/5 seconds.

Quick reading checklist:

• Final time: compare it with the track record, not with records at other tracks.
• Track size: five-eighths-mile tracks like Scioto have more turns than mile tracks, so times are usually a bit slower.
• Last quarter: a fast closing quarter shows a horse finishing strongly.
• Trip: a horse that raced on the outside ("parked") covered extra ground.

Workouts and race times work differently in Thoroughbred racing. Our guide to reading racing workouts explains that side.

How the Crown fits with the Little Brown Jug

The Little Brown Jug is a single, famous race for 3-year-old pacers, run in heats every September at the Delaware County Fair in Delaware, Ohio. It's a leg of pacing's Triple Crown and one of the sport's oldest prestige races.

The Breeders Crown is different. It comes at the end of the season and covers all 12 divisions, so it decides which horses look like champions for the year.

A top 3-year-old pacer can try to win both. That's why fans compare Jug runners with Saturday's 3-year-old colt pace field.

What to do next

• Check Saturday's official results from US Trotting News, DRF or the Breeders Crown's own channels before sharing a winner.
• Watch the replays. Seeing Wrong Sounds Right trot and Blazin Lou pace side by side is the fastest way to learn the two gaits.
• Learn the terms. Our glossary and disciplines pages cover the basics. If you like trotting outside North America, read about Mallorca's trotting races.
• Know the grading. These finals are Grade 1 stakes. Here's what Grade 1 means.