No Pan Intended tripled in 2003
Harness Trainer Ivan Sugg always Knew his Pan; Gets Ohio Hall
Apr 15, 2007
Knowing your horse is the key to success to some trainers.
Carl Nafzger knows his thoroughbred, Street Sense, remarking before his charge's latest run that he never trains a horse: he lets the horse train him.
Sugg is Pan's trainer Intended
Deshler, Ohio's Ivan Sugg would probably agree. His harness racing star trainee, No Pan Intended, won the Pacing Triple Crown in 2003, and in 2004 snared the Breeders Crown, as well, becoming the only harness horse in history to win both titles.
How did Sugg get there with No Pan Intended? He listened to his horse, of course.
Voted to Ohio Hall of Fame
Sugg was recently voted into the Ohio Harness Race Hall of Fame. Ohio's chapter of the United States Harness Writers Association gave Sugg the nod for his lifetime work, which reached a high plateau in 2003 and 2004.
No Pan Intended is currently Sugg's greatest visible achievement. The pacer, a New Jersey-bred owned by Bob Glazer's Peter Pan Stables Inc. in Pepper Pike, Ohio, topped $1 million in earnings in 2003. Winning 14 of 17 starts in that season, No Pan Intended kept right on going in 2004 and paced to history in the Breeders Crown.
Pan gets Nova Award
For his sterling effort in 2003, No Pan Intended won the year's Nova Award as champion three-year-old pacer. The Novas are awarded in ten categories annually which are sorted out by the 38 racing secretaries of member tracks.
Sugg said he didn't know what, exactly, made No Pan keep going, except that the harness star is big of heart.
Heart, Mind and a little Equipment Change
But Sugg knew more than that. He knew his Pan, and he made a plan. In 2003, as No Pan paced closer and closer to the Triple Crown title, Sugg was asked time and again about his horse.
No Pan was a "lazy" horse, Sugg said, one who appeared to not want to try too hard. Sugg paid attention to his horse's leanings. He discovered that he races better after a little time off. He kept No Pan fresh and picked his spots for him, Sugg said.
And that sounds just like a Carl Nafzger. Know thy horse.
Sugg also instituted some bridle equipment changes after he evaluated No Pan's racing habits. The changes seemed to sharpen No Pan's interest in the competition when they came up alongside of him.
A lifetime in the Harness
At 64, Sugg can look back over a lifetime of harness race fever. In the 1970s, Sugg spent time at Roosevelt Raceway on Long Island, New York with like mates. That venture ended, and the savvy Sugg learned to race cheaper horses at Toledo's Raceway Park, then trade up. He even trained yearlings at no pay in order to swing obtaining part ownership in his charges.
It wasn't until 1992 that he hooked up with Peter Pan Stables. Breeding and training became his mainstay gigs. Sugg's crops include Armbro Lantern's Smok'n Lantern, Armbro Tussle's Hop Sing and Bono Bests, More Suspicious's Really Suspicious, and Mystic Memory's Mystic Glide.
When it came time for No Pan Intended to whisper in his ear, Sugg listened, and he got the message loud and clear.
