Looking Back to Champion On Ice (07/22/10)

Posted Thursday, July 22, 2010

                                                                      By Mike Paradise

  This is another in a new weekly feature exclusively on www.harnessillinois.com. Every week I’ll post a least one “Looking Back feature. Mostly they’ll be
 of the great horses who have competed in our state through the years. At times they’ll be pictures from the winner’s circle, special celebrations, and in some cases old memorable race track scenes. Some of these photos haven’t been printed or posted in decades . . . others have never been printed at all.
  
  Just by right clicking your computer mouse, going to “Save Picture As”, you can make your own jpeg copy of any Looking Back photo posted. You can e-mail them and share with a friend or maybe start your own computer file of “Looking Back” memories.

 
 To view Archived Notes and Quotes click here.   
  

                       Looking Back

                                   CHAMPION ON ICE

  This son of Armbro Charger out of the Tamerland broodmare Icecapade was the foremost Illinois bred male trotter in the mid-1990s when he posted 27 victories in a three-year span and banked over $266,000 for his Valparaiso, Indiana owners Jack and Peggy Hood. Trained by Dirk Simpson the gelding posted all of his major triumphs with driver Dave Magee.

  Champion On Ice started his freshman season in 1993 on the Illinois Fair Circuit and ended it with a $49,404 stakes victory at Balmoral Park, his eighth trip to a winner’s circle in 17 starts. The ICF trotter really blossmed in his sophomore season, capturing 14 of 24 starts, including the $120,000 Su Mac lad Final at Sportsman’s Park in a stakes record time of 1:56.4 in early August and then the Springfield Championship two weeks later in 1:55.4 at 1-9 odds.

  As a four-year-old he returned to Springfield and won the 1995 Aged Trot at the State Fair, again at overwhelming 1-9 odds, with a career best 1:53.1 mile with Magee. He also posted a win in 1995 in a $17,500 Open Invitational Trot at Sportsman’s. In 1993, 1994 and 1995 Champion On Ice won races on ten different Illinois race tracks—Sportsman’s, Balmoral, Maywood, Fairmount, Springfield, Mt. Sterling, Charleston, Decatur, Carlton, and Jacksonville.