Hall of Fame

Delmonica Hanover was the daughter of Speedy Count out of the Kimberly Kid mare Delicious. Trained and more often than not driven by Delvin Miller, she had 51 career wins in 121 starts. She was named the USTA Horse of the Year in 1974, only the second mare up until that time to be so honored.

In 1970 Delmonica Hanover was purchased by Delvin Miller from the Hanover Shoe Farms consignment at the Harrisburg Sales for $5,000. By the 1980s her price tag had rocketed to $1 million. In a feat only equalled by Peace Corps, she was named USHWA divisional champion at age two, three, four and five. In the 1972 Hambletonian Stake at DuQuoin, Illinois, Delmonica Hanover finished second in both heats to Super Bowl. She race-timed in 1:58 and 1:57 on the day Super Bowl set a world record of 1:56.2. Her 1:57 individual time was the second fastest trotting mile ever by a female at that point in time. Only Rosalind's 1937 time trial of 1:56 3/4 was faster. In 1974 Delmonica Hanover became the first North American-owned horse to win France's Prix d'Amerique. She also recorded back-to-back wins in the 1973 and 1974 Roosevelt International Trot. World champion at both three and four, she took her lifetime mark of 1:59.2 in her last start, at Hollywood Park, California at the age of six. Her lifetime earnings totalled $832,925.

As a broodmare, Delmonica Hanover excelled. Of her twelve foals, eight raced and earned a total of $1.15 million. Her two standout foals were 1989 Hambletonian Stake co-winner Park Avenue Joe 3,1:55.3 ($666,311) and world champion Delmegan 4,T1:55.3 ($469,593).

Delmonica Hanover died in Sweden at the age of twenty-seven.

Published in the Harness Racing Museum's 1999 book, The 1999 Immortals