Standardbred Male Horse
Shadow Play, a modest $16,000 yearling purchase, excelled on the racetrack and in the breeding shed. During his racing career, the talented pacer won 20 races, earned $1,559,822, and took a career mark of 1:47.4. As a stallion, he’s sired horses with earnings eclipsing $61 million including six millionaires.
\The son of The Panderosa, out of the Matts Scooter mare Matts Filly, was purchased as a yearling, trained and co-owned by Dr. Ian Moore of Charlottetown, PEI, along with R G McGroup Ltd of Bathurst, New Brunswick, and Hockey Hall of Fame Inductee, Serge Savard of Saint- Bruno, Quebec.
In June 2007, following his winning racing debut in Charlottetown, PEI, Shadow Play was shipped to Ontario to race for the balance of his two-year-old season.
He posted three wins, three seconds, three thirds and earned just over $31,000 in his freshman campaign, including a third-place effort in an elimination of the Metro Pace.
The colt developed into a strong sophomore in 2008, winning his first two stake events, legs of the Diplomat Pacing Series, at Woodbine Racetrack.
He was shipped to Pennsylvania to race under US based trainer, Mark Ford, for six starts. He won four of those races, including the Coors Delvin Miller Adios in a world record time of 1:48.2 on a five-eighths mile track. Eight days later, he was back in the winner’s circle following his 1:50.4 victory in the final with driver David Miller in the bike. Miller would be Shadow Play’s regular driver for the balance of his three and four-year-old seasons.
On September 18, 2008, he added his name to the record books, winning the fabled Little Brown Jug in Delaware, Ohio. He won his first heat in a stakes record of 1:50 and second heat in 1:50.1, setting a two-heat world record for three-year-old pacing colts on a half-mile track.
On October 10, he posted an impressive 1:50.4 stakes record in the Windy City Pace at Maywood Park, followed by a runner up finish in the Messenger. Victories in the American National and Breeders Crown elimination, and a runner up finish in the Breeders Crown final, rounded out his $1.1+ million season.
After a promising start in 2009, Shadow Play sustained health and injury issues that put his four-year-old season in question. One week removed from a foot separation, Shadow Play paced to a career best 1:47.4 in the US Pacing Championship at The Meadowlands on August 8. He recorded six wins in eight starts and racked up almost $345,000 in earnings for his final year of racing.
Shadow Play is standing the 2023 breeding season at Bluechip Farms in Wallkill, New York, and is now owned by the Shadow Play Syndicate. He has sired six millionaires, including the fastest Standardbred in harness racing history, Bulldog Hanover (1:45.4) with earnings of nearly $2.8 million and Horse of the Year honours in Canada and unanimous Horse of the Year honours in the US; three-time O’Brien Award winner and double millionaire, Lady Shadow; 2021 Horse of the Year and North America Cup winner, Desperate Man; and O’Brien divisional winner, Percy Bluechip.