After a 1:50 Record Mile at Vernon Downs, American Power Draws Post 10 in Saturday’s $1 Million Hambletonian

The fastest mile ever trotted at Vernon Downs belongs, for now, to a colt named American Power. On Sunday, July 19, driver James MacDonald sent the three year old son of Walner first over at the top of the backstretch, ground down the leaders, and hit the wire in 1:50 flat to win the $300,000 Dr. Harry M. Zweig Memorial, the richest race of the season at the Oneida County oval. On Saturday, August 8, that same colt leaves from post 10 in the $1 million Hambletonian final at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, New Jersey, the biggest prize in harness racing and the race every barn in the sport points to all year.

For the town of Vernon, population center of western Oneida County’s racing economy, the connection is direct. The horse that stamped himself a legitimate Hambletonian threat did it on Vernon’s seven eighths mile track, in front of a free admission crowd on a 14 race Sunday card. When the field behind the gate rolls off at the Meadowlands this weekend, the fastest mile at a seven eighths mile track by any horse in the race will trace back to Route 31 in Vernon.

A record that stood since 2018

According to Standardbred Canada’s recap of the July 19 card, American Power’s 1:50 clocking broke the all age Vernon Downs standard of 1:50.3 set by Atlanta in 2018. The colt did it the hard way. Nix Nacken, who had drawn the eight hole, led the field through fractions of :26.3, :55.3 and 1:23.1. MacDonald pulled American Power first over, muscled past the leader, and sprinted home in :26.4 to win by a length over Diabolic Hill, driven by Todd McCarthy. Nix Nacken held third, four and three quarter lengths clear of the rest.

American Power paid $7.18 to win for trainer Marcus Melander, the Swedish born conditioner who has turned the Zweig into a personal showcase. The victory gave the colt four wins from six starts in 2026 and seven from 18 lifetime. Eight days earlier he had finished second to stablemate Apex in a division of the Stanley Dancer Memorial on July 11, so the Vernon record mile was both a bounce back and a statement.

What the Zweig is, and why it matters here

The Dr. Harry M. Zweig Memorial is Vernon Downs’ signature event, announced this spring at $600,000 across its divisions and restricted, per the conditions published by U.S. Trotting News before the race, to the top nine lifetime money winning three year old trotters that declare in. Horses shipping in had to report to the detention barn by 8 p.m. the night before, a standard integrity measure for a race of this size. The 2026 edition went off on a special Sunday card with a 14 race program.

The filly division went to Setyoursightshigh, another Melander trainee, who trotted a lifetime best 1:51.4 to take the $139,000 split under driver Dexter Dunn. She held off Leading Lady, driven by Matt Kakaley, by a neck, with Madam Cheval third for Tim Tetrick, and paid $10.62. The double gave Melander a sweep of both Zweig trophies on the day.

The undercard carried New York money too. Four New York Sire Stakes divisions worth between $59,100 and $60,200 each went to Man On A Hunt in 1:53.1, Beatle Blue Chip in 1:53, Cowboy Candy in 1:54.3 and Fendilicious, who set her own new mark of 1:51.2 for driver Jason Bartlett and trainer Deborah Daguet. Eight New York Excelsior Series splits at $20,000 apiece filled out one of the richest single afternoons of racing in Central New York this year.

The road through the eliminations

The Hambletonian did not hand American Power anything. On Saturday, August 1, the Meadowlands carded two $100,175 eliminations for the 101st edition of the race, with the top five finishers in each advancing to the final. Nineteen three year olds entered. In the first elimination, Apex, the Dan Patch Award winner and 9 for 13 lifetime, held off Endurance by a nose in 1:50.4 with Dunn driving. American Power sat a pocket trip that went nowhere late, split horses in the lane, and salvaged third to punch his ticket. Captain Naughty and AI took the last two spots.

“I knew it was going to be a tough mile no matter what we did with him,” Dunn said of Apex afterward, as reported by U.S. Trotting News. “We got away in a pretty good position, but we were only in for a little bit and out the rest of the mile.”

The second elimination belonged to Big Ranger, who won by four lengths over It Could Be Worse in 1:50 flat and paid $2.80 for driver Tim Tetrick and trainer Anette Lorentzon. Magic Punk, Spencer Hanover and Minoan advanced behind him. “I was like, ‘This is a real horse.’ He impressed me from day one,” Tetrick told U.S. Trotting News. “He’s super smart, he’s got big lungs, he’s a real animal.”

Two Vernon Zweig alumni did not survive the cut. Diabolic Hill and Nix Nacken, second and third behind American Power on July 19, both raced in the second elimination and missed the top five, so the record setter carries the Vernon Downs banner into the final alone.

The draw: post 10 and a 10 to 1 line

Post positions came out Tuesday, August 4 at a luncheon at Chateau Grande in East Brunswick, New Jersey. The elimination winners drew among posts one through six, and the luck fell their way: Apex landed post three at 5 to 2 on the morning line, and Big Ranger drew post four as the 2 to 1 favorite. Then the open draw put American Power on the far outside, post 10, at 10 to 1.

The full field, per Standardbred Canada’s report of the draw: Minoan (post 1, 25 to 1), It Could Be Worse (post 2, 8 to 1), Apex (post 3, 5 to 2), Big Ranger (post 4, 2 to 1), Captain Naughty (post 5, 15 to 1), AI (post 6, 12 to 1), Endurance (post 7, 5 to 1), Magic Punk (post 8, 15 to 1), Spencer Hanover (post 9, 20 to 1) and American Power (post 10, 10 to 1).

Melander trains three of the ten finalists: Apex, Spencer Hanover and American Power. The stable elephant in the room is that the barn’s record setter must beat its own Dan Patch winner. Ken Warkentin’s Road to the Hambletonian poll, published weekly by U.S. Trotting News, ranked American Power second in the sport behind Apex after the Vernon record, citing the 1:50 mile as the move that vaulted him up the list. Chris Beaver, who trains 5 to 1 shot Endurance, is not conceding anything to either of them. “I think he’s got as big a set of lungs as any horse in the race,” Beaver said of his colt in U.S. Trotting News’ preview of the final.

U.S. Trotting News lists the final as race 11 on Saturday’s card with a post time of approximately 4:51 p.m. Eastern and national television coverage on Fox Sports 2. The companion $500,000 Hambletonian Oaks for three year old filly trotters goes earlier on the card, at approximately 3:36 p.m.

What it means back at the track

Vernon Downs opened its 73rd season of live harness racing on Saturday, April 18 with a 5:05 p.m. first post, and the meet runs into November. Admission is free every race day, a policy the track has kept as its core pitch to Oneida and Madison county families. Racing goes Friday and Saturday evenings at 5:05 p.m., with Thursday cards added through July and August.

The Zweig was the anchor of a stakes calendar that still has plenty left. The track hosts eight New York Sire Stakes cards in 2026, and the Big Apple Series finals land at Vernon on October 9. The Big Apple Series closes the stakes season with eliminations on October 2 and $250,000 per division finals on October 9. Earlier in the meet, the $500,000 Empire Breeders Classic for three year old trotters went off on June 12. On the promotional side, the track’s Corntastic Weekend runs August 14 and 15 with free locally grown corn both nights, part of a season long promotion schedule that includes a car giveaway drawing that started May 8 and ends October 10.

The human racing colony has its own storylines. Leon Bailey enters August defending his position as the track’s leading driver after topping the 2025 standings, and Michelle Warner led all trainers at the meet last year. None of them will be behind a horse Saturday, but the track they race over now holds a speed standard that the whole sport had to notice: 1:50, three fifths of a second faster than the mark Atlanta left in 2018.

A win Saturday would echo Atlanta, who held the Vernon Downs all age record when she won the 2018 Hambletonian, and the purse math is simple: the colt has earned more at Vernon in one afternoon, $150,000 as the winner’s typical half share of a $300,000 pot, than most horses in the final have banked all year. Post 10 is the hard part. This year, only Apex and Endurance have finished ahead of him, and only one horse anywhere has trotted 1:50 this year at a seven eighths mile track. That horse leaves from the outside at 4:51 p.m. Saturday, with James MacDonald holding the lines and a $1 million check on the wire.