The first Hambo favorite
by Lisa Harkema
While Guy McKinney gained fame as the winner of the very first Hambletonian in 1926, he was not the early spring favorite. That had been Hazleton, who instead became the first of several early Hambletonian favorites to miss out on the biggest of all three-year-old races because of illness. Exported to Europe, Hazleton instead gained legendary status as the first US-born winner of the Prix d’Amerique.
The speed Hazleton, a son of Lu Princeton, was bred by Barton Pardee of Atlantic City and trained by Walter Cox. Finishing second to Peter Maltby in the Junior Kentucky Futurity for two-year-olds and impressing at Red Mile, his speed was thought to give him an advantage in the 1926 Hambletonian. However, illness restricted him to only one start at 3, in Cleveland in July. The following year, however, he struck back, winning nine of eleven starts, including the Walnut Hall Cup, and set a personal best of 2:01 3/4 (1.15,7) in Atlanta, which turned out to be the Grand Circuit race record for 1927 (and, it seems, also the world record for 4 year-old-colts). Hazleton’s 1927 Grand Circuit earnings of $19,345 would only be beaten by Sam Williams’ $21,827. The following year he lowered his record to 2:00 3/4 (1.15,0) and in 1928 and 1929 he only lost one race before being auctioned off in the fall of 1929.
Off to Europe
When Hazleton was auctioned off at the Old Glory sale in Nov 1929 there was quite the bidding war between agents representing Bruno Cassirer and BJ Alkemade, both living in Germany. Cassirer also bought Walter Dear around the same time and was keen to add another superstar to his stable. It was, however, Alkemade who ended up getting Hazleton for $15,000. A few days later, Mr. Alkemade resold Hazleton to Daniele Palazzoli, Milan, Italy, and the horse would remain his property until he died. Palazzoli sent Hazleton to trainer Otto Dieffenbacher. The latter was born in present-day Austria in 1885 but had relocated his training operation to Italy in 1927 where he had his stable at the San Siro track. Dieffenbacher was a great trainer who worked tirelessly and seemingly forever: he won his last race in Austria in 1964 as a 79-year-old, and in 1960 he was champion trainer in Germany at the tender age of 75.
Hazleton was almost unbeatable in European races for several years – the only exception was races where he was given a significant handicap – and the only horse who had his number was Walter Dear. In the Graf Kalman Hunyady race in Vienna, for example, he was given a 120 meter (131 yards) handicap for a race over 3300 meters (slightly over 2 miles). Hazleton still won in 1.23,3 (2:14).
In Italy, Hazleton won most of the big races numerous times, one example is the Campionato Europeo in Cesena which he won both in 1933 and 1934.
In 1931, at age 8, Hazleton became the first non-French horse to win the Prix d’Amerique, a win he repeated the following year. At 11 he was second to Walter Dear and at 12 finished third behind Muscletone and Calumet Guy in the big race.