In Harness Racing, December is a time to reflect on the past and plan for the future. For Adriano Sorella, owner of top 3-year-old pacer Jimmy Freight, there has been plenty of both. Plucked from the Iowa cornfields a few races into his 2-year-old campaign, Jimmy Freight has exceeded all expectations, earning nearly $900,000 in 28 starts since the private purchase. He put together an excellent freshman campaign that included a second-place finish in the Ontario Sire Stakes Gold Final at Woodbine in 2017 but really shined when the calendar changed. It was May 20 of this year at Flamboro Downs in a leg of the Ontario Sire Stakes that Sorella and company found out the true capabilities of Jimmy Freight. With driver Louis Roy simply a passenger, Jimmy Freight won by more than six lengths in 1:51 3/5, one-fifth faster than the 4-year-old stakes stars in the Confederation Cup on the same night. “Richard (Moreau, trainer) messaged me from the paddock and said, ‘everything you need to know about this horse you found out tonight,’” said Sorella. That’s pretty much when I started to get the wheels in motion to figure out what we were going to do. I guess that was Richard’s heads-up that I needed to make some plans. He has the mentality that he likes to sleep in his own bed at night and I don’t disagree with him one bit. I needed to figure out if we were going to race stateside and with who. At that point I thought of Andrew (Harris) and we took it from there.” The numbers alone speak volumes of the type of horse that Jimmy Freight was in 2018. He had 21 starts with 11 wins and only one off the board finish despite taking on the best in his class nearly every week. The son of Sportswriter set a lifetime mark of 1:48 3/5 and rewarded Sorella with $748,466 in earnings for having the faith to supplement him to major races like the Meadowlands Pace and Messenger. “The decision to go to the Meadowlands Pace was a little tougher because of the money, $62,000, plus the cost to ship him,” said Sorella. “You have to finish no worse than third to get your money back. If you finish fourth like we did, you lose some money. It was tough, but I wanted to be in those races and after skipping the North America Cup, I figured I had to give him a shot. With the Messenger, it was a decision to see which one I was going to supplement him to between the Messenger and the Cane.” The one race Sorella desperately wanted to compete in was the Little Brown Jug, but because the horse was never made eligible, he needed to win the Meadowlands Pace or Messenger (finished second) just to earn the right to supplement. “I do, because I had the horse that could do well at the Jug,” said Sorella when asked if he wished there was more opportunity to supplement. “But I can see people’s point saying that there shouldn’t be supplements. What was strange for me is that there are major races where you can supplement and others where you can’t supplement. It is the best and worst of two evils. How can you supplement to some races but not others? “I absolutely love the Jug. I won it in 2013 with Vegas Vacation. It is the type of race you want to go to,” said Sorella. “I wish there was more opportunity to get into those types of races, but I understand the point that people won’t stake their horses throughout the year and only put up money if they get an absolute beast. It sucks, because it’s the Jug and I really wish he was there.” While Jimmy Freight didn’t attend the Jug, he danced in as many races as possible, showing up at nine tracks across the United States and Canada. Most of the time, Sorella was in attendance rooting on his stable star. “You don’t get many horses that come around like this one,” said Sorella, on why he travelled to so many races. “I’ve tried so many times. I’ve spent hundreds of thousands of dollars at the sales and spent $600,000 this year. You only hear about those groups that spend $4 million and I was part of those groups. It was great. I’d spend less money in those groups because you’d throw your $300,000 in and have seven or eight other guys doing the same thing or putting in a little less. When you go and put your hand up yourself with no one else as your partner, $500,000 or $600,000, that’s a lot of money to spend at the sale. So, when you get a good one like him, and I didn’t even get him from the sale, I bought him privately, you go with him. I travelled a lot and had a lot of fun. I’ve taken some friends and family to races. I’ve chartered planes. We’ve had a good time and a great summer. It’s good to have one like him and I always hope people get ones like him because it keeps them excited.” With the decisions on when and where to race Jimmy Freight done, a new dilemma developed when Sorella had to decide whether to stand Jimmy Freight as a stallion in 2019 or continue to race. The prospects for the colt seemed to be New York, Ohio or Ontario. “I ran with the New York thing because of the Artsplace line and Art Major leaving, and his line crosses with everybody. I also figured with all the small tracks that he would be perfect for New York. I was ok with the deal but not 100% thrilled because the problem with New York is not being able to ship semen,” said Sorella. “Blue Chip Farm took care of things. I knew going in it was going to be like 50/50 to happen. We needed to see a lot of interest because I’m not a breeder and I don’t have mares. I was going to buy a bunch of mares and already bought a few to start with. A few days went by and I got some feedback. It was ok, but it wasn’t exactly great like I wanted it to be. So I pulled out on New York to see what my other options were.” Sorella also went deep into conversations with an Ohio farm and despite a desire to have a stallion, ultimately decided that the best course of action was to race Jimmy Freight as a 4-year-old. “90% of me has always wanted to have a stallion. Having him in the breeding shed I get to buy his babies and I get to race Jimmy Freight babies. It’s cool. I want to buy babies from a sire that I own,” said Sorella. “It’s not that the horse isn’t good enough to stand anywhere, especially where the small tracks are. The horse has gate speed, he’s never given up in a race. He’s good enough to stand stud. The problem is getting the whole deal figured out and that’s the biggest issue. “I’m a guy with very little patience. Sooner or later I just have to pull the plug and deal with it next year. I want to get him ready to race.” Unless there is a major change of direction in the immediate future, Jimmy Freight will be on the track in 2019 facing off against rivals like Courtly Choice, who was in a stallion deal with Winbak Farms but backed out, in restricted 4-year-old races like the Graduate Series and Confederation Cup. Then they’ll have the opportunity to try their luck against 2018 divisional leader McWicked and the rest of the older pacing crowd. Jimmy Freight displayed a strong combination of speed and heart in his sophomore season and if that is any indication on what’s to come, fans of the sport could be in for quite a ride from the Iowa native.