Freehold, NJ --- Muscle Hill ended his career with a flourish, winning his 20th consecutive race in the $600,000 Breeders Crown for 3-year-old trotters on October 24 at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto.

USTA/Mark Hall photo

Muscle Hill finished his career with a Breeders Crown victory, his 20th consecutive win.

He finished the year with 12 victories, including the Hambletonian, Kentucky Futurity, Canadian Trotting Classic, World Trotting Derby, American-National, Stanley Dancer Memorial and New Jersey Sire Stakes championship. He also established the record for earnings in a year by any harness horse, trotter or pacer. Muscle Hill won $2.45 million this year, breaking the mark of $2.44 million set in 2008 by 3-year-old pacer Somebeachsomewhere.

In addition, he became only the third trotter to win the Breeders Crown at ages 2 and 3, joining Mack Lobell (1986-87) and Malabar Man (1996-97). By finishing the campaign 12-for-12, he put himself in position to become the first trotter in history to be named Horse of the Year with an undefeated season. Muscle Hill is the No. 1 ranked horse in harness racing’s weekly poll.

“Bittersweet,” was the word trainer Greg Peck used on Monday to describe the end of Muscle Hill’s career. “No doubt about it. He was so fresh finishing. When I warmed him up, I said to Bob Stewart, who’s a partner and shareholder and had a lot of great trotters, he feels like it’s May or June, he was so fresh. If you look at his overall condition, he was as good or better than ever. You just wish there was a race or two more, but there isn’t.

“You wish you could go to something like the Prix D’Amerique and show them,” he added, referring the 1-5/8 mile race at the end of January in Paris. “They say a young horse can’t go with the aged horses -- I bet you he could. He is so relaxed and controllable; the asset that would help with a distance race is that it wouldn’t matter if they went the first mile at a rate of 2:40, it wouldn’t matter to him. That’s what he has going for him that would make him a great horse any way you looked at it.”

Muscle Hill, who finished his career with 20 wins in 21 races (only a neck defeat in his debut spoiled a perfect career) and earned $3.27 million, is owned by Jerry Silva, TLP Stable, Southwind Farm and Muscle Hill Racing. He will return from Canada to Peck’s central New Jersey training base tonight. A date for his transfer to Southwind Farm, his eventual home in Pennington, New Jersey, is not yet set.

Peck’s 11-year-old son Brendan was a regular at Muscle Hill’s races, nattily attired in a suit bought in early August specifically for the Hambletonian. Muscle Hill’s season barely outlasted a growth spurt by the young man.

“He buttoned up on Saturday, and it was clear the suit will be retired, too,” Peck said. “Put it this way: When he buttoned up the trousers, he didn’t need a belt.”