The Introduction

For as long as her parents can remember, 35-year old Naima has had this crazy dream. She has always wanted a broodmare -- a mommy horse -- that could give birth to a baby horse -- that could then grow up to become a racing champion.
"Absolutely, this was a fairy tale for her from day one. We put it off for so long, because we don't have a farm," Naima's father Jim said.

Why doesn't he just say no? "Well...she has me wrapped around her finger."

Her foal -- an New England standardbred -- was born in the spring of 2025. She named him Mr. Punch.

"I really loved him," Naima said of her first time meeting Mr Punch. "He's super soft too."
Sweet, but that quick bond posed a real problem for Jim. See, for whatever reason, Jim thought once he explained to his daughter that her horse could never race -- that it was a runt from poor breeding stock -- she would just agree to sell it. But obviously not.
"She's like, there's no price daddy. So I'm talking to my wife and it's like, we really got ourselves in a mess here. And I don't know how we're going to get out of this," Jim said. "So we stake him to the races.This horse that I thought we should have gotten rid of already."
Naima said her dad couldn't see what she saw in Punchie. "He didn't believe in him."

So now Jim's committed to boarding and training a horse that has no logical reason to race. And this is not a wealthy family. Jim runs a small logistics company. New England racing -- which is harness-style racing -- is a $900 million a year industry.

Share your own "impossible" story that ended in a success for $1,000,000 HPD

**You have until 2/15/25 at 12 PM to complete.**

**Participants will also receive 1 raffle ticket for completing this activity. Raffle prize TBD (but it will be something big like a full layout code of any type with graphic manip or an upgrade, etc)**

I thought it was impossible for me to lose weight, but I made some dietary changes and I've been working really hard to get (a lot) more steps in, and I'm down 5 pounds from when I last checked! Hopefully the impossible keeps working for me. ;)

I'm excited to see how far you guys take him!

What a gorgeous story! I love a captivating underdog! 

I thought it would be impossible for me to return to University as a mature-age student and actually DO a degree while juggling motherhood and a full-time job, and if I did, I'd do an awful job of it and probably fail.
4 years later and I'm on the home stretch, every unit has earned high distinctions, and I'm on path to graduate with honours. Next step: Developing my manuscript for publishing. Never did I imagine I'd be able to achieve this.

love the story!!!

i thought it would be impossible for me to ever have a clear mind, or at least, be able to function normally. since starting antidepressants and being on them for a few months, i can finally think clearly on a day to day basis. although this doesn't seem like much, its giving me a little bit of hope every day. i never thought i'd be able to game again, and here i am, back on HP. its a long journey, as i am undergoing various referrals for suspected issues but i'm beginning to be more like the "Me" i want to be again. :)

I thought it would be impossible to get my bond back with my horse cooper after so many months of not being able to ride him and just only being able to look at him in the pasture. (won't go into details about it as its somewhat personal, but I'll explain some).

Where I previously kept him, alot of stuff behind my back went down, everything was all hidden and only came out when either i had asked or when she saw me. 

I would go everyday to see cooper, to do chores and to give him treats and to rub on him as that was pretty much all I could do. It broke my heart not being able to go and ride my boy and to take him to barrel racing events and other riding events. As the months went on, I decided that enough was enough and I was going to take cooper somewhere else, and so I did just that. 

He's been at his new place where I keep him, and he is so much happier and I'm able to go and ride him and see him whenever I want to and since this has happened, I've been able to ride him alot more then I ever had got to at the other place and him and I went to barrel racing events and took home first place in some of the events and our bond has grown so much in the past year and I couldn't be happier to have such an amazing horse like Cooper! 

Love the story! In May 2023, I met a gorgeous gelding that didn't belong to me. I fell in love hard, even though I kept reminding myself he wasn't mine.  I never thought I'd be able to own him, but life had other plans and things fell into place. I was lucky and ended up able to buy him near the end of 2023! He's besties with my senior gelding and I'm blessed to have two heart horses.

The 12th annual HP mascot contest got off to a great start on the day of Sunday, February 16, with the setting of a new harness racing record.

Several thousand people were on hand to see the contest's first sub-two-minute pace record. Naima drove Mr. Punch, a three year old bay horse to a new record of 1:59.3 around the mile course. Mr. Punch is owned and trained by Naima and Fare of Embassy Stables. Mr. Punch has a lifetime record of 1:57.1 paced this year at Yonkers Raceway, NY.

The new time broke the existing track record of 2:00.2 set by House of Night driving The Beast to a blistering near two-minute mile 2012 mascot contest training session.

The new record was occurred in the eighth, a feature race honoring Ultramarine, who also held the Mascot Contest track record. In 2009, Ultra drove Checkered Scarf to a track record of 2:02. She held that record until 2012.

Ultra, who died in 2023, was being honored in Sunday's feature race for her accomplishment in harness racing. Ultra started racing at the age of ten and eventually earned more than $4 million in purse money during her 2,500 lifetime wins. She raced at tracks throughout New England and the eastern seaboard.

Breaking the track record overshadowed Chance's fete of winning four of the first five races at the contest. Chance, a well-known driver throughout the area drove winning horses in the first, third, fourth, and fifth races.

Emilyddb also dominated the evening card by driving winning horses in the second, seventh, and ninth races.

The handle for the two day session was $1,075,116, slightly off from the 2015 season, but very satisfactory considering the number of rainy cards. There was the usual multitude of patrons who turn out each year to welcome the contest to Horse Phenomena. Thanks, everyone, we'll see you next week!

Mr. Punch's week 2 task for you, should you choose to accept it, is to complete this harness racing themed wordsearch for a prize of 500k HPD and one raffle ticket. You have until 12:00PM on Saturday, 2/22/25 to complete this activity.

Raffle Particpants:

Jaya - 1 ticket

skelletor - 1 ticket

swirly - 1 ticket

Binx - 1 ticket

I wasn't sure if you wanted the word searches messaged to you or to be posted here, but I have posted mind below!
https://i.postimg.cc/Njkry1QW/mr-punch-week-2-word.jpg

thank you! :)

Just post here is perfect! Then everything is all together in one place.

done :) 

https://imgur.com/a/4NkTX5s

All monies sent up til now! Thank you to all who have been participating! (And remember Mr. Punch come voting time!)

Raffle Particpants:

Jaya - 1 ticket

skelletor - 1 ticket

swirly - 2 tickets

Binx - 2 tickets

Keena - 1 ticket

**Not too late to get your wordsearch in yet!!! Fastest time will receive an additional 500k**

https://i.imgur.com/kWMWS76.jpeg

Embassy Stables homebred Mr. Punch stayed unbeaten with a 1:50.2 crowning in the $532,000 Hes A Great Gentleman Stakes for five-year-old pacing colts on Sunday night, March 2 at Woodbine Mohawk Park.

Mr. Punch raced unhurried in fifth to a :27 first quarter carved by a headstrong The Last Martini (Doug McNair), who stayed to the metal approaching a :55.2 half. Driver Naima activated Mr. Punch midway up the backstretch and found cover to the far turn from Cant See Me (Bob McClure), who circled a tiring Nice Buns (David Miller) to race in third.

Mr. Punch perched onto the helmet moving to three-quarters in 1:23.3 and erupted down the homestretch. Naima stayed poised in the bike as Mr. Punch carried her over the line by an expanding 3-1/4 lengths from The Last Martini, holding onto second from a game Cant See Me. Millie May Hanover (Todd McCarthy) finished fourth and Cowgirl anover (Scott Zeron) was fifth.

“Ever since this one's come around, he gives you chills, just knowing you get to sit behind him every week,” said Naima after the race. “And the trip worked out great. And then when I moved him, he just exploded.

“Farewell had asked me before, like, I could tell she was nervous, but she just said, ‘What are you thinking?’ And I said, ‘I think we got a lot of options. We can do whatever we want. We're in a good spot and I think we just take what the race gives us and see what happens.’ And it worked out great.”

Farewell trains Mr. Punch, a son of Distorted Humor and Irish Lights who now has $541,000 on his card from seven starts, all wins.

“I'm always pessimistic usually training down, but he always showed enough, especially when we started training in the bikes. I was starting to get excited about him at around the start of June; I figured that we had a pretty nice colt on our hands.

“I had quiet confidence,” said Farewell of his chances in this race. “I figured the only way he'd get beat is if he beat himself. And luckily, that didn't happen and Naima gave him a great trip. He did what he had to do and just keeps winning and just enjoying it.”

Sent off as the 1-5 favourite, Mr. Punch paid $2.50 to win.

Mr. Punch's third task for you, should you choose to accept it, is to complete this harness race jigsaw and post a screenshot showing the number of pieces and your time stamp here for a prize of 2mil HPD and one raffle ticket. You have until Sunday, 3/9/25 (Nad's RL father's birthday) at 11:59 PM to complete and post this activity. Fastest time will receive an additional 1mil HPD.

Raffle Particpants:

Jaya - 2 tickets

skelletor - 1 ticket

swirly - 2 tickets

Binx - 2 tickets

Keena - 1 ticket

The puzzle link doesn't work :(

Crap...try it now

https://imgur.com/a/QIvU2l6

https://i.imgur.com/DVluI0B.jpeg