The two most memorable events that have happened to the Peshina-Merrill family in the Standardbred industry are the breaking of Greyhound's world record under saddle by our horse Preferential. The time trial was held in the fall of 1994 in Lexington KY at the Red Mile. Brooke Nickelle and Preferential trotted to the finish line in 1:58.2. Preferential even lost one of his horseshoes during the trial. Now Preferential spends his retired days with Carina Andersson his favorite caretaker in Sweden. He was so well known in Sweden that Preferential had a comic strip written about his success story.

The most recent feats were in the summer of 2000 finishing fourth in the Hambletonian in Rutherford NJ at the Meadowlands. And in October 2000 winning the Breeders Crown in Toronto Canada at Mohawk with Fast Photo. Fast Photo had the ten-hole in the Hambletonian and raced a heck of a race with Catello Manzi in the driver's seat.

We are proud to say that Fast Photo gave our family the biggest thrill ever when winning the Breeders Crown last October. We did not make it up to Canada for the race, so we watched it on ESPN 2.

The first two races before the Breeders Crown the seven-hole horse won the race. So we were sweating bullets because Fast Photo drew the seven-hole and what's the odds that the seven horse wins three races in a row? Well, all we could do is scream and yell at the TV saying: go Photo go! The odds were finally in our favor. Fast Photo won the race in 1:55.4. With Mike Lachance in the driver's seat. It has taken our family twenty odd years to make it this far in the standardbred industry. We could not have done it with out the great work of our trainer Don Swick, caretakers and drivers that we are fortunate enough to work with.