‘Angel’ Blesses Breeders Crown Elim Win At $20; Twinkle Flashes $55 Exacta With Top Mare Pacer; Some Surprises Surface

 

Here are the results and some brief notes on our successes and failures through the Breeders Crown elimination weekend:

Friday, Oct. 19

BREEDERS CROWN COUNTDOWN

Freshman fillies on both gaits were handled in our special “Crown” blog. There were five races, three for filly trotters and two for filly pacers.

We had only one winner, one which turned out to be the public choice—Woodside Charm ($2.40, $2.10, $2.10). That came in the second filly trot elim. In the other two elims for this division we were handed no chances at all when both of our outside contenders broke. Ma Was Right (9-1) jumped and finished last, losing to a 7-1 shot, and Sister’s Promise (23-1) galloped to finish seventh; the second choice of the public won.

The pair of pace elims were won by the race favorite and second favorite. In round one we finished fifth with Treacherous Reign (9-2) and in round two She’s Allright (51-1) race miserably out of it, positioned last through the mile.

The other five frosh elims were addressed in our main blog:

Our only winner was Gimpanzee ($4.00, $2.40, $2.40) in one of the two colt-trotter elims. He was the public choice in the eight-horse field. We offered Prospect Hill (17-1) but he paced home fourth.

In the second trot elim, we suffered from our first choice (also the public’s choice), Cantab Fashion (8-5), breaking at the start. It was not just a win-ticket problem, it echoed through our trifecta choices, which finished in their proposed spots. The forecasted triple would have been a cold hit. Second was Green Manalishi S ($3.00, $2.20) and third was Super Schissel ($7.20). The race was won by a 17-1 shot.

We were only active in two of the three colt pacer elims since Stag Party scratched (see News & Notes below) in the second of three tests.

We were second in the first elim with Air Force Hanover ($3.80, $3.00), who was beaten by a 9-1 shot. The public’s second choice won the other elim, where we ended up fifth with Semi Tough (7-1).


Saturday, Oct. 13

Rain soaked the Pocono track for the second Crown elim program but it had little affect on the top three-year-old-and-older divisions for their eliminations.

In the first elim for soph-colt trotters we were second with Met’s Hall ($2.20, $2.10), prompting a teeny exacta of $4.80 with the winning favorite.

There was no surprise in round two for the soph-colt trotters. It was all Six Pack, the undisputed favorite. We just lost the cold exacta as our choice for second, Run Director ($4.20), was nosed out of the place at the wire, getting third.

The soph-filly trotters’ elims were each dominated by favorites and nothing we could do upset them. In elim one we were seventh with Seviyorum and in elim two we were fourth with Phaetosive (3-1).

Our choice in the first elim for the mare pacers was upset by an 8-1 shot at post that flashed 18-1 in the flash after the betting ended. We had Pure Country ($3.60, $2.80); she finished second.

In the other mare-pace elim our first choice finished second to the big favorite. Twinkle ($5.60, $4.80) ignited an exacta worth $55.00.

We were on board with the top two finishers (our top two contenders) in the first elim for mare trotters, winning with Emoticon Hanover ($11.00, $2.80, $2.60) and the favorite, Ariana G ($2.10, $2.10) second. That exacta paid $22.60.

The second mare trot was a steeplechase as the first two public choices galloped while chasing NF Happenstance (9-1) and that put the field in disarray. We finished fourth with Caprice Hill (7-2).

In the first elim for the glamour-boy pacers (there were three) we finished fifth with outside contender Cinnamack (13-1) as we tried to failed in our attempt to beat the favorite, who won.

Much disappointment spread around for bettors in the second elim for the soph-colt pacers as Courtly Choice, the dead-on favorite and our choice, could not even make the final with his trademark overland trip. He finished sixth—and probably the season. The race was won by an 8-1 shot that was unable to come near Courtly Choice the whole season.

Lather Up ($2.60), our choice, broke and came back to finish third in the third soph-colt pace elim. The miscue was benefited by a 39-1 shot who took advantage of the tussle and won.

There was only a single elim mile for the soph-filly pacers and once again the chalk ruled the sloppy track. We failed again, this time with Percy Blue Chip (11-1), who finished sixth.

Two elims for Open trotters finished the Pocono program on Saturday. In elim one we did not prosper from Marion Marauder (9-5) but in elim two we saved the whole evening with Top Flight Angel ($20.60, $8.60, $6.80), who commanded the mile.


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H2W LIST RESULTS

The H2W results list across-the-board prices. Also, exactas listed are included when a H2W horse finishes second with a race favorite or the first two finishers making up the exacta are H2W horses (an asterisk appears when both horses were listed to complete a cold exacta). The note “ok” determines that prices published are correct even when a show price exceeds a place price or any or all of the prices are the same. This week, there were 55 active horses (a 20-percent win hit rate and a 49-percent ATB [in the money] hit rate).

Please note that some H2W results reflect win, place, show and exotic results occurring by press time but some horses race after the blog is posted (we list them the following week) It is up to you to follow horses that have not performed before this weekly review

Winners

Blacktree, $14.40, $3.60, $6.00 ok, Bangor
Keystone Riptide, $13.80, $4.00, $2.20, Pocono
Pops Pool Room, $10.40, $4.40, $3.20, Plainridge
Apollo’s Creed, $7.20, $2.60, $2.60 ok, Freehold
Si Semalu, $7.20, $3.60, $2.10, Pocono
Upto A Dream, $6.80, $3.50, $5.10, Vernon
Missile J, $6.60, $3.20, $3.20 ok, Dayton
Mission Three, $5.80, $4.40, $5.10 ok, Mohawk
Windsong Manifique, $5.50, $3.40, $2.70, Mohawk
Stars An Stones, $5.20, $3.00, $3.00 ok, Northfield
Bellatricks, $3.40, $2.30, $2.10, Yonkers

Seconds

Voom Or Bang, $9.00, $4.00, Hoosier
A Beach Cowgirl, $8.00, $6.00, Meadowlands
Lake Shark, $7.70, $3.70 (Exacta $10.00), Batavia
Artrageous, $5.00, $3.00, Yonkers
Kings Treasure, $4.40, $2.80 (Exacta $14.40), Batavia
Buckeye N, $2.80, $3.00 ok, Plainridge

Thirds

Reve Toujours, $12.80, Meadowlands
Clear Idea, $4.80, Meadowlands
Piranha Fury, $4.40, Hoosier
Rockinbeach, $4.00, Hoosier
Regil Elektra, $3.90, Yonkers
Winning Lyric, $2.90, Mohawk
JS McFlash, $2.80, Scarborough
Nixie Volo, $2.80, Hoosier
Late Night Flight, $2.50, Monticello
Darn Tootin Hanover, $2.10, Meadowlands


News & Notes

You have to love horseman George Brennan. On Oct. 19 he won the 10,000^th race of his driving career while working his usual shift at Yonkers, but his attitude about the rare achievement in harness racing is more impressive than the feat. When he was told he had driven his 10,000^th race win, George said, “It’s a good number, but nothing I was aiming for, but I understand it’s significant.” Brennan, 51, became the 16^th North American driver to reach 10,000. Brennan won his first race at Monticello Raceway, his hometown track, when he was a high school junior in 1982. Adding 9,999 wins to it by 2018, winners he drove have earned approximately $171.8 million, which ranks seventh in the all-time list. We have not calculated a workup of George’s flat-bet-profit figure for his winning prices versus his number of drives since his career started—yet. When we do, we will publish those statistics here.

Woodbine Mohawk Park (WoMo to us) announced that year-round racing will be split into two meets for trainer and driver titles. This affects handicapping information, in our opinion, in terms of trainer-win-percentages, the more important of the two statistics involved. The current meet concludes on Oct. 29 and has been classified as the Championship Meet. The leading trainer and driver at the end of this meet receive the title based on raw wins. The second meet (autumn, winter, spring) at WoMo begins Nov. 1 until mid-May. For essential trainer-win-percentages, see the stats at Standardbred Canada’s website and ignore all columns except “win percentage.”

It was obvious that the frosh-colt-pacing eliminations for the Breeder’s Crown at Pocono on Oct. 19 were sans the two colts who became stars of that division. First, Captain Ahab did not drop into the box for the elim. There was no official announcement but it was obvious from his last few losing races that something was not going well with him. He was loss-free until he met his match, Stag Party, in the Metro and lost miserably. From there, Stag Party took control of the division and dropped into the box for the “Crown” elim. Then, Stag Party scratched. No official reports have been filed about the duo’s disappearance at championship time. We shall report all findings ASAP.


Extraordinary Extras

Indulge in many standardbred topics at my Hoof Beats blog titled Vast Performances.

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