Cotolo’s Harness Review, News And Notes

This week’s review focuses on the TwinSpires Harness Players Horse of the Year and a look at some of our big successes of 2014. Then, as usual, we will review our feature race results and the H2W action. 

It happened on June 6 this season. Our highest priced selected winner, which is the single qualification to win the players’ top award, came in an elimination of the Armbro Fling at Mohawk. D’orsay won that $31,850 race at 54-1. The trotting mare was our first choice in the race, as documented in our blog the Thursday before the race. She paid $111.30.

Congratulations to trainer Jonas Czernyson, driver Corey Callahan and the owners, Consus Racing Stable, Inc. D’orsay is a five-year-old daughter of Yankee Glide—Danae, by Andover Hall.

The other contenders for D’orsay’s title includedff the following at 20-1 and up: Case Dismissed, $76.40, Meadows; Im Real Good, $70.00, Cal Expo; Obee, $63.60, Meadows; Code One Hanover, $55.70, Red Mile; Honey B, $53.40, Northfield; Only In Lodi, $50.80, Cal Expo; Ms Luck, $50.00, Buffalo; Shamderock, $48.60, Pompano; Traceur Hanover, $46.80, Meadowlands; Mystically Mine, $45.40, Cal Expo; Master Of Law, $44.00, Red Mile; Fashion Mystery, $43.80, Yonkers; Maddysonofagun, $43.60, Hoosier; Well Done Hanover, $41.20, Pocono.

The blog also endorsed 38 horses 10-1 or over and a great number of winners ranging from $2.10 to $19.80.

The blog also produced the winners of many feature events during the season. One major prediction made well before the entries were drawn was The Little Brown Jug. We supported Limelight Beach, who won his elim ($12.00) and the final ($4.00) and we scored in the Jugette with Color’s A Virgin, who won her elim ($8.60) and the final ($4.60).

We scored in the North America Cup with Jk Endofanera ($26.30) and the Carl Milstein with All Bets Off ($16.60), which were two of the better prices for stakes winners. Smaller events that paid well were the Charles Smith Memorial with Skates N Plates ($19.40), the Delaware State Breeders Final for frosh-colt pacers with Sonofa Sizzle ($11.40) and a Fan Hanover elim with Uffizi Hanover ($14.50).

Other stakes winners included the Peter Haughton with Centurian Atm ($8.40), the Ima Lula with Handover Belle ($4.00), the Fan Hanover Final with Uffizi Hanover ($5.30), the Charlie Hill Memorial with Modern Family ($5.80), the Meadowlands Maturity with Captaintreacherous ($3.80), the William Wellwood Final with Habitat ($5.20), the Diplomat with Somewhere In LA ($8.60); and the Horse & Groom Final with IfIdontghttoyurdrms ($9.40).

Through the season we supported some of the season’s award winners and truly best in their divisions, including the sport’s Horse of the Year, Jk She’salady, Father Patrick, Shake It Cerry, Sweet Lou, Sebastian K, Artspeak and the sophomore robbed of the glamour-boy pacing title, Always B Miki.

There were six feature races on the blog docket last week and although only one of them brought success, it was a large enough hit to absorb the losses of the others (using a $2 gauge for wagers to win, place and show and an exacta boxed with our second choice and another with the favorite—of course how you play any races we suggest is your judgment but we offer the profit calculation based on the smallest investments).

At Northlands Park on Saturday, Dec. 27, in Race 3, we nailed the winner and our second choice secured a cold exactor. Best Out West ($23.10, $10.80, $5.80) took the race with Make It So ($5.60, $3.30) completing the combo for a price of $80.00.

The other return came was mild, with Artistic Fusion ($2.70, n/s) losing to the favorite in the Niagara Final at Woodbine on Dec. 26 for an exactor worth $5.70.

As for the other features, Ideal Shadow (16-1) finished fifth; Sandys Candy (6-1) finished sixth; Lex Vegas (18-1) finished fourth; and BR Money Matters (7-1) finished seventh. Those horses will appear as second-time entries on next week’s horses-to-watch (H2W) list, the first for 2015.

H2W RESULTS

The H2W results list across-the-board prices. Also, exactas are included when a H2W horse finishing first or second completes the result with a race favorite or another H2W horse listed in the same race (an asterisk appears when both horses were listed to complete the exacta). If listed horses were active after press time, the date they won, placed or showed appears in parenthesis. This week, there were 32 active horses. 

Winners

Lust, $5.80, $3.20, $2.40, Cal Expo
Never Give Up Hope, $4.70, $3.90, $2.70, Charlottetown
 
Seconds

Halfa Century, $17.60, $9.20 (Exacta $140.20), Sports Creek
Im The Real Major, $3.00, $2.60, Meadowlands

Thirds

Ruths Shadylady, $3.00, Cal Expo
Blocking The Way, $2.80, Meadowlands

News & Notes

It is no surprise to anyone following harness racing in 2014 that Jimmy Takter was voted Trainer of the Yea by members of the U.S. Harness Writers Association. Takter received 84 of 140 votes to finish head ahead of Ron Burke, who got 56 votes. He started horses only 729 times through Dec. 21, but Takter’s stable earned a career-best $13.35 million, an average of $18,300-plus per start.

Takter, 54, won this year’s Hambletonian with the self-driven Trixton, when his stable’s top steed, Father Patrick, broke at the start. Takter’s Hambletonian Oaks win went to the stable’s second-stringer Lifetime Pursuit as his top filly, Shake It Cerry, had a self-defeating trip. Takter became only the second trainer to win both races in the same year, no less accomplishing the feat by beating his best horses. TheTakter-trained Nuncio won the Kentucky Futurity (over Father Patrick by a hair) and Yonkers Trot (Father Patrick was absent).

In addition, Takter won three Breeders Crown trophies—Pinkman, Father Patrick and Shake It Cerry, the latter pair unrelenting. Father Patrick and Nuncio made Takter the first trainer in history to have two million-dollar trotters in the same division in the same year. Among Takter’s top pacers were Lyonssomewhere, Somewhere In L A and Tellitlikeitis. Takter’s previous Trainer of the Year honors came in 2010, 2000 and 1996.

The Meadows have released the details for the 2015 edition of the Adios and its season. The Adios is set for the afternoon of Saturday, Aug. 1, with eliminations Friday, July 25.  The 2015 schedule features 208 live cards, a figure that has remained constant in recent years and indicates the ongoing strength of harness racing in Pennsylvania. Generally, the Meadows will offer four live programs per week — Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday — each beginning at 12:55 p.m. The season will kick off on Monday, Jan. 5. Highlights of the schedule include: through May, the final Friday program of each month will begin at 6:55 p.m. In June, July and August, each Friday card will start at 6:55 p.m.

Extraordinary Extras

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

Ray Cotolo contributed to this blog ~ For Thom Pye cartoons, informative harness history and more, click here ~