Cotolo’s Harness Review, News And Notes

The bad news is that none of the horses in our four feature races won, nor did any of our Super Bowl and Worldly Beauty round-one choices. The good news is that in every one of those races was won by the public choice at prohibitive prices. Here’s how we faired in the lot:

At the Meadowlands, Jan. 8, in the Super Bowl quartet, Charleston Springs (17-1) was third ($15.40), Teach Me To Bucky (6-1) was second ($3.20, $2.20, Exacta $5.00), Patronus (92-1) broke and was sixth and Big Money Grip (96-1) was ninth. At the Meadowlands, Jan. 9, n the two Worldly Beauty splits, Pretty Girl Swag (36-1) was fifth and Hex (8-1) was fourth.

At the Meadows, Jan. 9, Shucked was scatched. At Yonkers that night, 20-1 Know It All finished seventh and Saturday at Charlottetown, A Fiesty X Ample (12-1) finished fourth.

All of these horses will appear in next week’s H2W list. And this past week, that is where we delivered. The list below covers the wins, places, shows and exactas from our Thursday blog.

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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 30 active horses. Western Fair cancelled and there were a few scratches from the list. Any horses listed for 1/12/15 will appear in next week’s review if they make the boards.

Winners

Blue Gem, $21.40, $7.40, $3.00, Cal Expo
Chocoholic, $10.00, $5.40, $3.60, Meadowlands
Alexis Style, $9.40, $5.60, $3.80, Dover
Muscles Princes, $4.20, $2.80, $2.20, Freehold
Oompa Loompa, $4.20, $2.60, $2.20, Cal Expo
Up Front Kellie Jo, $3.80, $2.80, $2.10, Northfield
Excellence, $3.00, $2.10, $2.10 ok, Flamboro
 
Seconds

Twin B Bikini, $2.80, 2.20 (Exacta $13.80), Freehold
Backstreet Hanover, $2.40, $2.30, Yonkers
 
Thirds

Wygant Princess, $8.00, Freehold
Ahh Panama, $5.60, Cal Expo
Kelly Blue Chip, $4.20, Northfield
Maurel N Hardy, $3.00, Meadows
Stonebridge Tonic, $2.30, Yonkers
Skates N Plates, $2.20, Meadows
 
News & Notes

Woodbine Entertainment Group (WEG) has set the date for the 2015 Pepsi North America Cup and the rest of its $18-million-plus harness stakes schedule. The 32nd edition of the $1-million Pepsi North America Cup (soph pacers) will take place on Saturday, June 20 at Mohawk. The eliminations will be a week prior, on June 13. The “Cup” final will once again feature a stellar stakes program for many divisions.

The 2015 stakes calendar also includes the Breeders Crown at Woodbine on Saturday, Oct. 24, returning to the Toronto oval for the first time since 2012. Mohawk will again be the battleground for several top Grand Circuit events. The Labour Day weekend extravaganza features the Metro Pace for frosh pacing colts and the Canadian Pacing Derby for older pacers (Saturday, Sept. 5). The Canadian Trotting Classic (soph trotters) usually reunites the Hambletonian battlers and is scheduled this season for Saturday, Sept. 19. Over the last several years, the Maple Leaf Trot was staged in July but will now be paired with the Trotting Classic in September.

Arch Madness, who turned 11 on Jan. 1, has retired from racing. The Trond Smedshammer-trained gelding’s career wins included a Breeders Crown, Maple LeafTrot and Oslo Grand Prix en route to earning $4.28 million in purses. Arch Madness, a son of Balanced Image stood a little crooked as a young horse but matured into a multiple-stakes-winner. He raced only twice at two but made headlines the following season when he upset 2007 Hambletonian-winner Donato Hanover in the Breeders Crown. Arch Madness ranks sixth in earnings among all trotters in history. He made a record seven appearances in the Breeders Crown. Internationally, he finished second in Sweden’s Elitloppet in 2012 and 2013.

Extraordinary Extras

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

Ray Cotolo contributed to this blog

Cartoons by Thom Pye ~ For Thom Pye cartoons, informative harness history and more, click here ~