Harness Weekly Update: There's joy with Mudville among double-digit winners

The TwinSpires Harness Blog Weekly Update covers our successes and failures from selected features and the H2W (horses-to-watch list). H2W horses through the following Monday appear in the next Update’s results.

Thursday, March 9

This week’s trio of Mohawk Miles saw one bet-back hit the board: Reys N A Rocket ($3.20, $2.60), who went off the race favorite. Larry Is Debs Rock (5-1) finished fourth to a 5-1 winner, while Its A Long Story (42-1) was sixth to the race favorite.

At the Meadows, our suggested Power Plays brought home the exacta with the race favorite; Battle King ($3.80, $2.60) ignited the $9.60 combo win. Our other two contenders finished off the board; Save The Goal (32-1) was sixth, and Green Magic (4-1) galloped home, finishing 10th.

Friday, March 10

At Yonkers we won our feature with Kingsville ($3.60, $2.50, $2.50 OK). The selected exotic partners both failed to produce. Pro Beach (18-1) finished fifth, and Eddard Hanover (12-1) struggled home eighth.

Saturday, March 11

Pocono’s feature delivered a big winner with Mudville ($24.60, $9.20, $3.20), though 5-2 contender Stellar BB faltered by breaking and finishing distanced. However, 11-1 Virgin Storm finished fourth to complete a 50-percent contribution to the superfecta.

H2W LIST RESULTS

The H2W results list across-the-board prices. Exactas listed include a H2W horse finishing second to a race-favorite or if the first two finishers are H2W horses (an asterisk appears when both horses are listed—a cold exacta). The note “OK” determines that prices are correct (even when a show price exceeds a place price or all prices are the same).

Please note that some results reflect horses racing after the blog posts (they appear the following week).

This week, there were 45 active H2W horses (an 8% win hit rate and a 38% ATB [across-the-board] hit). Horses with asterisks before their names were tweets @FrankCotolo. Follow for late choices.

Winners

Into The Unknown, $53.00, $17.00, $7.40, Pocono
Got The Mojo, $30.40, $12.80, $2.60, Dover
Angelo, $3.60, $2.60, $2.80 OK, Dover
Ladyflix, $3.40, $2.60, $2.10, Freehold

Seconds

Thatswhatisaid, $7.20, $4.40 (Exacta $17.80), Dover
Voracious, $6.80, $3.00, Flamboro
Pridecrest, $4.60, $2.20, Cal-Exxpo
The Pantheist A $2.20, $2.10, Yonkers

Thirds

Bettingonthebeach, $4.00, Flamboro
B Nicking, $3.60, Yonkers
US Captain, $3.60, Dover
Chief Corleone, $3.40, Flamboro
Sergeant Highway, $3.40, Miami
Bee Jammin, $3.00, Meadows
Tolly-ho, $2.90, Monticello
Imalwaysclassy, $2.60, Rosecroft
Create Mystique, $2.20, Pocono

NEWS & NOTES

The stakes season launches at Yonkers with the Borgata Series for older pacing horses and the Matchmaker Series for pacing mares on March 20. They continue for five consecutive weeks with $50,000 preliminary legs as the best of them battle to $200,000-added finals on April 24. Check for contenders and betting strategies weekly as a major part of our coverage.

A total of 37 older male pacers make up fields. Among the entries are last year’s champs, Funatthebeach N and Drama Act (mares). The 2023 Borgata champion gets a win-and-you’re-in opportunity to the $200,000 Battle of Lake Erie at Northfield on June 10 and the $200,000 Aria Pace at Yonkers on Sept. 23. Also contending are American Courage, Jimmy Freight, Tattoo Artist, Leonidas A, and This Is The Plan.

For the first month of this year, our plays presented no major contenders for our TwinSpires Players’ 2023 Horse of the Year. Then some big prices lined up in races over three weeks. A $57 winner in the second week of February was the leading candidate, but not for long. At the end of the month a $62 winner became the leading candidate, but not for long. A few days later a $96 winner took a firm lead, giving some other high-priced winners no chance of contending.

Extraordinary Extras

Indulge in our new monthly column, Among Ourselves, at Harness Racing Update.