Harness Weekly Update: Plentiful weekend hits going into Yonkers Monday

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.

Reminder: Selections for Monday 

Borgata Pacing Series
Yonkers - Leg 2; $50k

Race 3
Seven older pacing horses go in this division. #4 None Bettor A returns to start his season in a good spot, post 4. Trainer Travis Alexander had enough confidence in his pacer to begin in this series; good enough for us against the obvious.

Race 5
The eight stalwarts here each have reasons to back but we like the rail and #1 Semi Tough, who was short last week but needed that race and should fire big here.

Race 7
Last season we loved #3 Leonidas A, and this year he smothered his division in the first leg and again shows the potential to go all the way in this series. Of course, #5 Idealsomemagic A is the main threat.

Race 9
#8 Covered Bridge from post 8 should include strong value, having a great chance to overcome the crowd-cursed post. Last week at 31-1 from post 7 he made two moves to finish third. One of them, with early speed, is the type to get a good spot—if not the top spot—and command this pace. Longshot alert.

Thursday, March 23

This week’s trio of Mohawk Miles contenders produced a big winner with Horn Player ($17.80, $9.90, $5.50). Electro Long Legs (9-1) finished sixth, beaten by the race’s other 9-1 shot. Moneyworth (6-1) broke and finished eighth to the race favorite.

At Yonkers, our feature pair of contenders lost to a horse on the H2W (see Cowgirl Lilly, below). Major Battle ($2.20) finished third and Trizzle Trazzle (36-1) was fifth at the finish.

Friday, March 24

Leg 2 of the Matchmaker Series at Yonkers found us with two winners in four divisions. In the first division we won with Lydeo ($16.00, $6.40, $3.70) and in the third with Racine Bell ($3.40, $2.40, $2.10). Commander Cathy N (46-1) finished fifth in division two, and Annerie N (87-1) was sixth.

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 46 active H2W horses (a 26% win hit rate and a 50% ATB [across-the-board] hit). Horses with asterisks before their names were tweets @FrankCotolo. Follow for late choices.

Winners

Advance Man, $24.40, $8.80, $5.40, Dover
Eurobond, $22.80, $8.20, $4.00, Meadowlands
Tapped Teen, $10.40, $6.60, $4.80, Rosecroft
Cowgirl Lilly, $10.00, $3.80, $3.00, Yonkers
Aerial View, $12.40, $7.20, $7.20, Cal-Expo
World On Edge, $7.20, $7.00, $5.60, Miami
Always B True, $5.60, $3.80, $2.20, Meadowlands
Century Hefner, $5.40, $2.40, $2.40 OK, Rosecroft
Chase The Gold, $4.40, $3.00, $2.10, Cal-Expo
Odds On Blockchain, $3.60, $2.50, $2.60 OK, Saratoga
Stag Party, $3.40, $2.40, $2.10, Rosecroft
Google My Chrome, $3.30, $2.40, $2.20, Meadows

Seconds

Southside Kid, $5.40, $4.60, Hoosier
Mega Clyde, $4.20, $3.20, Rosecroft
Always A Miki, $4.10, Saratoga
Iwannabewithyou, $3.40, $2.20, Dover
Liberty N Freedom, $3.40, $2.60 (Exacta $9.00), Meadows
Wania, $2.60, n/s (Exacta $7.00), Yonkers

Thirds

Jumping The Line $7.60, Miami
Star Commander N, $3.40, Hoosier
Battle King, $3.00, Meadows
Nasey, $2.60, Pocono
Shine A Light, $2.30, Yonkers

NEWS & NOTES

The Borgata Pacing Series continues its legs on Mondays at Yonkers. Our Harness Previews, which post on Thursdays, cover upcoming divisions and report on our results from the previous legs. The mares’ Matchmaker series are not affected by the harness deadlines and are reported in the following Update, per above.

Harrah’s Philadelphia (Philly) opens its 17th harness racing season on April 2 at 12:40 p.m. (ET) with a weekly schedule of Thursdays and Fridays at 12:25 p.m. and Sundays at 12:40. Two exceptions are Easter Sunday, April 9, when the track will be dark and Kentucky Derby day, Saturday, May 6, when racing begins at 12:40. Wednesdays are added on May 17, and the four-program-a-week format goes on through August.

In case you have not read about it, the 160-day season Harrah’s Hoosier Park Racing offers the most lucrative stakes program in the track’s history. The grand finale of the 2023 season is the return of the Breeders Crown elims and championship finals on Oct. 27-28.

Hoosier Park’s betting options are back for 2023, including the Hoosier High-5 with an industry low takeout of 12% and a minimum wager of 20 cents. The Hoosier High-5 is offered on the last race each night, provided there are at least seven entrants. If there are no winning tickets, the net money wagered that day is carried over to the next day’s Hoosier High-5 pool.

Extraordinary Extras

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