Meadows’ Strike At $33 Tops Winners ; Picks Partner For Triactors At Mohawk; 50-Percent H2W Rate Is Year’s Highest

The big June 18 Mohawk program featuring the North America Cup was kind to the betting public’s choices, offering few surprises, which did not do us much good in the features category. Our minor score at the Meadows earlier in the day and some strong prices overall on the horses-to-watch (H2W) list made our wagering satisfactory.

The older trotters racing in a Meadows Maturity event on the afternoon of June 18 featured our choice as the winner. Homicide Hunter ($6.20, $3.60, $2.40) was a second choice, that in itself a surprise, shipping in from Indiana, but, as we thought, much the best of the small field.

In the main event at Mohawk, we were right and we were wrong. The winner turned out to be the even-money favorite, Betting Line, which we denied, but finishing directly behind him were our choices, Racing Hill ($3.70, $3.30) and Control The Moment ($4.10). Racing Hill was the public’s second choice, which was far off of our forecast, and Control The Moment was the fourth choice (8-1), racing entirely different than we thought he would if he won. “Control” fired quickly to the front from post 9 and displayed scorching fractions (26.4, 53.4 and 1:20.3), which were enough to slow him down in the stretch, where Racing Hill nailed him and Betting Line flew by them both in the manner we thought Control would race. The favorite and our two choices resulted in a triactor worth $77.60.

The crowd’s Armbro Flight choice won, matching a world-record mile, while our choices, Rockin With Dewey (42-1) and Elegant Serentity (34-1) were eighth and seventh respectively.

Another come-from-behind public choice, Pure Country, took advantage of speedsters in the Fan Hanover and beat our choices, Darlinonthebeach ($3.20, $2.60) and LA Delight ($2.60). The triactor with the favorite and our two choices paid $72.70.

The contentious Roses Are Red Final went to 4-1 Lady Shadow, with the favorite out of the money. We were second with Waasmula ($9.10, $6.30), while our other contender, Sandbetweenurtoes (4-1), finished seventh.

The Mohawk Gold Cup sent our solo contender into the mile with a huge price. P H Supercam (61-1) finished fourth for Superfecta players as the obvious Always B Miki won easily, followed by the public’s second choice.
 
On various Wednesday nights we tweet for TwinSpires Twitter members from @FrankCotolo –retweeted by @twinspires—and the raceway involved. Losers from each week will appear on the next week’s horses-to-watch (H2W) list unless they race before that blog is published, so watch for them returning to the races on days in between blogs. Watch for special tweets from raceways on various Wednesdays.

HAMBLETONIAN TRAIL

On the big Mohawk program June 18, soph-colt trotters shuffled too much in the Goodtimes Final and when the favorite broke stride, our choice, Will Take Charge ($9.60, $7.00) was nabbed by an 8-1 Marion Maurader.

On June 19, in Pocono’s trio of sires stakes for soph-filly trotters, the huge favorite was our second choice, that winner being Broadway Donna ($3.40, $2.80, $3.00 ok), with our first choice, Lookin Sharp (13-1) finishing sixth.

In the second split we were third with My Pink Bike ($3.80); the public choice won.

We won the third sires stakes event with Ultimate Shopper ($7.20, $3.40, $2.80).

At Vernon on June 19, the lucrative Empire Breeders Classic finals for colt-and-filly trotters found us fifth with fillies, having Fad Finance (e4-1) finishing fifth, and fourth with the race favorite for the colts, The Royal Harry.

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 54 active horses (an 8-percent win hit rate and a 50-percent 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 is posted.

Winners

Celtic Prince, $33.80, $7.40, $6.20, Meadows
Pembroke Lil, $10.60, $5.00, $2.60, Plainridge
National Debt, $9.40, $5.20, $4.40, Pocono
Four Feathers, $7.70, $5.00, $2.60, Century
Moon Landing, $7.20, $4.40, $2.20, Bangor
Pembroke Prayer, $6.80, $2.20, 2.10, Bangor
Mr Bigglesworth, $5.20, $2.40, $2.10, Ocean

Seconds

Just Breathe, $13.40, $8.00 (Exacta $30.00), Bangor
Zip The Lip, $6.30, $3.30, Charlottetown
Victorious Money, $5.80, $2.20 (Exacta $20.00), Hoosier
Someislandsomewhere, $5.60, $4.00 (Exacta $27.40), Running Aces
Charlot Semalu, $5.20, $2.20 (Exacta $14.80), Scarborough
Sweetmrcantab, $5.00, $2.60, Norhville
Serious George, $4.80, n/s, Buffalo
Moonshine Malone, $4.20, $2.40 (Exacta $8.40)
Double Miles, $3.80, $2.20 (Exacta, $5.00), Harrington
Bold And Lazy, $3.20, $2.90, Buffalo
Jitterbug Hanover, $3.00, $2.60, Scarborough

Thirds

Cassea, $4.90, Century
Bad Bad Baylee, $4.20, Scarborough
Real Passing Lady, $4.20, Ocean
Hopedale Dora, $3.80, Charlottetown
Bumbsandbruises, $3.70, Charlottetown
Hot Chica Boomba, $3.50, Mohawk
Rocky Cougar, $3.00, Plainridge
Blueridge Empire, $2.90, Tioga
Gangham Style, $2.10, Charlottetown

News & Notes

The H2W has been revealing winners in overnight races for 24 weeks as of this blog. We did some calculations for e mid-year, 2016. In the 24 lists of winners, the average price of the highest paying H2W horse is $28.53. Looking further into the details of this aspect, not one H2W winner that reigned during a single week paid less than 9-2. The H2W list remains to be the most reliable list of “touted” horses to use in win, place, show and as exotic-wagering elements than any other in print or on line.
 
The 2016 season at Batavia Downs, America’s oldest lighted harness track, will feature 70 race dates and include six matinees and three twilight programs. The meet will open on Monday, July 25 and will conclude on Saturday, Dec. 10. Live racing will be presented on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday nights to begin the season with a new first-race post time of 6:15 p.m. Sunday afternoon will replace Monday night beginning on July 31. Holiday matinees will include Labor Day (Sept. 5) and Columbus Day (Oct. 10). All matinee post times are 1:15 p.m. A special Breeders’ Cup program on Saturday (Nov. 5) will begin at 3:30 p.m.

Let’s check the drivers-streak monitor for Jason Bartlett and Mark Macdonald at Yonkers on June 17 and June 18, where they streaked wins respectively. Bartlett won six of 11 drives, costing $22 to cover, and returning $35.80, a profit of $13.80. Macdonald won six of 10 drives and conquered the toteboard. His wins paid, from best to worst, $59.00, $38.00, $25.60, $9.00, $11.40 and $5.00. It cost $20 to cover all 10 Macdonald drives with a return of $148, a profit of $128. The drivers-streak monitor applauds Macdonald for the best driver-based flat-bet profit in the past few years. Macdonald has been racing at Yonkers for a while since abandoning Canada, and is generally low profile to the Yonkers crowd. 

Extraordinary Extras

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

Ray Cotolo contributed to this blog

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