Pocono Profits Pumped By $75, $21 Winners; Red Mile Cold Exacta $38 With $14 Score Atop; Yonkers Trot Field Set

Once again with its unique bravado, the horses-to-watch list (H2W) scores big with two large wins at Pocono and a win and cold exacta at The Red Mile to top its other payoffs. See the H2W list of wins, places, shows and exactas below.

Pennsylvania Sires Stakes (PASS) at Philly on Aug. 24 opened the weekend of contenders from TwinSpires’ exclusive harness blog. One favorite and two second-choices won the events for frosh-filly pacers. We took a second with Yankee Will Dance ($8.80, $4.60) and a third with Sarpa Hanover ($2.40) while our other contender, Aims Whisper (63-1) finished fourth.

Also on Thursday, in Indiana Sires Stakes (INSS) at Hoosier, we were off the board in two division finals, one with Mystical Motor (6-1) finishing fifth and the other with Brysen (17-1), who broke and was eliminated.

Friday there was more sires stakes action. In Yonkers’ New York Sires Stakes for frosh-colt pacers, each of the three splits was taken by a public choice. We were fourth with Delightful Joe (12-1), sixth with Silver Arrow (9-1) and seventh with Mr Profeta (37-1).

That night in INSS-final action at Hoosier, we were fourth with Modern Reflection (7-2), beaten by a 5-1 shot.

Saturday, Aug. 26’s Canadian Pacing Derby elims at Mohawk were fast and veritably unpredictable. For instance, Rockin Ron went wire to wire in his Mohawk debut, winning with a sub-1:48 mile (go figure), at a well-meant 5-1 (go figure). The other Ron Burke participant in that elim, Check Six, was the favorite. We were sixth with Lyons Snyder (29-1), who was nosed out of the final with that finish.

Dealt A Winner ($2.40) was the favorite in the other elim (go figure that, too) and he was third.

There was a single Messenger elim and as we said, Downbytheseaside was tough to deny. We gave one shot to Miso Fast (29-1) but he couldn’t partner in the exacta which, despite another longshot finishing second, was a one-digit payoff.

In the Yonkers Trot elims we also promoted a “sure thing” and it surely was that when Guardian Angel AS ($3.10, $2.10, n/s) won the second elim. We wound up with the favorite, Devious Man ($2.90, n/s) for a second in the other elim.

BREEDERS CROWN COUNTDOWN

Grand Circuit events at Mohawk were the focus on Aug. 26. The frosh-colt pacers went two miles in the Nassagaweya Stakes. We won with the public choice, Pedro Hanover ($5.00, $3.60, $2.50) in one split and we were second with This Is The Plan ($5.10, $2.70) in the other.

In the Eternal Camnation, our choice, Play The Bell, scratched.


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 44 active horses (an 23-percent win hit rate and a 45-percent ATB [across-the-board] 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

Maxi Bon, $75.00, $13.60, $4.00, Pocono
Bruces Magic, $21.80, $11.20, $5.40, Pocono
*Cordoba Hill, $14.80, $4.00, $3.60
Bad Bad Arcster, $12.00, $6.60, $4.60, Scioto
Talldarkn Handsome, $8.80, $6.30, $5.00, Yonkers
Chevals Clivedale, $5.50, $3.80, $3.00, Yonkers
Riproy, $4.40, $2.60, $2.10, Running Aces
Ask For Me, $4.30, $2.60, $2.30, Century
Idyllic Beach, $3.00, $2.60, $2.20, Meadows
Top Expectations, $2.60, $2.10, $2.10 ok, Red Mile

Seconds

Hockey Hanover, $11.00, $4.60, Pocono
*Raileegotaholdonme, $3.60, $2.60 (Exacta $38.80), Red Mile
Caviart Alley, $3.40, $2.40 (Exacta $5.40), Meadows

Thirds

Garnet, $4.00, Red Mile
Tumblin Dice, $3.60, Plainridge
Thesharksbackintown, $3.20
Remix, $2.60, Scarborough
Cherry Bliss, $2.10, Yonkers
Garnet, n/s, Pocono
Top Flight Angel, n/s, Tioga


News & Notes

Here is the third week of our exclusive TwinSpires top 10 contenders list for the 2017 “Jug” on Sept. 21 (not any or all in this list are guaranteed to race in the Jug but they are all eligible).

1-Fear The Dragon
2-Downbytheseaside
3-Classic Pro
4-Funknwaffles
5-Blood Line
6-Heaven’s Gait
7-Miso Fast
8-Filibuster Hanover
9-Ocean Colony
10-R J P
 
Rosecroft Raceway announced a new schedule for its late-season meet. For the meet that begins Oct. 1, racing will be held Saturday and Sunday evenings. The change is based upon the racing handle shrinking on most weeknights. So, management wants to give full weekends a try to generate interest when more people may be able to attend. Post time for each day of the 26-day meet that concludes Dec. 23 will be 6:40 p.m. There will be two special Friday night cards, Nov. 3 and Nov. 24. The Potomac, for invitational-type pacers, will return this fall after its debut in 2016. Maryland harness racing for the summer is winding down at Ocean Downs. Its current meet ends Sept. 4, Labor Day evening.

Hawthorne Race Course, Illinois’ sole harness venue, hosts the state’s biggest night of harness racing, the Night of Champions, on Saturday, Sept. 23, with a 7:10 p.m. post time. The night includes 11 stakes races and $1 million in purses for Illinois-conceived-and-foaled pacers and trotters in their various divisions. We will cover all of the events in our Sept. 21 preview blog.


Extraordinary Extras

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

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