Super Saratoga-Stakes Winner Grabbed At $11.20; Chalk Marked And Faded

On the features menu we were competitive this past weekend but only nailed the most expensive stakes of the weekend. At Saratoga, the fiery half-mile speedster PH Supercam ($11.20, $4.20, $4.00) was nimble on four turns and wide most of them to win the $260,000 Joe Gerrity Memorial on Saturday, July 25.

We wound up with a lot of favorites and were spoiled by public choices with some longer shots. In the Adios elims at the Meadows, were were third to the favorite in the first of three splits with Dreams Beachboy ($3.40).

A huge longshot won the second elim by a hair with a great inside trip to beat our colt, who was favored. Lost For Words ($3.20, $2.10) made the final finishing second.

Then, in round three we were off the board to the public choice with Jo Pa’s Well Said. The 2015 Adios, sans the division’s stars, will be covered in our preview blog this week.

At The Meadowlands July 25, our choice in the Miss New Jersey, The Show Returns ($2.20) was the public’s choice, too, finishing third to one of the other favorites. The colts’ New Jersey Classic offered an upset, as our evaluation of Artspeak was correct and he was beaten, finishing third to the race’s second best wagered upon. Our pick, Pierce Hanover (15-1) had an awful trip on the outside in a blistering three-quarters; he finished seventh/last.

In Ontario we had only one second in three sires-stakes splits with Go Daddy Go ($4.30, $3.70) and both Friday and Saturday’s Indiana Sires Stakes finals suggestions were big failures at 58-1, 16-1 and 46-1.

The Hambletonian Trail blog featured Sunday, July 26’s major trot features for colts and fillies, the Harry Zweig Stakes. The Hambletonian favorite is all but official at this point, as Pinkman took the colts’ event as the overwhelming choice, coupled with Jimmy Takter’s other three top racers Canepa Hanover (second), Uncle Lasse (fifth) and Whom Shall I Fear (sixth), of which beat our choice Habitat (8-1), who finished seventh.

The Hambletonian Oaks will present elims next week but we have to wait to see if Mission Brief, who won the filly “Zweig,” will go against the girls or enter with the boys in the main event. Chances are she will take on her own sex; tune in for that decision. Our filly choice, Lock Down Lindy (9-2) broke at the start and was eliminated, finishing ninth/last. The Zweig consolation went to Muscle Diamond, the public choice, while our outside contender, Uncle Hanover (21-1) finished sixth.

In between published harness blogs, follow @FrankCotolo and @TwinSpires on Twitter.

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 the 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 50 active horses (a 20-percent win hit rate and a 44 percent in-the-money hit rate). One note: the list included three horses at Batavia that at the time we thought would be betting races; they turned out to be non-betting races.

Please note that some H2W results reflect win, place and/or show results occurring after press time and that it is up to you to follow those horses that have not performed before this weekly review is posted.

Winners

Shellys Man, $10.90, $2.70, $2.10, Charlottetown
War College, $8.20, $3.40, $2.60, Northfield
Lets Drink On It, $7.80, $4.60, $3.80, Hoosier
Racing Hill, $5.00, $2.80, $2.80 ok, Meadowlands
Electric Mayhem, $4.80, 3.80, $2.60, Scarborough
Lucan Hanover, $4.10, $2.50, $2.60 ok, Yonkers
Bellas Quick, $3.80, $2.80, $2.10, Northfield
Milano Grande, $3.40, $2.20, $2.10, Northfield
Shirleys Dream, $3.20, $2.20, $2.10, Hoosier
Carols Comet, $3.00, $2.40, $2.40 ok, Scioto

Seconds

Mic Mac Beau $6.00, $3.80 (Exacta $28.60), Ocean
Lagerfield, $3.20, $2.60, Philadelphia
Mystical Con, $3.10, $2.40, Vernon

Thirds

Capitol Hill, $4.40, Century
Surface Tension, $4.40, Vernon
Momas Got A Gun, $3.60, Meadows
Sharp Returns, $3.40, Scioto
Ahead Of The Curve, $3.20, Scioto
Witch Dali, $2.80, Meadowlands
Obrigado, $2.60, Meadowlands
Kumu, $2.30, Century
Hititoutofthepark, $2.10, Philadelphia

News & Notes

The 69th season of live harness racing at Batavia Downs, America’s oldest nighttime harness raceway, begins July 27, with first race post time at 6:35 p.m. It is the first of 70 live racing dates during the summer-fall session that runs through Dec. 12. The racing schedule begins with a Sunday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday rotation for August and switches to a Wednesday, Friday, Saturday slate for the remainder of the meet.

For the first time in track history there are eight matinee cards to be held during the year. Besides five Sundays in August, afternoon starts are also set for Labor Day (Sept. 7), Columbus Day (Oct. 12) and Breeders’ Cup day (Oct. 31). Two twilight Tuesdays have been penciled in for Sept. 15 and 22. Post time for Wednesday, Friday and Saturday are 6:35 p.m. until Oct. 21 when it changes to 6:15 p.m. for the remainder of the meet. All matinees start at 1:15 p.m. and the two Tuesday cards start at 4:30 p.m.

After last week’s Hambletonian Maturity we emphasized the odd performance of Father Patrick. At the time, no one suggested a reason why the champion trotter looked so terrible recently. Now, trainer Jimmy Takter is searching for answers. Takter said that he will probably be consulting specialists due to the recent races from the $2.6-million earner. Takter plans on having “Patrick” examined by veterinarians because he believes there is an unresolved issue. It’s not like Takter hasn’t been attentive. He said he has looked at all the possibilities but he cannot find anything wrong. “There is something bothering him right now,” Takter said. “He was super coming into his last two starts and then he was just empty.” Stay tuned.

There are increased purses at Yonkers Raceway for horses that are non-winners of two, four and six pari-mutuel races. It began in July. Yonkers significantly raised purses for younger horses. The new purse levels mean the non-winners-of-two class races for $20,000 each week, the non-winners of four races for $25,000 and the non-winners of six races for $30,000. Grand Circuit horsemen that might not routinely race at Yonkers took immediate notice of the purse increases and of those, active conditioners like Chuck Sylvester and Frank Antonacci picked up their first wins of the season at Yonkers racing youngsters on the inaugural week the increased purse levels kicked in.

Extraordinary Extras

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

Ray Cotolo contributed to this blog

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