Top three-year-olds ready to roll
While thoroughbred racing fans will have to wait another week to see if American Pharoah can stake his claim to immortality by completing the first Triple Crown sweep since 1978 by capturing the Belmont Stakes next Saturday, standardbred racing fans will have a chance to see several of the best three-year-olds of both gaits compete this weekend.
This Saturday night at Hoosier Park in Indiana, the top rated horse in the sport's latest poll, Wiggle It Jiggle It
This Saturday night at Hoosier Park in Indiana, the top rated horse in the sport's latest poll, Wiggle It Jiggle It
[Montrell Teague] will put his perfect record on the line when he goes postward in a $75,000 Indiana Sire Stakes final. Wiggle It Jiggle It, who has won all eight of his starts this year and boasts an eye-opening 1:49 mark at Harrington Raceway, a half-mile oval in Delaware, will leave from post seven in the field of 10.
But Wiggle It Jiggle It is hardly a mortal lock this weekend. Drawing just to his outside in post nine is Freaky Feet Pete (Trace Tetrick), a winner of his seasonal debut last week in 1:50.3. Freaky Feet Pete was last year's champion Indiana-sired two-year-old pacing colt when he won nine of 10 starts. His reign will get an acid test on Saturday night in his first meeting with Wiggle It Jiggle It.
Several of the sport's best sophomores will also go postward within an hour of one another at the Meadowlands in a pair of New Jersey Sire Stakes finals.
In the fourth race, the $100,000 NJSS final for three-year-old filly trotters, Mission Brief (Yannick Gingras) will leave from post 10 as the prohibitive favorite. Mission Brief won her sophomore debut two weeks ago in 1:53.4, but last year she won nine of 13 starts en route to being champion two-year-old filly trotter. She broke stride in all four of her setbacks, but stayed flat en route to those nine scores.
Then two races later on the card in the $100,000 NJSS final for three-year-old pacing colts, Hurrikane Ali (Gingras) and Artspeak (Scott Zeron) will battle for early supremacy. Hurrikane Ali has won all three of his starts this season, but Artspeak won his seasonal debut in 1:49 to serve notice that the sport's champion two-year-old colt pacer is in no hurry to relinquish his title of best of his generation.
But Wiggle It Jiggle It is hardly a mortal lock this weekend. Drawing just to his outside in post nine is Freaky Feet Pete (Trace Tetrick), a winner of his seasonal debut last week in 1:50.3. Freaky Feet Pete was last year's champion Indiana-sired two-year-old pacing colt when he won nine of 10 starts. His reign will get an acid test on Saturday night in his first meeting with Wiggle It Jiggle It.
Several of the sport's best sophomores will also go postward within an hour of one another at the Meadowlands in a pair of New Jersey Sire Stakes finals.
In the fourth race, the $100,000 NJSS final for three-year-old filly trotters, Mission Brief (Yannick Gingras) will leave from post 10 as the prohibitive favorite. Mission Brief won her sophomore debut two weeks ago in 1:53.4, but last year she won nine of 13 starts en route to being champion two-year-old filly trotter. She broke stride in all four of her setbacks, but stayed flat en route to those nine scores.
Then two races later on the card in the $100,000 NJSS final for three-year-old pacing colts, Hurrikane Ali (Gingras) and Artspeak (Scott Zeron) will battle for early supremacy. Hurrikane Ali has won all three of his starts this season, but Artspeak won his seasonal debut in 1:49 to serve notice that the sport's champion two-year-old colt pacer is in no hurry to relinquish his title of best of his generation.
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