Top Two Take Mohawk Million; Filly Beats Old Oaken Bucket Boys

TwinSpires Harness Preview blog feature results are below, along with in-the-money finishers from our horses-to-watch list (H2W), and of course, our News & Notes section, which reports and remarks on the states of our sport.

Thursday, Sept. 24

We backed a hot trotting filly in the Old Oaken Bucket on Little Brown Jug (LBJ) day and scored with Sans Defaut ($14.80, $4.00, $3.60) in a small field.

The LBJ elims, however, were not kind to us this year. Our colts in each of the miles went off at better than 30-1. In the first elim, Genius Man raced smartly, so to speak, to finish fourth and make it into the final. The race’s huge favorite won.

In the second elim, Moneyman Hill made a single, useless move, finishing sixth. However, in that second heat, Moneyman Hill defeated the touted Canadian colt and race-favorite Warrawee Vital, who finished last with no excuses not making the final.

Friday, Sept. 25

A Hoosier night filled with stars in stakes found most of our features choices on the board with two in the winner’s circle (one is recorded in the H2W below). Gimpanzee ($3.60, $2.40, $2.20) returned to top form to win.

We finished second with Sister Sledge ($2.20, $2.10) and Virgo (N/R), and third with Allywag Hanover ($2.20). Backstreet Shadow (6-1) was passed in deep stretch to finish behind five others (a 7-1 shot won).

Saturday, Sept. 26

All the stakes action was once again at Woodbine/Mohawk Park.

The Shes A Great Lady Final was won by the favorite, which came in second as the entire nine-filly field was replaced after chaos in the stretch. Our proposed outside contender, Twin B Sunkissed (23-1) was interfered with in the commotion and broke, finishing ninth-placed eighth. Our second choice in the exotic combo, Scarlett Hanover (2-1) finished first-placed ninth, while Spellcheck Hanover (65-1) finished sixth-placed-fifth.

Another shocker took place in the Metro Pace Final when a 35-1 shot trained by Tony Alagna, followed live cover from the half to the finish, where he beat two 7-1 shots. We went with last week’s winner, Abuckabelt Hanover (3-5), Alagna’s other colt, who finished a sad sixth. Our exotic partners, Bettor Sun (61-1) and Control Heaven (63-1) finished fifth and seventh respectively.

We slammed the Mohawk Million with the first two finishers. Though they were the second and first public choices, respectively, Venerate ($6.80, $3.20, $2.80) and Donna Soprano ($2.40, $2.20), the exacta was a chunky $15.90.

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 37 active horses (a 5-percent win hit rate and a 30-percent ATB [across-the-board] hit rate).

Winners

Fox Valley B Gump. $13.60, $7.00, $4.60, Running Aces
Test Of Faith, $4.40, $2.10, $2.10, Hoosier

Seconds

Skyway Kon Man, $4.80, $10.60 ok, (Exacta $13.00), Pocono
Duck N Roll, $4.00, $2.40, Freehold
Time To Imagine, $2.80, $2.40 (Exacta $11.60), Hoosier

Thirds

Stormont Wizard, $7.80, Delaware
Lakeisha Hall, $6.60, Northfield
Ideal Rowan, $5.90, Vernon
Impressive Chief, $3.00, Northvilles
American Boy N, $2.60, Yonkers
Under Paid, $2.60, Batavia

NEWS & NOTES

Harness racing returns to Oak Grove in October and November for the second autumn meet. The Kentucky track’s post is 12:30 p.m. daily. Opening days are Wednesday, Oct. 14 and Thursday, Oct. 15. Then, the pari-mutuel meet resumes on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays from Oct. 19 through Nov. 11. The TwinSpires harness blog will keep bettors updated on the action and news about the horsemen community.

There will not be fans on the premises when Cal-Expo opens its next harness racing meet. The northern California one mile track will present its standardbred meet beginning Nov. 21, going through Dec. 19 with mostly a two-day racing week, Fridays and Saturdays. Cal-Expo’s spring meet was cut short due to an extension of the emergency order relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. At that time, Cal-Expo was the last pari-mutuel track standing in the U.S.A.

Once again, a top sophomore will not race at four so as to retire to stud. Tall Dark Stranger will stand at Hanover Shoe Farms in 2021. He will race two more times this season, once at The Red Mile’s Grand Circuit meet and once at Hoosier Park for this year’s Breeders Crown. Tall Dark Stranger is the only horse in history to win the Metro Pace and Breeders Crown as a two- and a three-year-old, as well to win the Meadowlands Pace and North America Cup. The colt is trained by Nancy Takter and was driven though his career by Yannick Gingras.

Extraordinary Extras

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