Yonkers Bomb Pays $59; ‘Goudreau’ Gold At Cal-Expo With $14 Winner, $13 Place, Cold; Short-List Trio Strikes Twice At Miami

More undulating weather swept through the continent last week and the winter is far from over. Still, we are producing some great numbers in our selected features and our payouts in the horses-to-watch list are still paying out some high double-digit prices. Here are the results of our successes and failures from the past week. Thursday, Feb. 21 We presented a Power Plays (PP) event and a feature at Pompano. The PP offered three contenders, one winning. That was Big CCs Rock ($6.60, $2.60, $2.10). The others finished fourth and fifth, respectively. Those two were Firewater Jake (25-1) and Prairie Foolish (9-1) The public’s second choice won. The feature was won by the bettors’ third choice, while we lost with the favorite, Fantasy Official and finished seventh with our highly overestimate I’m Very Special (30-1). Friday, Feb. 22 All of Friday’s features included live horses, hitting the boards generously. At Miami Valley our Adam Short “watch” (The Short List, we call it) paid off again. The trainer’s stock is tossing a profit for anyone following this blog while having to do no extra work to cash. Three features on The Short List produced two winners. First, Stonehouse Adam ($7.20, $4.20, $3.20) took Race 6. In Race 12, the list winner was Ginger Tree Alexis ($5,40, $3.40, $2.60). Those are great prices for these horses, because the wagering intensity on Short stock should increase as the meet ensues, lowering the value. Only one of the trio failed to win but came in second as the public choice. That was Undercover Strike ($3.40, $3.00) and those were good place-and-show prices for the odds. At Yonkers we finished second with Golden Kronos ($3.50, $2.60). Saturday, Feb. 23 A monster strike at Cal-Expo took place with our top two contenders in the featured Shelly Goudreau Final at Cal-Expo. Prices never expected came to our two contenders for a cold exacta. We won with Blue Star Maverick ($14.20, $6.80, $2.20), while our second choice was the place horse, Mint To Cruise ($13.20, $3.00) for a cold exacta worth $34.90. 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 48 active horses (a 13-percent win hit rate and a 42-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 weeks) It is up to you to follow horses that have not performed before this weekly review. Winners Bettor Rock On N, $59.50, $12.00, $7.70, Yonkers Calll My Broker, $12.00, $5.90, $4.20, Buffalo Superior Raven, $11.40, $5.40, $4.60, Pompano Blue Note, $9.00, $5.60, $4.00, Cal-Expo Rootin Tootin, $4.20, $3.00, $2.80, Meadowlands January A, $3.00, $2.50, $2.30, Yonkers Seconds Jackamino, $45.40, $24.00, Meadowlands Chocolate Xplosion, $7.00, $4.60 (Exacta $16.00), Pompano Sing Along, $3.80, $2.80 (Exacta $9.60), Freehold Seven Iron, $2.60, $2.40, Yonkers Sicily, $2.60, $2.60 ok (Exacta $11.40), Dover Thirds Spreester, $10.00, Buffalo RN Nate, $7.80, Meadows Catch The Wave, $6.60, Buffalo Get Your Armor, $4.80, Northfield Show The Fashion, $3.80, Yonkers Western Young Gun, $3.80, Dover Demi Ivy, $3.60, Northfield Big Lis, $2.40, Mohawk Cowboys Dirtyboots, $2.20, Cal-Expo News & Notes After making her 2019 qualifying debut last week, Shartin N won again a week later at Dover. Shartin N, now six opened up an eight-length lead at the head of the stretch that widened to more than 13 at the wire, winning in 1:52. A daughter of Tintin In America, Shartin N is trained by Jim King, Jr. Harness racing's top older pacing mare from 2018, Shartin N became the first pacing mare to earn $1 million in a season, finishing the year with $1.09 million, with 19 wins in 24 races. The New Zealand-bred mare joins Cardigan Bay as the second Down Under import to win divisional honors. Saratoga is offering guaranteed pools on multiple exotic wagers for the next few weeks per the USTA Strategic Wagering Program. There is a guaranteed trifecta pool of $25,000 (on Race 5) and a guaranteed $5,000 Pick-5 pool (Races 1 through 5) on Wednesday and Thursday throughout February and March. First-race post time at Saratoga on Wednesdays and Thursdays is at 12 p.m. A trotter from Down Under, Australian-bred La Grange is making his North American debut for trainer Per Engblom. La Grange is a son of Muscle Hill. He was bred in Australia and was a Group 2 winner during his two- and three-year-old seasons Down Under. He is considered a five-year-old in the U.S. because of the different breeding calendars. La Grange has won six of 22 races and earned $68,723. Iron, a stakes-winner at age two, is the 9-5 early favourite from Post 1. Female-trotter Atlanta, the highest-priced standardbred sold at auction ($1.55 million) in North America, now a four-year-old moves to Ron Burke's barn for the 2019 racing season. That is no surprise considering the “super trainers” are usually put in charge of champs after changing hands. Burke is coming off his third 1,000-win season and sixth-straight campaign with more than $20 million in earnings. We are less than a month away from the first big winter series of the season. Older pacers will be featured at Yonkers Raceway from mid-March into April. The males start their 2019 stakes season in the George Levy Pacing Series. The mares line up for the Blue Chip Matchmaker Series. The legs’ divisions and finals have been our headlining races for more than a decade, first on the defunct YouBet and then, as this year again, on TwinSpires. Extraordinary Extras Indulge in my monthly columns, Alternative Actions and Bettors Banquet at Harness Racing Update