The four-day meet at the Clearfield County Fair came to an end on Wednesday, with the last card featuring sophomore pacers: two geldings upped their fair records for the year to 6-5-1-0, and one filly – already very familiar with winning – also notched her fifth fair win of 2015.
In three divisions for the males, the Western Terror gelding Royaltyhasarrived recorded the fastest clocking, 2:01.1, to post his fifth straight fair victory, this time by six and a quarter lengths lengths. The all-time track record-holder at Hughesville by virtue of a 1:58.1 victory there in July, Royaltyhasarrived won again Wednesday for driver Brady Brown, trainer Steve Schoeffel, and owners Virginia and Kathy Schoeffel and Michael Munn. Driver Brown also won another division of this event with EJ And Orr in 2:03.1, for conditioner Dan Walski and the Walski Stables LLC, to give him three scores on the day.
R N Nate also impressed as he kept pace with Royaltyhasarrived, having to race on the rim throughout, yet still tallying in 2:01.3 by 12-3/4 lengths. Owner/trainer/driver/breeder Roger Hammer is the guiding force behind the altered son of Nuclear Breeze – whose dam, R N Artist, was the 2003 PA Fair Champion in her sophomore division.
The Western Terror filly Tropical Terror, who led all North American two-year-olds last year with 16 visits to the winner's circle (including 15 at the fairs), ran her 2015 tally to five victories on the twice-arounds (four in current succession) with a 2:04.1 win for driver/uncle Chris Shaw, trainer/father Jason Shaw, and owner Mason Shaw, like the filly a three-year-old and the CEO/COO/CFO of the powerful Team Shaw.
The fastest filly division fell to the McArdle filly Clear Winner, who pulled a 2:04 major upset of Keystone I Wish, co-fastest PA fair horse of the year with Royaltyhasarrived (her 1:58.1 was at Gratz). Keystone I Wish made an early burst after the quarter to the lead, but Clear Winner, six and a quarter lengths behind at the three-quarters, unleashed a powerful move through the turn and the stretch to edge her rival by a head for most of the team behind Royaltyhasarrived: driver Brady Brown, trainer Steve Schoeffel, and owner Virginia Schoeffel, with Fred and Seth Dowling also co-owning Clear Winner.
For the four days of racing, Roger Hammer had eight driving victories and seven training triumphs to lead all horsemen; the sulky success allowed Hammer to win the Buster DiSalvo Trophy for most driving wins at Clearfield for the 12th time. Hammer solidified his perch atop the season-long standings, now having 40 sulky victories and 39 conditioning wins.
The highlight of the meet had to be the 2:02 trotting victory by Simeon and Dave Wade on Tuesday, equalling Cottonwood Sam’s all-age track trotting record set in 2003.
The 2015 Pennsylvania fair circuit reaches its midpoint next week with racing at two fairs, stops number 10 and 11 on the 20-stop circuit, and about as far apart as you can get in Pennsylvania – there are 358 miles between Waynesburg, PA (hometown of Dave Palone), in the southwest corner of the state, and Honesdale, PA in the far northeast. Waynesburg will race two-year-old events this coming Tuesday and three-year-old events this coming Wednesday, with first post each day 10 a.m. The racing starts Wednesday at Honesdale at 4 p.m., with three-year-old contests plus a $2,000 Free-For-All Pace, while Thursday’s 1 p.m. start will showcase two-year-olds and a $2,000 Free-For-All Trot.
(PA Fair Harness Horsemen’s Association)