Gratz, PA --- The Pennsylvania Fair Circuit 2015 swung into this Pennsylvania town, slightly southeast of the state’s center, this past Sunday and Monday for the penultimate stop of its 20-race tour.
This report will devote a paragraph to each of the age/sex/gait divisions of the Fair Sire Stakes program, reporting both the major winners and how they stand as, after next week’s stop in Bloomsburg, they stack up for the Saturday (Oct. 10) $200,000 Pennsylvania Fair Sire Stakes Championship Night at The Meadows.
Trainer/driver/co-owner (with wife Christine) Todd Schadel had two of the three Gratz winners in the 2-year-old male trot, OMG Hanover (Cantab Hall-Oaklea Opal), fastest at 2:03.3 and Keystone Blade (Yankee Glide-Keystone Brittany), 2:04. Keystone Blade is eighth in the standings and OMG Hanover 11th, so the former should and the latter may qualify for the Championship. Also on the “bubble” is Major Matter, 4-4 at the fairs before a break at Gratz. One-two in the point standings are a pair of Roger Hammer horses, Keystone Shotgun and High Octane; they and Rail Kat (trained by Bill Daugherty Jr., whom we’ll come back to in a moment) have a chance to take the point standings race, which brings the winner a stable colors-hued blanket, richly-treasured for years, at the annual winter Fairs Banquet. Bloomsburg will tell.
A Little Laid Back (14-12-0-0, six straight wins, three divisional track records) has the red and blue blanket in process for Team Hammer in the 2-year-old filly trot. The Great George Two-Annabelle Lane filly won in 2:03.1 at Gratz, faster than the colts. Connie Jean, who started her fair campaign with five straight triumphs but is one-for-four since, and McKean Hanover (won five of last seven) are 2-3 going into Bloomsburg.
The long-awaited matchup between Billy’s Falcon (Nuclear Breeze–B T Falcon) and Well Lets See (Well Said–Lionness Hanover) in the 2-year-old pacing colt ranks finally occurred at Gratz, and Billy’s Falcon got the better of the draw and pressed that advantage, going wire-to-wire by win by open lengths in 2:02.4–:28.3. That puts Billy’s Falcon (13-11-2-0) ahead of Well Let’s See (13-10-1-2), but the Hammerite on top still must compete and get a check at Bloomsburg to win the point title. Wagon Master had won five of his six fair starts before coming to Gratz, but made a break.
Just as they did with Tropical Terror in the 2-year-old pacing filly class last year, Team Shaw (owner Mason, trainer Jason, driver Chris) have the outstanding filly of this class in Unbeamlievable (Moon Beam–DVC Iblieveinangles), whose 12th win in 13 fair starts, and 11th straight triumph, came at Gratz in 2:01 (best time on the circuit for her group this year), and it puts her No. 1 among North American freshman pacing fillies in victories, and tied for the top among all freshman pacers. Light blue-and-white blanket on order.
Speaking of blankets, they just might as well make a bunch of them in black and gold and save them for whichever Bill Daugherty Jr. trotter(s) are best in a given year. This year one will be needed for Wimborne Hanover, a Muscle Massive 3-year-old trotting gelding who took his first six at the fairs, had a mini-slump, but has come back to take four of his last five. Wimborne Hanover was not points champion last year, but he did win his 2-year-old colt trot championship, giving Daugherty four of the last six titles for these youngsters; at 3, Cadence Hanover and Fly Past Hanover defended their titles, and Southwind Nitro “stepped up” and won the Stallion Series Championship! In Wimborne Hanover’s Gratz absence, the 2-3 horses in the points, Silver Sierra (2:03.1) and Snake Eyes (2:05.2) won for Hammer; Simeon, who won his first six fair races before a break at York, must also be respected.
Peoplesayimnogood, a 3-year-old trotting daughter of Lear Jetta, has won her last five fair races, including tying the all-age York record of 2:01.2 last week and traversing Gratz in 2:02.3 on the engine, and will bring another blanket to Roger Hammer. Scarlett’s Legacy, second to her at Gratz and also a 2:01.2 victress on the fair circuit this year, and Isabella Carina, defending champion and hitting the board in all her 2015 fair starts, seem the prime competition.
R N Nate (a Nuclear Breeze 3-year-old pacing gelding, 12-10-2-0 at the fairs) and Royaltyhasarrived (a Western Terror gelding, 12-9-2-0 and a 1:58.1 winner at Hughesville for that track’s pacing record and the co-fastest mile of the local summer), will use the results at Bloomsburg to decide their blanket winner -- but both are glad that Sam Beegle didn’t take the Yankee Cruiser colt Modern Yankee away from the pari-mutuels until the last two weeks. Last week the 1:51.2 winner at Harrah's Philadelphia downed Royaltyhasarrived in 1:58.3 at York; this week Modern Yankee used a :28.1 final quarter to keep R N Nate at bay in a 1:59 mile.
Betterthanrevenge will win the blue and gray blanket in the 3-year-old pacing filly division for trainer/driver Harold Brocklehurst, with the Quik Pulse Mindale filly winning eight in a row to start her fair season. She’s dropped her last three, however. Fortunately, Angel Plus, whom Sam Beegle has taken on the Modern Yankee trail with wins in 1:59.4 at York and 2:00.1 at Gratz, won’t be eligible for the championship; unfortunately, Keystone I Wish, defending divisional champion whose 1:58.1 mile earlier at Gratz tied Royaltyhasarrived’s clocking for fastest of the fair season, looks back in form for Todd Schadel, and won in 2:00.4 at Gratz.
The action at Bloomsburg takes place next Tuesday through Thursday, post time each day 10:30 a.m. Sire Stakes 2-year-olds go Tuesday, with 3-year-olds the following day; Thursday will be host to all eight divisions of the time-honored Bloomsburg Stakes.