Stoneboro, PA --- The last western stop on the Pennsylvania Fair harness racing circuit took place this past Friday and Sunday at the fairgrounds in the northwestern Pennsylvania town, and as has been the case for much of the summer, the frequently-winning pacing colts of the Fair Sire Stakes commanded most of the attention among both the freshmen (Friday) and sophomores (Sunday).
It was the 2-year-old pacing colt Well Lets See who earned himself a line in the Stoneboro record tables, as the son of Well Said-Lioness Hanover went around the twicearound in 2:00.4, equaling the local divisional standard set by A OK Hanover two years ago, for his fourth straight win in an 11-9-0-2 fair season for driver Brandon Givens, trainer Kevin Lare, and owner Frank Chick.
His sectional nemesis Billy’s Falcon, 11-9-2-0 and the only magic miler of the group to date (1:59.4 at Gratz), kept pace with a 2:02.4-:58.2-:28.3 victory, with Roger Hammer the breeder, owner, trainer and driver behind the altered son of Nuclear Breeze–B T Falcon (no extra points for guessing who was the driver of A OK Hanover on his record day, either).
On the 3-year-old side, Royaltyhasarrived posted the meet’s fastest mile with a 1:59.3 clocking, storming home in :28 for his third magic mile among eight at the fairs so far this summer (nobody else has more than one).
After finishing second in his fair debut at Stoneboro, Royaltyhasarrived has now been unstoppable for 10 straight starts, with Brady Brown handling the Western Terror gelding for trainer Steve Schoeffel and owners Virginia and Kathy Schoeffel and Michael Munn.
But hanging right with Royaltyhasarrived is R N Nate, a Nuclear Breeze gelding with nine wins and a second in ten fair starts; he won at Stoneboro in 2:01.2–:59 for breeder, owner, trainer and driver Roger Hammer.
Two 2-year-old fillies continued hot streaks at Stoneboro. The Moon Beam-Iblievevenangles pacing miss Unbeamlieveable made it nine straight, and 10-for-11 seasonally, with a 2:04.2-:29 triumph for Team Shaw (driver Chris, trainer Jason, and owner, 3-year-old Mason), while the Great George Two-Annabelle Lane trotting distaff A Little Laid Back, with three track records to her credit this summer, won again in 2:05.2 to boost her fair tally to 10-for-12 for Team (minus breeder here) Hammer.
One long winning streak that went by the boards was that of Betterthanrevenge, whose eight-for-eight fair campaign got momentarily sidetracked as she lost in 2:01.3 to Crumcake. The winning filly’s sponsorship -- sire KF St Patrick, driver Eric Neal, trainer Pat Medors, and breeder/owner Mike Medors -- in fact swept this division for the second time in five days with the same pair of fillies, as Hangon Suzie Q also followed up a win at Indiana with a Stoneboro triumph, in 2:00.2–:29 (Jerry Sommers is the co-breeder/owner of Hangon Suzie Q, while Yvonne Medors has the same connection to Crumcake).
Roger Hammer had nine sulky scores and seven training triumphs during the meet, leading all local competitors; he also solidified his season-long perch atop the fair circuit horsemen’s ranks, with 73 winning drivers, trailed by Chris Shaw’s 56, and 68 conditioning tallies, with Chris’s brother Jason second at 43.
Click here to watch video of the Stoneboro races.
The season’s last three stops are all in the eastern part of the 45,000 square foot Keystone State -- at York this coming Monday and Tuesday, followed by action at Gratz and Bloomsburg. The $200,000 Pennsylvania Fair Sire Stakes Championship Night is Oct. 10 at The Meadows -- and lest you think that some of those races are “sewn up” about now, let it be noted that only one of the eight leading point winners entering the championships made it back to Victory Lane in 2014.