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Dayton, PA --- It was a good week to be a 2-year-old on the Pennsylvania Fair Sire Stakes trail but it was not a good week to be a 3-year-old.


Sophomores got in only two of their 12 scheduled races at Washington this past Monday before the rain came and then had all 10 heats at Dayton washed out Wednesday, whereas the freshmen had full cards at Washington Tuesday and (the focus of this report) Thursday at Dayton.


Probably the most impressive mile of Thursday’s racing was turned in by the SJ’s Caviar trotting filly HS Pearl, who won the lone divisional PA Fair Sire Stakes event in 2:05.1. The clocking might not seem like much to “jaded” pari-mutuel ears, but HS Pearl went faster than one of the 2-year-old pacing colt divisions, the Quaker State freshman pace, and the one 2-year-old pacing filly division, in addition to missing the local divisional record by a single tick. Wayne Long trains and drove the promising miss, and he co-owns her with Joyce Lineweaver.


Otherwise, Team Shaw continued on their winning ways, headed by the first 2-year-old in North America to get to 10 victories, the Western Terror pacing filly Tropical Terror, who won in 2:07.2 for driver Chris Shaw, trainer Jason Shaw, and owner Mason Shaw, Jason’s 2-year-old son.


Tropical Terror won her first eight starts, was a hard-charging second to archrival Keystone I Win at Honesdale (a tick off their divisional track record), and has rebounded from her first taste of defeat to take two more victories.


The Shaws also teamed to take two out of three divisions of the 2-year-old pacing colt Fair Sire Stakes with horses who each now have eight wins, which is tied for the top among North American freshman males.


Marshmallow Pulse, a Quik Pulse Mindale gelding, won in 2:04.3 to run his fair record to 10-8-2-0, with his only losses to Gordo (who won at Bedford in 1:57) and his stablemate Nippy, who tallied Thursday in 2:03.2.


Nippy, a Nuclear Breeze gelding, is now 11-8-3-0 at the twicearounds, and has finished behind only Gordo and two PA Stallion Series winners: R N Nate and Royaltyhasarrived.


R N Nate’s trainer/owner/breeder Roger Hammer has been using Chris Shaw as his driver behind the Rustler Hanover gelding Rustlercafe, and that pacer is now seven-for-eight in Quaker State stakes competition, winning in 2:06.2 Thursday and extracting a measure of revenge from the only horse to beat him in the Quakers, Redfish Falls. 


Finishing Lines: Boots Dunn, who reportedly has good connections with The Big Weatherman in the Sky, has logged some long-distance phone time recently, trying to ensure that his four-day meet at the Crawford County Fairgrounds in Meadville, which starts Monday, can avoid all or as much precipitation as possible. Post time for each of the quartet of race cards will be 12 Noon.


Other than the 2-year-old pacing colts, who split into three divisions, each of the three other Fair Sire Stakes classes Thursday had only one cut -- and all of them went for more than $11,500. Not too early to plan for Harrisburg.