CLEARFIELD – Several of the leading two-year-old trotters on the Pennsylvania Fair harness racing circuit helped usher in the Clearfield County Fair\’s four-day meet with convincing wins at the Driving Park Monday afternoon.
Highlighting the entertaining nine-race card were 2:05.4 trips around the half-mile oval by Tag the Lady and KT Justin A Moment and a 2:06.3 effort by Mr McRail in the A.E. \”Gus\” Memorial Pennsylvania Sire Stakes Colt Trot.
Earlier, CummingsandGoings remained undefeated in four starts of driver and co-owner Randy Neal of Punxsutawney, but Cantab Lady claimed the Betty and Richard Fink Memorial PSSS Filly Trot cooler blanket with her 2:06 mile that was the fastest of the four divisions.
Mr McRail, trained and driven by David Brickell for owners Jack and Sharon Claypoole of Kittanning, pushed his earnings over the $25,000 plateau with his fourth fair victory, overtaking Tomasso and driver Roger Hammer just before the half-mile mark and prevailing by 2-1/4 lengths. In his only other start, the brown gelding finished a close second in under two minutes at the Chester pari-mutuel track on July 20.
\”He has a very good chance to be special,\” Brickell said of Mr McRail. \”He does whatever you want him to do, come from behind, come from the front, whatever.\”
Mr McRail overcame starting from the second tier and averting possible trouble when Todd Schadel\’s F Stop went off gait right in front of him to keep his fair winning streak intact. He had Tomasso and Hammer in the rearview mirror throughout the second lap.
Brickell admitted he was a little concerned for Mr McRail in the first turn when \”the horse had he had to follow out of there made the break and I didn\’t know if I had to stop him to get around it.
\”I was fortunate that the field scattered enough that I could scoot around him. Then, I got in third. Then, I came right on.\”
Brickell, who won the Buster DiSalvo Trophy as the driver with the most wins at the 2007 Clearfield County Fair, is in a duel with Hammer for the top spot on the 2009 state fair circuit, and they\’re now tied at 24 after Hammer guided Caviar and Kisses and Cantab Lady to back-to-back victories in the third and fourth divisions of the filly trot.
Brickell sat behind the runner-up in both races. AJ Peyton Rose closed to within a length and a quarter of Caviar and Kisses after Bunny Tech broke coming out of the final turn, while Rosey Chick was unable to chase down Cantab Lady and wound up four lengths back.
Hammer, most likely the winningest driver in Driving Park history, reined both of his winners to new lifetime marks. Caviar and Kisses lowered hers by 1-2/5 seconds with a 1:08.4 mile before Cantab Lady, a brown filly driven by Hammer for the first time, chopped 4-2/5 seconds off her record set at the Meadville Fair. The latter has won three of her four fair starts.
CummingsandGoings stretched her winning streak by leading wire-to-wire in 2:10.2, though challenged by Ed McNeight Jr.\’s KT Dixie Hummer and Marty Wollam\’s Whisk Hanover going into the final turn. The bay filly is co-owned by Neal and his father, Clifford, who does the training.
The first division of the Betty and Richard Fink Memorial Trot produced the most exciting finish of the program.
Third on the first trip past the grandstand, Nine Gold Coins moved into second on the backstretch for driver Fred Uber Jr. and then passed Kimberly Good\’s Red Oaks Jane in the deep stretch to win by a head in 2:13.3. The black filly owned by Lester J. Wright of Cochranton had finished second in her three previous starts.
Tag the Lady, coming off a 2:00.2 Pennsylvania Stallion Stakes win for driver Michel Lachance at Chester on July 19, made Wollam\’s first visit to Clearfield a happy one. The Ohio trainer-driver kept the brown gelding on the front end all the way to a 4-1/2-length victory over Hammer\’s North Broadway.
Owned by Patricia Wollam of Vienna, Ohio, Dennis Sheehan of New Wilmington and Charles Zeune of Danville, Ohio, Tag the Lady has earned nearly $17,000 in four starts, three of them victories.
\”I trained his mother (Guv\’s Lady), and she was a nice horse,\” Wollam said. \”This is her first baby. I think he\’s got a lot of go to him. Mike (Lachance) said the same thing. We gave him a lot of air, and he trotted home strong, so we\’re excited.\”
Wollam seemed headed for another win in the following race, but Summer Heat began to pace in the first turn on the second lap and wound up third behind PennyforYourTrotz and Moshannon David J.
\”Going into that turn, it\’s a little flat, and he just went off pacing,\” Wollam explained. \”I had to pull him to get him back on gait, so we lost a lot of ground there. He was right where you want to be, but we got a little rough. So we ended up third.\”
The bay colt has led in four races, including qualifiers at The Meadows in Washington but has failed to stay on gait in most of them.
\”I\’ve had a lot of trouble with him,\” Wollam added. \”He\’s got a lot of x\’s (breaks) there. When he gets tired, he\’ll switch over to pacing.
\”These young trotters make a lot of mistakes. They\’re just learning how to do their gait on the fair tracks. They\’re narrower and the footing is not quite the same as they\’re used to. He\’s been more used to the race tracks, a little different footing and, obviously, a lot less confusion going on, stuff like that.\”
McNeight was delighted to get the opportunity to send PennyforYourTrotz into the winner\’s circle for the first time in six starts. The bay gelding trained by King stopped the clock at 2:08.1, winning by 5-1/4 lengths. King also is co-owner along with J.J. Benedetti Jr. and R.E. Silletto of Jackson, N.J.
\”I had a pretty bad day until then,\” said McNeight, who had two thirds, two fourths and two fifths before driving PennyforYourTrotz for the first time. \”Syl\’s been putting me on a few horses when I\’m around, and he put me on six today. I asked him if he was going to stick with me, and he said \’Sure.\’\”
McNeight then made it a very good day by sending KT Justin A Moment to the front at the start of the final race, and the bay gelding owned by trainer Kenneth Weaver of Home, near Indiana, completed the late daily double with an impressive win by 6-1/4 lengths.
KT Justin A Moment went over $20,000 in earnings with his sixth win in nine starts, all with McNeight in the sulky.
\”I have my own stable at The Meadows, but I come to the fairs to drive Ken\’s horses, and I pick up other drives,\” added McNeight, whose day ended on a high note when the Ernie Peterson Memorial Trophy for the fastest dash of the afternoon via coin flip over Tag the Lady, which got the A.E. \”Gus\” Mellott Memorial Trot cooler blanket.
\”Sometimes, you get lucky,\” added Trish Adams, who also is part owner of KT Justin A Moment.
McNeight also was on the other end of a coin flip for the Earl Hallstrom Memorial Trophy for the driver with the most wins for the card. That went to Hammer.
In the lone Quaker States event, the Moyer Auto Body Trot, owner-trainer-driver Syl King Jr. of New Holland had Candy Is Dandy flying down the backstretch to pass Semi-Sweet going into the final turn, and the bay filly pulled away in a homestretch to cross the finish line 15-1/2 lengths in front of the early pace-setter. Candy Is Dandy also posted a new lifetime mark, the 2:16.2 trip a fifth of a second faster than her win at the Hughesville Fair in her only other start.
Purses totaled $28,934 Monday and will be $29,122 for the two-year-old pacers Tuesday. Post time is 1 p.m. for the 11-race program.
The meet continues Wednesday at 1 p.m. with $28,383.50 at stake for 11 races and Thursday at noon with $30,464 in payouts.
Moyer Auto Body Quaker State 2-Year-Old Trot (Purse $2,654)
1. Candy Is Dandy (5), S. King Jr.; 2. Semi-Sweet (2), S. Gastelu; 3. Rinky\’s Honkytonk (1), C. Shaw; 4. Carry On My Dear (6), K. Good; 5. Trading Places (3) E. McNeight, Jr.; 6. TV Outlaw, T. Offutt. Time: 2:16.2
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Betty & Richard Fink Memorial Pennsylvania Sire Stakes 2-Year-Old Filly Trot
First Division (Purse $3,318) – 1. Nine Gold Coins (5), F. Uber Jr.; 2. Red Oaks Jane (4), K. Good; 4P3. Keystone Fling (2), S. Schoeffel; 3P4. Impeccable Taste (3), W. Yoder; 5. Pine Hill Brat (6), M. Albaugh-Young; 6. Cara N Cassidy (1), D. Zaimes. Time: 2:13.3.
Second Division (Purse $3,319) –1. CummingsandGoings (4), R. Neal; 2. Whisk Hanover (1), M. Wollam; 3. KT Dixie Hummer (5), E. McNeight Jr.; 4. Caviar\’s Dancer (3), J. Coffy; 5. Polly\’ Folly (6), S. King Jr.; 6. Leola (2), C. Flickinger. Time: 2:10.2.
Third Division (Purse $3,268) – 1. Caviar and Kisses (3), R. Hammer; 2. AJ Peyton Rose (4), D. Brickell; 3. RT Play Girl (1), R. Rougeaux III; 4. Bunny Tech (2), E. McNeight Jr.; 5. Pearly Princess (5), T. Offutt. Time: 2:08.4.
Fourth Division (Purse $3,268) – 1. Cantab Lady (3), R. Hammer; 2. Rosey Chick (1), D. Brickell; 3. Charming Photo (4), T. Offutt; 4. Vestal Hanover (5), E. McNeight Jr.; 5. RT G and G (2), R. Rougeaux III. Time: 2:06.
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A.E. \”Gus\” Mellott Jr. Memorial Pennsylvania Sire Stakes 2-Year-Old Colt Trot
First Division (Purse $3,325) – 1. Mr McRail (5), D. Brickell; 2. Tommaso (3), R. Hammer; 3. OhLoverBoy (2), T. Offutt; 4. Washington County (6), W. Yoder; 5. Abundasass (4), E. McNeight Jr.; 6. F Stop (1), T. Schadel. Time: 2:06.3.
Second Division (Purse $3,324) – 1. Tag the Lady (1), M. Wollam; 2. North Broadway (4), R. Hammer; 3. Emerald Ridge (6), E. McNeight Jr.; 4. Keystone Lightning (2), T. Schadel; 5. Trevor R (3), B. Truitt; 6. Checkered Hanover (5), T. Offutt. Time: 2:05.4.
Third Division (Purse $3,274) – 1. PennyforYourTrots (3), E. McNeight Jr.; 2. Moshannon David J (5), D. Zaimes; 3. Summer Heat (4), M. Wollam; 4. Maple Grove Caviar (1), T. Schadel; 5. Harvick Hanover (2), T. Altmeyer. Time: 2:08.1.
Fourth Division (Purse $3,274) – 1. KT Justin A Moment (3), E. McNeight Jr.; 2. Southwind Nitro (4), W. Daugherty Jr.; 4, placed 3. MM\’s Dandy Dan (2), C. Shaw; 3, placed 4. Pine Hill Sugadaddy (5), M. Albaugh-Young; 5. Fortissimo (1), C. Flickinger. Time: 2:05.4.
