CLEARFIELD — Chris Shaw stage punctuated one of the greatest one-day driving performances in Clearfield County Fair harness racing history with a photo finish victory behind Prince Penrod and a Driving Park record-breaking trip with Star of Terror Wednesday afternoon.
Prince Penrod outlasted Mclassic by a nose in 2:04.4 in the ninth dash on the 11-race card for three-year-old pacers, the second division of the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes Colt Pace.
The next race was a sharp contrast as Star of Terror continued his impressive season by lowering the track record for sophomore colts and geldings to 1:59, winning by a whopping 23½ lengths.
That trip broke the standard set of 1:59.2 by Shu Hanover in 2004 and matched by Real Hanover in 2005 and Lahaye in 2009.
Those back-to-back wins in the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes Three-Year-Old Colt Pace were Shaw’s fifth and sixth in seven races as the 30-year-old driver from Scenery Hill overtook Todd Schadel to claim the Charles “Buster” DiSalvo Trophy for the second time in three years.
Shaw has been driving at the Clearfield County Fair since he was 18 and had to watch Roger Hammer and Steve Schoeffel walk away with most of the DiSalvo trophies until breaking through in 2014.
“I didn’t think we had a shot at the Buster, but we’ll take it,” Shaw said after walking back down the track with his fiancé, Ashley Brown, and their 12-day-old daughter, Alexa Ellen Shaw, following the trophy presentation in front of the grandstand by DiSalvo family friends Mike “Nerd” Morrison and Paul Dietzel.
With just two wins, Shaw was trailing Schadel by four going into the final program of the four-day meet, the Pennsylvania fair circuit’s longest.
Fortunately, he was in enough races to have a chance, and the door was opened a bit when Schadel did not return for the two dashes in which he was listed as the driver.
“I thought I had a pretty good shot at winning with many of them, and it panned out to be the right ones,” he said. “It’s always a good day when you win your races, no matter how many.”
He’s won more races in one day, seven at Wattsburg in Erie County, but going six-for-seven is pretty unbelievable.
Ironically, Unbeamlieveable was one of four fillies that propelled Shaw into a tie with Schadel.
Silver Sting was the first of four Team Shaw winners, going wire-to-wire in the Jeffrey “Niter” Hamilton Memorial Division of the Quaker State Pace. Jason Shaw, Chris’ brother, is the trainer. Mason Shaw, Jason’s four-year-old son, is the owner.
Silver Sting held off Debut Lauxmont, with Shawn Johnston in the sulky, by a half-length at the end of her 2:11.3 trip. The chestnut filly, Mason’s favorite horse, now has three wins this year and six in 30 lifetime starts for earnings of $17,204.
Chris Shaw made it two wins in a row for the family in the first of five PASS Filly Pace divisions with Unbeamlieveable cutting fractions of 28.3, 59.3 and 1.29.3 for a 1:59.2 score and a 3¼-length victory to earn the Walter Jackson Sr. Memorial cooler blanket.
The brown filly has amassed $60,014 in 29 lifetime starts, a big share of that with 18 wins, including one at The Meadows in 1:58.1. Her 13 wins last year, all at fairs, led all North American freshman pacing fillies, according to a Pennsylvania Fair Harness Horsemen’s Association Publicity Office story on the HarnessLink website.
Gymnast Hanover was a come-from-behind winner for Shaw in the Neeper’s Sweet Treats Division, roaring from fourth at the three-quarters pole to first coming out of the final turn and going on to beat Shawn Johnston’s Infinity Plus by five lengths in 2:05.3.
Mason Shaw’s mother, Amanda, is co-owner of the bay filly that has four lifetime wins, three this summer, in 30 starts and earnings of $28,110.
Singalongwithbing got the large crowd excited with the lone win decided in the stretch, rushing up from third to beat Wayne Long’s Madison’s Majesty by a half-length in 2:04.2 for the Brooke Erin Yeager Memorial cooler blanket.
The bay filly trained and owned by Jason Shaw raised her winnings to $18,687 with her third win on the fair circuit and her fourth in 29 lifetime starts.
Chris Shaw then sat out one race before breaking the tie with Schadel, and while he had Prince Penrod on the front end all the way in the Margaret Haney Memorial Division, he had to wait for the photo to confirm his narrow DiSalvo Derby-clinching victory over Mclassic, driven by his future brother-in-law Brady Brown.
“I didn’t think I got it,” Shaw said. “I told him either you got it or it was a dead heat.”
The win was the first in 13 races this year for the Team Shaw bay gelding that has banked $23,378 for 28 lifetime starts. He has won six times.
Star of Terror, trained by Jason Shaw for the Fortunate One LLC of Niagara Falls, N.Y., provided the icing on the cake with the fast, record-breaking twicearound that featured fractions of 29.1, 58.1 and 1:27.2.
“I figured I had a pretty good shot at (the record),” Chris Shaw said. “That horse likes to go fast. I didn‘t know what the fractions were definitely, but we were rolling pretty good.
“We didn’t have him last year. We got him just before Wattsburg. We had some trouble rating him up his first start. Then we figured him out, and he’s been good ever since.”
Shaw noted that the bay gelding tied the 24-year-old all-age standing record of 2:00.2 at the Butler Fair earlier this month.
Star of Terror also paced in 1:57.1 at the Gratz Fair July 10, not a record there but the fastest mile on the fair circuit in almost two years.
He has four wins this year and six in just 11 lifetime starts with earnings of $23,322.
With his eight wins this week, Shaw increased his fair circuit-leading total to 27, nine more than Shawn Johnston, who was one of five other drivers to make it into the winner’s circle.
He took Healthy Gain gate-to-wire in the PASS Filly Pace’s Cecelia “Ceci” Lizotte Memorial Division in 2:02.2 for owner-trainer Gary Johnston and co-owner Tracy Chropek of Houston, Pa.
The first win of the year by the bay filly, a Clearfield County Fair winner last year, was her sixth in 17 lifetime starts and upped her earnings to $45,164.
The lone maiden win was registered by Sugar Mama Babe, making her 15th start for driver-trainer Aaron Johnston and owner James Biego of Beaver Falls in the Quaker State Pace.
Johnston guided the bay filly to the front coming out of the final turn, and she stopped the clock at 2:03.1 for a 1½-length victory and the Backstage Crew cooler blanket.
Cory Kreiser had an all-the-way winner in Vacated in the PASS Filly Pace’s Betty Mae Waroquier Memorial Division.
The bay filly he trains for Julie Krenitsky of Butler breezed to his first win of 2016 and second lifetime by 11½ lengths in 2:05.
Another route-going victory was posted by Dragon Strikes in the PASS Colt Pace David and Lynn Franson Division.
Brown had the bay colt trained by Mike Gillock for owner Bob Key of Leechburg 7½ lengths in front at the wire with a time of 2:04. Dragon Strikes has seven wins and $33,705 in purses for 16 lifetime starts.
A fast last half made Captain Dinger, driven by co-owner James Dodson of Maurertown, Va., for trainer and co-owner Ron Lineweaver of Kittanning, the final winner of the meet in the Michael “Mikey” Rowles Memorial Division of the PASS Colt Pace.
The brown gelding, unraced last year, won by 7½ lengths in 2:02. His only other win in 12 starts was at The Meadows in 1:57.1.
Purses for the meet’s 35 races with 155 entries totaled $100,068.
Thirteen drivers made it into the winner’s circle, eight of them more than once.
Wednesday’s results, with horse’s name, number in parenthesis, and jockey’s name:
QUAKER STATE THREE-YEAR-OLD PACE
Backstage Crew Division (Purse $2,000) – 1. Sugar Mama Babe (3), A. Johnston; 2. Zombie teen (4), B. Brown; 3. Nickapher (1), W. Long; 4. Fernbrook Hanover (2), S. Schoeffel. TIME: 2:03.1.
Jeffrey “Niter” Hamilton Memorial Division (Purse $1,332) – 1. Silver Sting (2), C. Shaw; 2. Debut Lauxmont (3), S. Johnston; 3. Apple Pie Hanover (1), E. Neal. TIME: 2:11.3. Scratched – Warm and Clear (4).
PENNSYLVANIA SIRE STAKES THREE-YEAR-OLD FILLY PACE
Walter Jackson Sr. Memorial Division (Purse $2,128) – 1. Unbeamlieveable (2), C. Shaw; 2. Hurricane Calleigh (1), S. Johnston; 3. Marvalous Jet (4), A. Johnston; 4. Medoland Pearl (3), E. Neal. TIME: 1:59.2.
Cecelia “Ceci” Lizotte Memorial Division (Purse $2,178) – 1. Healthy Gain (2), S. Johnston; 2. Ping Pong Hanover (4), W. Long; 3. Judicial Review (1), C. Shaw; 4. Hillary’s Niece (3), E. Neal; 5. Concealed Notes (5), C. Kreiser. TIME: 2:02.2.
Neeper’s Sweet Treats Division (Purse $2,178) – 1. Gymnast Hanover (4), C. Shaw; 2. Infinity Plus (2), S. Johnston; 3. Princes Desta (5), D. Brickell; 4. Arycca Hanover (3), R. Hammer. TIME: 2:05.3. Scratched – Acid Test Hanover (1).
Betty Mae Waroquier Division (Purse $2,178) – 1. Vacated (3), C. Kreiser; 2. Pulse Power (4), H. Brocklehurst; 3. Quick Hot Passion (2), C. Shaw. TIME: 2:05. Scratched – Keystone Illianna (1) and Devious Behavior (5).
Brooke Erin Yeager Memorial Division (Purse $2,178) – 1. Singalongwithbing (1), C. Shaw; 2. Madison’s Majesty (4), W. Long; 4P3. Princess Benita (3), C. Kreiser; 5P4. Bin There Said So (5), B. Brown; 3P5. Rosie’s Rozzo (2), S. Schoeffel. TIME: 2:04.2.
PENNSYLVANIA SIRE STAKES THREE-YEAR-OLD COLT PACE
Dave & Lynn Franson Division (Purse $2,592) – 1. Dragon Strikes (2), B. Brown; 2. Medoland Bobcat (4), E. Neal; 3. Billy’s Falcon (3), R. Hammer; 4. Misty’s Prince (1), S. Johnston. TIME: 2:04.
Margaret Haney Memorial Division (Purse $2,592) – 1. Prince Penrod (3), C. Shaw; 2. Mclassic (1), B. Brown; 3. Uptown Dinger (2), J. Dodson. TIME: 2:04.4. Scratched – Well Lets See (4).
Violet Lansberry Memorial Division (Purse $2,592) – 1. Star of Terror (3), C. Shaw; 2. RT Truth Or Dare (4), W. Long; 3. Lucky Cruiser (1), S. Schoeffel; 4. Caffeine Rush (2), B. Brown. TIME: 1:59 (track record).
Michael “Mikey” Rowles Memorial Division (Purse $8,000) – 1. Captain Dinger (2), J. Dodson; 2. Callingalllauxmont (3), S. Johnston; 3. Outsmart Me (4), E. Neal; 4. Wont Be Nothing (5), Cory Kreiser; 5. Coeternity (1), D. Brickell. TIME: 2:02.1.
