Cotolo’s Harness Review

This weekend’s Watch List (WL) horses were unproductive at Cal-Expo (three), Dover (two of three raced at press time) and Balmoral (two). 

At Cal Expo, on Dec. 16, our three WL horses raced badly. Jane The Brain (48-1) finished 9^th, Blissful Kassie (33-1) finished 9^th and Brooklets Sundance (11-1) took fourth. 

At Dover, our closest to victory was Xposure, finishing 5^th with a good excuse. At 7-2, Xposure dueled hard early and tired midway. Allstar Shark raced just as his 20-1 odds predicted.  

At Balmoral, Ohyouateonetoo went off at 56-1, much to our amazement. The horse was nowhere to be found in the pack and finished 9^th. Vette Man finished fifth. 

Eleven horses on the three lists from our Dec. 15 blog have not taken to the track since we posted them. We will update their appearances on this blog as they perform, for better or worse. If you did not copy those horses, go the archive for the Dec. 15 blog and write them down. If you still have a problem, email TwinSpires and ask that I send you the lists. 

These horses are all first-timers on the WL and so they remain on the list for another shot, whenever that happens. 

You should be creating your own WL as well but we have no problem sharing ours with readers. These are the horses we are aiming to play, so readers are plugged directly into what is ordinarily a private accounting of horses we follow.  

In the no-takeout Pick 4 at Cal-Expo on Dec. 17, we only produced one bad entry, as Devilish Donnie finished 8^th as our single in leg three (watching this replay is a must). Our only winner, Quick On My Feet, was the obvious choice at $4. The complete order of finish for our ticket was 3^rd, 2^nd/ 1^st, 9^th/ 8^th/ 4^th, 3^rd .  

Harness News

The Meadowlands opens Jan. 6. This meet, drivers regularly stationed at the New Jersey plant will be commuting around the tri-state-area ovals for work as opposed to exclusive rides at the Big M.  

One of them is high-profile Brian Sears, who feels since the quality of racing in New Jersey has lessened, he is going to move around for better money possibilities. This includes racing at Yonkers, which is offering better purses. 

Sears told Harness Racing Update, “I support what they are trying to do [at the Meadowlands] but I also have to support myself . . . It cost me a lot of money to move out here and this isn’t the lifestyle I was looking for. I came here because the Meadowlands was the best harness track available. If that’s not going to be the case any more I’ll go someplace else. I didn’t come to New Jersey to race $7,000 claimers for $6,000.”  

Sears has been taking advantage of the high purses at Yonkers. He is outspoken about more than the money at the Meadowlands. He said he worries about the Meadowlands becoming “dangerous.”  

He said, “If they bring in all those cheap horses from Freehold [to the Meadowlands], it could be a deathtrap. Last year, I wouldn’t race in anything lower than a $10,000 claimer. I don’t mind driving the cheaper horses at Yonkers because they have four turns and they slow it down every turn.” 

So which drivers will be there?  

Yannick Gingras said, “I am planning to be at the Meadowlands …  I committed to it in 2011 and had the best year of my career.” He said he could probably make more money racing at Yonkers but “at this point in my career my goal is to drive great horses. Everyone wants good two- and three-year-olds and those horses comes from the Meadowlands.”  

Tim Tetrick will also return. He said, “I’m not really a Yonkers person … I’ve been

going there a little bit but more than likely I’ll be going to the Meadowlands. I’ve been going to Yonkers mainly to kill some time. The Meadowlands is still our premier track and hopefully it will stay that way.”  

Exclusive coverage of the Meadowlands for TwinSpires players, as the track makes dramatic changes under private management, will be at this blog and at my Twitter account.