Cotolo’s Harness Review, News And Notes

A lot of the season’s top horses, trotters and pacers, from almost every division, played a role in the stakes-filled weekend.

We couldn’t nail but a single winner, suffering our greatest heartbreak in the Sept. 8 Champlain at Mohawk when our 10-1 shot, Rockin Amadeus, lost by a nose to a 40-1 shot.  

We were out again with Parlee Beach in the other Champlain split, while Simply Business (18-1) was fourth in the Simcoe, losing to 9-1 Panther Hanover. Oddly enough, that one raced exactly as we thought our choice would race, scanning the speed and opening up late, defeating A Rocknroll Dance.

We were third in the first Canadian Trotting Classic elim with Guccio and we were fourth with Stormin Normand in the second elim, which went one-two to the top choices—Little Brown Fox and Market Share.  

Our Lou Babic pick at Freehold Saturday afternoon went off at 16-1 and was buried on the inside, failing to finish better than eighth.  

The Indiana Sires Stakes finals at Indiana Downs were a blend of very high and very low-paying winners. We came only as close as second with Jammin Joshua and two thirds with American Girl and Jolenes Pinehonker.  

Friday, Sept. 7 the first event we went after was a foreboding clue to our weekend’s failure as Aunt Mel broke stride in the first turn of the Helen Smith Memorial Final at Freehold and finished off the board. Later that night at Vernon, Pembroke Heat Wave was third in the Muscle Hill Final.  

Keep up with race stories and pre-race analysis’s at our exclusvie Breeders Crown Countdown blog and the Hambletonian archive area devoted to the “countdown” stories.  

News And Notes

Ohio’s harness racing business is showing signs of resurgence only three months after the opening of the state’s first racetrack with a casino. Attendance is up, racing fans are betting more and many think the addition of video lottery terminals in Ohio will help draw more people to Ohio’s tracks and increase tracks’ purses. Scioto Downs in Columbus records purses are up and betting on live races is up about 35 percent.

Foiled Again will attempt to secure his third-consecutive win in the Bobby Quillen Memorial on Sept. 17 at Harrington Raceway. Foiled Again once again faces the likes of Betterthancheddar, We Will See, Feel Like A Fool and a new challenger, Flipper J in the $216,500 event for older pacers.  

After an upset win in the Cane Pace, Dynamic Youth is eligible to be supplemented to The Little Brown Jug at the expense of $45,000. Co-owner Jerry Silva said he’s thinking of supplementing the gelding. The low-profile pacing triple crown began with the Cane Pace and continues with the “Jug.” Dynamic Youth is, obviously, the only soph pacer eligible to win the honors. 

Rosecroft Raceway is poised to begin another meet, beginning Saturday, Sept. 15. Then the focus for bettors is the big Little Brown Jug week at Delaware, Ohio, with the two giant programs Wednesday and Thursday, with the Jugette and main event. We will be following all the action via TwinSpires. 

After Jug week, the 2012 Grand Circuit goes to Kentucky for two weeks beginning on Thursday, Sept.27. Week one features the Bluegrass Stakes for all divisions raced with a post of 7 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, then a Sunday matinee at 1 p.m.  

The second week is an all daylight schedule with racing Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 1 p.m. The International Stallion Stakes for freshmen pacers and trotters populate Thursday and Friday and Saturday the filly divisions of the top sophomore stakes are featured. 

Closing day is Sunday, Oct. 7 with the 120^th Kentucky Futurity scheduled for that afternoon. The Futurity is the last bastion of heat racing for trotters. The format requires the champion to win two heats in a single afternoon, often requiring a race-off between the heat winners. 

The supporting card on Sunday includes the Tattersalls Pace for soph-pacing colts, as well as the Allerage Farms Open events for the stars of both gaits and sexes of the older horse division.

The Breeders Crown is the next target for all the top horses in their divisions. Click here to get to  the exclusive Breeders Crown Countdown blog.

Extraordinary Extras

We invite you to enjoy our musings on other standardbred topics at my Hoof Beats blog titled Vast Performances. Every weekend as part of that blog we we offer Balmoral Pick-4-and-win picks at the USTA’s Strategic Wagering Program page which includes suggested win bets. Last week we gave out Doubletroube ($8), Frontier Trouble ($6) and Fox Valley Praline ($6.20). 

Connect to Twitter and follow Frank and Ray Cotolo for up-to-the-minute suggestions on wagers at many harness raceways. Then, wager from your TwinSpires accounts.  

Get onto our mailing list and receive a free copy of a classic horseracing fiction book by clicking here. And listen to the podcast now available for beginners and veterans of harness betting, a new series available free so you can learn more to bet more and win more at TwinSpires. Click here.

 

Cartoon by Thom Pye