Showing posts with label Googoo Gaagaa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Googoo Gaagaa. Show all posts

  • Cotolo’s Harness Review, News And Notes

    POSTED Apr 21, 2013 By Frank Cotolo

    Two seconds in the Matchmaker series (Handsoffmycookie [5-1] and Keepers Destiny [5-2]) were as close as we came to getting upset winners in the mares’ series, which goes to a final next week at Yonkers, along with the George Morton Levy final for the older males.  

    The “Levy” offered nothing but chalk, with all of our chancy choices falling hard to the obvious public choices. We will try to make sense of an upset in the final when we return with our Thursday blog.   

    Here are the results of all the wins this past week from the extraordinary H2W list, exclusive to TwinSpires. It was not our greatest week for winners but the weeks that have passed for the list have been so spectacular that it is tough to maintain the great winning and price ranges we have been attaining. Still, the list members have mostly been competitive; check out the seconds and thirds and come back on Thursday for more great contenders.   

    H2W


    $24.20 CCs Lover N, Pocono
    $12.80 Rock Man, Vernon
    $5.80 Bubbler, Maywood
    $3.00 Frost Bites K, Meadows
    $3.00 Where’s Waldo, Vernon  


    The following are the horses that finished second or third along with their post-time odds. Special notes on those finishes follow (where two sets of odds appear it reflects two races in as many weeks). Be aware that some of them were second-timers on the list and will not return next week (you may continue following them on your own, using them as you see fit).    

    Seconds:
    Melodie Hotspur (49-1), Maywood; Exquisite Gen (7-2), Cal Expo; Every Girls Desire (7-1), Buffalo; Beechwood Wayne (1-1), Buffalo; KD Rowdy One (22-1), Cal Expo

    Thirds
    Fort Ord (3-1), Lebanon; Mastermaker (7-2), Freehold; Tahuya Speed (31-1), Fraser; Just Ryan (4-1), Fraser; Sassy L Lynn (7-2), Northfield; So Reserved (4-1), Maywood; Save My Dragon (3-5), Meadows; Hurricane Scotty J (10-1), Pocono; Cry For Cash (2`-`), Buffalo; Delco Rocknroll (12-1), Pocono  

    All adjustments for returnees to the list and additions will be in the Thursday blog.

     

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    News And Notes

    Googoo Gaagaa (pictured), last year’s sensational soph-colt trotter that could not race in the Hambletonian because his sire is a pacer, is carefully preparing for his four-year-old season. The world champion finished fifth in an April 16 qualifier at Philadelphia with regular driver Corey Callahan.  

    “We’re not going to do anything fancy,” Callahan said, aiming to qualify with a time of 1:57 or so. But “Googoo” was 11 lengths behind the winner in 1:58.3. Trainer Richard Hans hopes to come back next week and go around 1:55. Googoo’s first 2013 test is expected to be the $100,000 Meadowlands Maturity for four-year-old trotters on May 4 at the Meadowlands (see story of race below).  

    Last year, Googoo Gaagaa won nine of 14 races and earned $624,700, getting major attention for his record-setting performances and unusual breeding. His sire, Cam’s Rocket, was a pacer and his mother, Kora’s Trotter, a trotter. Googoo won last year’s $500,000 Earl Beal Jr. Memorial at Pocono in 1:50.4, which is the fastest mile ever trotted on a five-eighths-mile oval. A week earlier, he won his “Beal” elim in a then-world-record 1:51.3. He also won the $500,000 Colonial Trot at Philadelphia in a stakes- and-track-record 1:52.1 and the Maryland Sire Stakes championship at Rosecroft in a stakes-and-track-record 1:54.1.   

    In 2011, Googoo trotted the fastest mile ever (at the time) by a two-year-old on a half-mile track when he won the Maryland Sire Stakes championship by 41 lengths in 1:56 at Ocean Downs. Hans said Googoo is “even bigger than last year and has trained back really well.”   

    The Meadowlands Racetrack will offer two brand new $100,000 races to four-year-olds when the Championship Meet begins in May.  The Meadowlands Maturity provides four-year-olds to compete against their own age group (as opposed to racing with all-aged foes) for a significant purse in the early part of the season. The race is on Saturday, May 4. The Maturity pace comes two weeks later. The purse will be composed of $75,000 in added money. There are no conditions other than being a foal of 2009. The race will be limited to the top-10 lifetime money winners as of the date of declaration.  

    Walter Case, Jr., one of the most successful harness drivers of all time, his career thwarted by a slew of personal problems, continues his fight to return to racing, according to Bill Finley. Case’s initial signals from the racing authorities and track managements that will determine his fate have been positive. He applied for a Pennsylvania racing license and is awaiting word on whether or not he will be accepted.

    Case’s attorney, Howard Taylor said the veteran horseman is “as optimistic as [he] can get.” Taylor said that getting Case back in the sulky is a twofold process. Not only must he be granted a license but also one of the three Pennsylvania harness tracks must be willing to allow him to drive. He said the two are intertwined.  

    Taylor presents a good argument about a track allowing Case to race. He said that any track “should be banging the door down to welcome him. The handle goes up everywhere [Case races].” The Pennsylvania racing commission said they look very favorably upon the request if a track would let Case be a member of their driver community. “Mr. Case could be back within thenext couple of weeks,” said Taylor.  

    Extraordinary Extras

    Indulge in many standardbred topics at my Hoof Beats blog titled Vast Performances.    

    Every weekend as part of that blog we offer Balmoral Pick-4-and-win picks at the USTA’s Strategic Wagering Program page which includes suggested win bets.    

    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.   

    Ray Cotolo contributed to this blog.

     

    Cartoons by Thom Pye

  • Cotolo’s Harness Review, News And Notes

    POSTED Aug 19, 2012 By Frank Cotolo
    Some weeks don’t look as promising as others for a betting bankroll and those turn out to be terrific times, while others look good enough to eat and those wind up not being able to be digested fully. So it is that the three-day-full-of-action weekend wound up with less success than expected.

    It began promising, with two good wins. At the New Meadowlands on Friday night, we bagged the winner of the Golden Girls, Rebecca Bayama, at $12.40.

    That same night, our choice in a Pennsylvania Sires Stakes (PASS) for frosh-filly trotters at the Meadows stormed home to surprise most bettors—Ruffleshaveridges won, paying $20.60.

    We won, of course, with Maven in the Moni Maker but the win price was worth a pass and the proposed exacta did not take place (not that it would have cracked a double-digit price). In the quartet of New Jersey Sires Stakes, the closest we came was second with Jerseylicious; the other choices were unproductive, beaten by three of four favorites. And our William Haughton Final choice, Meirs Hanover, was scratched, unable to assist or help deconstruct our bankroll.  

    Our other PASS choices were in the mix. Sina (19-1) was second; Classic Martine (17-1) was third and Money And Me (5-2) was third.

    Our best finishers at Tioga in the New York Sires Stakes for frosh-colt pacers were Artist Night (2-1) and Track Master D (3-1), both finishing second.

    Saturday, Aug. 18, Only Captaintreacherous, the big and popular frosh-pacing son of Somebeachsomewhere, won. His Nassagaweaya victory at Mohawk was worth a pass at 25 cents to the dollar. We wound up with the favorite in one of two Eternal Camnation splits and she, Parlee Beach, finished second.  

    The worst results were those from the Charlottetown Driving Park, where we recorded three seconds among six choices, with horrible results from four. Our Gold Cup & Saucer choice, Mystician, was second, as was Hey Jean in the Alpine Claiming final and Aled Hanover in the Pacemaker.  

    We cannot exactly say we were rockin’ and rollin’ at Harrah’s Philadelphia on Aug. 19, because apart from A Rocknroll Dance, who won the Battle of Brandywine and paid $4, we were wrong about Little Brown Fox and Economy Terror in the two other featured events.  

    The pacing-bred Googoo Gaagaa, who was not eligible for the Hambletonian and will have to shell up supplement dough if he wants to face his division in the Breeders Crown, beat the tough group of glamour-boy trotters in the Colonial Trot.

    Hambo-winner Market Share took second and Little Brown Fox was third. The latter, our choice, went off the favorite at even money, while “Goo” and “Market” each offered $2.20 to the dollar. When Goo won, it was the most he had paid the entire season. “Fox” attempted a wire-to-wire win but was nailed after a 1:24.2 three-quarters, which was the product of his speeding up through the first two fractions.  

    Market got a pocket trip, so he was able to get out and give Fox the brush. But Goo had the toughest time, going first over from the half on. There was little reason why Market’s soft trip couldn’t have taken the victory from Goo and we will never know why Fox quit on the lead but this race belonged to the odd colt that, when on his game, makes this group look weak.

    In the Valley Forge, Economy Terror got a hideous trip, leaving quickly but remaining wide, and failing to hold on after fiery fractions that resulted in the winner’s quick off-the-pace time of 1:50.1. That winner was Romantic Moment, a filly we have supported when paying better this season.

    News And Notes

    It’s all over for ironclad pacer Won The West. The third richest pacer in North American harness racing history was retired in a ceremony on Aug. 17 at the New Meadowlands. The eight-year-old gelding won 36 of 109 races and $3.93 million.

    “He is the most beautiful Standardbred I ever saw,” his final trainer, Ron Burke said. “He absolutely is the picture of the breed … I think he will be remembered for how good he was for such a long time but I think for the people that have seen him, what is left in their memory is what a beautiful animal he is.”

    We don’t usually review driver milestones but Rick Plano goes far back with us. We met him during the dream days of southern California harness racing. He drove the first winner at the ill-fated Fairplex Park harness meet in the 1980s and became a mainstay in the struggling western community.
    Plano, 60, regrouped a few years back, came east and became one of Vernon Downs’ top drivers. He began his harness career at Vernon in 1973 and is a native New Yorker. Last week he recorded his 6,000th driving victory during the current meet at Vernon Downs and we congratulate him for the achievement, no easy task in a career that included the always on-the-brink-of-destruction state of harness racing in California.
    Live harness racing returned to Fraser Downs on Saturday afternoon, Aug. 18 for its 2012 meet. Live racing will continue every Saturday and Sunday at 12:45 p.m. until after the Labor Day weekend. Racing then shifts to a Friday and Saturday schedule with first race post time at 7 p.m.

    The clock is ticking to start the countdown for the Breeders Crown. Click here for 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. On Aug. 18 we hit with Life Is Good Today at $25. 

    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.



    Cartoon by Thom Pye