Cotolo’s Harness Review, News And Notes

The past week was highlighted by two blogs, due to the Matron Stakes finals being held on a single Dover Downs program, held on Thursday, Nov. 6.

Our highlight for the eight races was not a win, it was the place-and-show prices of a 157-1 soph-colt pacer. That horse, Capital Account, was our first choice but finished second, paying $81.00 to place and $20.00 to show. This result is testimony to our wagering suggestions when dealing with potentially high prices at post time. As with our horses-to-watch (H2W) list, we encourage across-the-board plays on selections that are outside the public’s sphere of betting (as we condone exactas using the longshot with a favored, highly probable winner) because the profit margin is great.

We had only two winners, one of them a horse we thought would be a strong overlay but turned out to be the public choice in the frosh-colt pace. That was In The Arsenal ($4.80, $3.20, n/s). Our second choice, Habitat, won the frosh-colt trot over our first choice, Cruzado Dela Noche ($5.00), who took third. As well, we had Shake It Cerry ($2.80, n/p, n/s), who won the soph-filly trot.

Father Patrick was our first choice in the soph-colt trot but he decided to recreate his Hambletonian debacle, breaking at the start and galloping the three Dover turns. Our second choice, Harper Blue Chip, finished second to Nuncio but there was no place or show betting.

We may be making appearances at the Meadowlands in November for the eliminations, Nov. 14—15 and the finals, Nov. 21—22 but either way we will be on top of the coverage with more “Crown” info via tweets and blogs than any other source on the web. TwinSpires harness department, in cooperation with the Hambletonian Society, is closer to the action and all of the insiders when it comes to betting than any other web source.

Our Breeders Crown Countdown blog, located at Blogspot, will continue to address the events in league with our TwinSpires site blog. Don’t miss one episode of the Breeders Crown Countdown.

TwinSpires and Hoosier continue a three-pronged power-packed program for harness players. Tuesdays, wager all you want and earn 10 TSC Elite Points per dollar bet. Click here for details. Every Thursday night, there is a 20-percent bonus on hitting the Pick 4 starting at Race 3. Click here for details. And the ongoing 10-percent Pick-4 bonus every racing night on Pick-4 hits continues through the meet. Click here for details.

In between published harness blogs, follow @FrankCotolo and @TwinSpires on Twitter.

H2W RESULTS

The H2W results list across-the-board prices. Also, exactas are included when a H2W horse finishing first or second completes the result with a race favorite or another H2W horse listed in the same race (an asterisk appears when both horses were listed to complete the exacta). This week, there were 28 active horses on the H2W list.

Winners

Heaven Touched, $18.80, $5.00, $3.40, Scarborough
Hollywood Star, $18.40, $8.00, $4.20, Cal Expo
Golden Fizz, $12.00, $6.00, $4.40, Freehold
Ambush The Bags, $8.60, $3.80, $.20 ok, Dayton
Table Games, $7.60, $3.70, $3.70 ok, Saratoga
Mr Dennis, $3.60, $3.20, $3.40 ok, Pompano
Aj Get’s The Money, $3.20, $2.40, $2.40 ok, Maywood

Seconds

Pembroke Popeye, $4.50, $2.20, Saratoga
Prairie Jaguar, $3.20, $2.80 (Exacta $7.60), Pompano
Lucid Thoughts, $2.70, $2.30, Saratoga
Mcgreat, $2.20, $2.10, Pompano

Thirds

Emilene’s Future, $13.00, Meadows
The Pepperoni Kid, $7.60, Meadows
Ardelle, $4.00, Meadows
Artist From Above, $4.00, Dayton
Who Dat Love, $3.60, Yonkers
Regal Heir, $3.00, Cal Expo

News & Notes

According to syndicate members associated with the breeding career of Father Patrick, his 2015 schedule calls for racing interspersed with stallion duties, though details are yet to be arranged. Current plans call for Father Patrick to stand stud in 2015 at Bowden’s Wellsville, Pa., farm in central Pennsylvania. “I have to talk to the commission, and iron out any issues,” Bowden said.

Although it is common for trotters overseas to breed and race in the same season, that is not the case in North America. Ready Cash, France’s richest trotter in history, races while being a popular sire, and Coktail Jet and Mack Lobell won an Elitloppet after performing stud duties.

The only current example in the U.S. is Wishing Stone, who this year stood as a stallion at Deo Volente Farms in New Jersey. He fulfilled contracts for 331 doses of frozen semen overseas as well as being bred to some 30 mares in North America. The seven-year-old trotter returned to the races in late June and has earned $123,330 this year.

Woodbine Entertainment Group (WEG) and the Central Ontario Standardbred Association announced the live racing schedule for the 2015 harness racing season. The season will feature 221 live race dates with 118 taking place at Mohawk, 16 more than last year, through the spring, summer and fall. The other 103 will be offered at Woodbine.

Another key change comes in the starting date for the Mohawk meet. The Woodbine winter season will end on Easter Monday, April 6 with Mohawk kicking off Thursday, April 9. The 2015 Mohawk meet will come to a close on Tuesday, Sept. 29. Live racing will then return to Woodbine Racetrack for the Fall/Winter meet on Thursday, Oct. 1. The Breeders Crown will highlight Woodbine’s fall/winter meet. The series will be presented on Oct. 24. Live racing will be conducted four-days-a-week from January to May and October to December. The schedule will increase to five-days-a-week during the months of June, July, August and September.

Trond Smedshammer and Ave Svanstedt were prolific at the yearling sessions of the the Standardbred Horse Sale last week in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Trond purchased eight yearlings, with one being tied for eighth highest in price. He said there were yearlings he really wanted but the prices went too high for his budget. Smedshammer said , “I’m not a big fan of buying those $200,000 [yearlings].”

Ake Svanstedt was also on a shopping spree, signing for seven yearlings, including a day’s sales topper, colt trotter Gotalottacredit, who sold for $225,000. He had three in the top 20 top sellers in the sessions.

The Meadowlands announced the creation of the $1-million Graduate Series, “designed to provide racing opportunities for four-year-old trotters and pacers in 2015.” The series will offer three legs tentatively beginning in late May with $50,000 (est.) legs at Tioga Downs, continuing through June at the Meadowlands with the purse increasing to $75,000 (est.) then $100,000 (est.) for legs two and three. The finals will be raced at the Meadowlands in early July with the purse for each gait guaranteed at $250,000.

Meadowlands Chairman Jeff Gural has been a strong advocate of keeping equine stars of the sport racing beyond their sophomore season and spoke on the intent of the series. “I consider keeping the best horses on the racetrack a priority to generate fan interest in racing. This series will provide what the connections of those horses have indicated a need for, a chance to race against horses of their own age until mid-season, when they will graduate into the open stakes,” said Gural.

Extraordinary Extras

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

Ray Cotolo contributed to this blog

Cartoons by Thom Pye ~ For Thom Pye cartoons, informative harness history and more, click here ~