Cotolo’s Harness Review, News And Notes

Profits rule again, readers, as we scored in two of our feature races, hitting 50 percent, since one choice, CR Amigo, scratched at Western Fair. But before the scratch, we opened the Jan. 2 program with a big winner in Race 1.

We gave you Arockalypse Now ($31.60, $15.90, $5.90) and he turned out to be our largest hit of the week.

We hit again in Canada, on Jan. 3 at Woodbine in Race 4 with Grin For Money ($8.90, $4.00, $2.70).

We were third with Rossridge Handsome ($5.20) at 9-1 in Miami’s Race 10 on Saturday and One Lucky Dragon (14-1) lost to the public choice in our feature at Pompano that same night, finishing fifth.

A few of the winter series begin next weekend and we will cover them along with our usual feature races and horses-to-watch list (H2W).

TwinSpires has free harness past performances, a Winter Special, when you wager $500 or more each month. For full details, click here.

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). If listed horses were active after press time, the date they won, placed or showed appears in parenthesis. This week, there were 26 active horses. Any horses listed for 1/5/15 will appear in next week’s review if they make the boards.

Winners

Im The Reason, $8.60, $4.00, $3.80, Cal Expo
And We’ll See You, $5.60, $3.80, $3.60, Miami
Im The Real Major, $5.20, $3.40, $2.60, Meadowlands
Ruths Shadylady, $5.00, $3.20, $3.40 ok, Cal Expo
Hillybilly, $3.60, $2.80, $2.10, Pompano
Smile A Little, $3.00, $2.40, $2.10, Pompano

Seconds

Get A Little Crazy, $8.20, $4.60, Cal Expo
Dontdoubtthelakers, $5.40, $3.60 (Exacta $27.40), Maywood
Cenalta Power, $$4.20, $2.80, Cal Expo

Thirds

Jamigo, $3.00, Western Fair
Up Front Kellie Jo, $2.10 dh, Northfield

News & Notes

As most of you following the H2W list know, Freehold Raceway opened Friday, Jan. 2 for the 2015 racing season. The 110-day racing schedule features racing Thursday through Saturday and also includes the addition of Monday racing the first seven weeks of the year. Post time will be 12:30 p.m. EDT throughout the meet.

As well, with Dayton closing, the Ohio harness circuit switched to Miami Valley Raceway for it second season, beginning Jan. 2. There have already been capital improvements to both the grandstand and paddock, including a new infield tote board, which features a high-tech video panel with improved sight lines accomplished by lowering the elevation of all the big screen TVs mounted throughout the grandstand.

The scourge of winter has hit the Northwest, though, and cancellation of harness racing cards has begun for 2015. Northlands Park’s for Jan. 2 program was cancelled as Mother Nature settled into one of her favorite Canadian haunts. If you have ever been in Alberta this time of year you are well acquainted with the extreme cold and the rapid changes to unseasonable warmth for this time of year. The latter is caused by the infamous Chinook Winds that sweep through the province and cause a severe dip in temperature for a spell. However, even an afternoon first post in Edmonton cannot count the Chinooks to keep the temperature down for long enough to warm the horses and horsemen for a whole card.

Northfield Park races four nights a week to start the 2015-racing year. January through May racing is Monday through Thursday. Beginning June 12 Northfield swaps Thursday for Friday evenings. Thursday evening racing returns on Oct. 8 as does the traditional Monday-through-Friday schedule, which will be raced until the end of the year (except Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve). Northfield’s four marquee-racing events are as follows: the $200,000 (est.) Battle of Lake Erie (Friday, June 12); the $200,000 (est.) Cleveland Trotting Classic (Friday, July 3); the $500,000 (est.) Carl Milstein Memorial (Friday, Aug. 14); and the $125,000 (est.) Courageous Lady (Friday, Nov. 27). Each live racing night carries a first race post time of 6 p.m.

Yonkers Raceway’s 2015 racing schedule is set to begin Friday, Jan. 9 but some of the earlier season highlighted events will be concentrated at the Meadowlands and Woodbine. Still, steady action each week will ensue at the New York City-area half-mile. Yonkers offers wagering on live harness six nights a week through January, with the most races available for bettors in the east during this frigid period.

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 ~