Cotolo’s Harness Review, News And Notes

 We began the weekend on Friday (though there were horses to watch on Thursday, so always look at the H2W list for entries on Thursdays) at Woodbine with two winter series finals.

In the Snowshoe Final we raced second to the big favorite and ignited a well-paying exacta. Behind the 9-5 public choice, Kindofabigdeal, we finished with Bad Bug ($16.20, $4.90) and the combo paid $81.10 (see H2W Results paragraph below to understand the exactas we post when our suggested contenders place).

That night in the Blizzard Series, our horse finished ninth. The overwhelming favorite, Artistic Fusion, won.

Our Friday feature race found Our Els Dream N ($2.90) finishing third at Yonkers.

Saturday, Jan. 24 at the Meadowlands, we struck with the Super Bowl Final’s third choice, JL Cruze ($6.60, $2.60, n/s). In the Worldly Beauty, the second choice, Witch Dali, won, while our horse, Empress Deo (9-1), finished fourth.

The Saturday feature race was at Charlottetown, where our top contender Fitelle (20-1) got seventh and our suggested exacta partner A Fiesty X Ample (9-1) finished fourth. The race was won by the favorite.

All of the highlighted and featured race choices we suggested that did not win will appear in next week’s H2W list.

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H2W RESULTS

The H2W results list across-the-board prices. Also, exactas are included when a H2W horse finishing second completes the result with a race favorite or the first two finishers making up the exacta are H2W horses (an asterisk appears when both horses were listed to complete the exacta). This week, there were 33 active horses.

Winners

Jolt Of Jo, $12.40, $3.80, $3.00, Meadows
Beach Hero, $6.30, $3.80, $2.60, Flamboro
Casimir Jitterbug, $4.00, $2.80, $2.30, Yonkers
Empty Gesture, $4.00, $2.60, $2.60 ok, Cal Expo
Ali Rush, $3.80, $2.60, $2.10, Northfield

Seconds

Ah Panama, $5.20, $2.60, Cal Expo
Jamantha, $5.20, $3.00 (Exacta $11.80), Charlottetown
Artizia Hanover, $4.00, $2.60 (Exacta $16.00), Freehold

Thirds

The Sweet Dion, $10.40, Northfield
Jailor, $6.40, Cal Expo
Kings Barns, $6.40, Meadowlands
Pathian, $4.20, Meadows
Bossa Nova Baby, $2.80, Dover

News & Notes

Standardbred Breeders & Owners Association of New Jersey President Tom Luchento and Meadowlands Chairman Jeff Gural agreed to withdraw the trainers' rewards program and suspend ABC classification racing at the Meadowlands. The program was a preference system instituted in 2014 (dating back to the old New York-area harness raceway systems) to provide preferences to trainers who supported the spring and summer racing programs.

”We have always been willing to explore any strategy that would bring about the best possible racing at the Meadowlands," said Luchento. “Until we have slots revenue, which I feel is not far off, we have to be responsive and creative to whichever concepts will fill the entry box and provide the full, competitive fields that are the hallmark of the Meadowlands. Director of Racing Peter Koch will be issuing his condition sheets to reflect the return to condition racing. We hope these changes are reflective of both the needs of the trainers and race office.”

Here’s a good human interest story by Mark Ratzky on Kenny Fowler, who is starting races for convalescing Bill Vallandingham at Cal Expo. Click here for story.

There’s multi-race exotic action on Monday (when harness racing is thin on the wagering menu). Northfield Park added a $10,000 Pick-5 total pool guarantee to Monday’s (Jan. 26) program. Beginning in race three, the $10,000 Pick-5 guaranteed total pool includes a carryover of $2,045.87. Northfield’s Pick 5, Pick 4 and the Pick 3s offer a reduced takeout rate of just 14 percent. Monday’s post time is 6 p.m.

Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs begins the 138-day race meet on Saturday, March 21. The Bobby Weiss Late Closer for three- and four-year-olds starts the season off with four events. The separate events will be for male pacers, female pacers, male trotters and female trotters. Each “Weiss” will consist of four legs and a $30,000 final. Sun Stakes Saturday has been moved a week later this year to avoid conflicting with stakes in Canada. The finals for the $500,000 Earl Beal Jr. Memorial, $500,000 Max C. Hempt Memorial, $300,000 James M. Lynch Memorial pace and $500,000 Ben Franklin Pace will be on July 4. The eliminations will be one week earlier on June 27. The “Hempt” and “Lynch” are now Early Closers.

There will be a change in the scheduling of the Pennsylvania All Stars, an early closer for Pennsylvania sired two- and three-year-olds. The events for the sophs will be held in May. The male trotters will go on May 2, during the early afternoon card that’s part of a doubleheader on Kentucky Derby day. The following day, the soph-filly trotters go to post. The following weekend the soph male pacers will be on May 9 and soph female pacers on May 10.

Making a return to Pocono in 2015 will be Super Stakes Saturday, which features the $500,000 Battle of the Brandywine, $500,000 Colonial Trot and $350,000 Valley Forge pace. The “Brandywine” and “Colonial” offer $200,000 and $100,000 consolations, while the Valley Forge will have a $150,000 and $75,000 consolations.

Extraordinary Extras

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

Ray Cotolo contributed to this blog

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