Cotolo’s Harness Review, News And Notes

The best win prices, some of them eclipsed by place and show prices are found this week in our horses to watch (H2W) section.

Our features over the weekend included races from the Meadowlands’ Pick 4s on Jan. 30. As we explained, these were suggested add-ons to your casts in the early and late Pick 4s, as well as win plays if you liked their odds.

We began the choices with a win, Perfect Picture ($12.40, $7.20, $5.20) in Race 3 and that was the only Pick-4 addition that would have done any good. The other contenders we gave you in the early and the late were off the board except for Race 5 with Helios (12-1) third ($5.40) and Race 7 with Rolls Blue Chip (7-2) second ($5.20, $3.80). In the early Pick 4, if you had the three other winners with our single winner (which was the highest price of the winning quarter), it was worth $511.00.

That same night, our Meadows feature was won by a 6-1 shot over the public pick and our choice, Cool Vicious ($2.80).

On Saturday, our features from Charlottetown were postponed until Sunday, Feb. 1 due to bitter cold in the area. Then, we were sixth with Gascoigne Dickie (8-1) and third with Political Chrisis ($2.50). Oddly enough, a horse that left the H2W list after two entries beat Political Chrisis. That horse, Wealth Of Nations, paid $44.20. As we have noted in the past, players may want to follow an H2W horse a third time because a few here and there have won at huge prices (as per this example). That is entirely up to the player.

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

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

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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 39 active horses.

Winners

Miss Kilo, $10.60, $3.40, $3.20, Meadows
A Fiesty X Ample, $9.50, $3.50, $2.40, Charlottetown
Make A Call, $7.00, $3.80, $3.40, Northfield
Artizia Hanover, $6.60, $3.40, $2.10, Freehold
Lil Stevie Oneder, $6.20, $3.40, $2.40l, Cal Expo
Clara Bea, $6.80, $3.40, $2.40, Cal Expo
Zeitgeist, $5.20, $2.80, $2.40, Pompano
Winsun Montecarlo, $4.80, $2.80, $2.20, Maywood
Ideal Shadow, $3.10, $2.50, $2.40, Woodbine

Seconds

Nothingbutmach, $26.00, $7.50, Buffalo
Sisters Keeper, $8.00, $4.40, Maywood
Jailor, $5.80, $2.20, Cal Expo
Terror In Motion, $5.60, $3.20, Northfield
Turbochardgedroxie, $5.60, $2.80 (Exacta $29.00), Meadows
Catalyst, $4.60, $3.60, Freehold (Exacta, $23.20), Freehold
Hard To Mach, $3.50, $2.80 (Exacta $19.80), Yonkers

Thirds

Rare Beauty, $9.20, Cal Expo
Millenium Wheel, $5.00, Dover
Flexie, $4.40, Flamboro
Gold Star Ranger, $3.00, Pompano
Swift Blizzard, $2.70, Monticello
Fitelle, $2.10, Charlottetown

News & Notes

Nick Salvi of the Meadowlands announced the addition of several new stakes to the track’s existing menu for the 2015 season. Leading the parade of new events is the return of the $1-million (est.) Graduate Series, which has been resurrected to provide an opportunity for four-year-old trotters and pacers to compete against horses of their own age before taking on elders. The series opens at Tioga on Monday, May 25 then moves to the Meadowlands for legs two and three in June with the $250,000 finals at the Meadowlands on July 3 (pacers) and July 11 (trotters). Mare divisions have been added to the FFA Championships for 2015 with each purse (trot and pace) set at a guaranteed $200,000 purse. The trotting mares also pick up another big purse opportunity with the Fresh Yankee, set to go on Hambletonian day for an estimated $175,000. The fall meet will see the addition of a pair of new races for sophomores fillies with the purse for each estimated at $175,000. These stakes have been named for two great mares in Meadowlands history, Continentalvictory and Tarport Hap.

Monticello Raceway is adding a new Pick-5 wager to its wagering menu. The Pick-5 will run through races three—seven and will offer a consolations and a carryovers, with a minimum bet of 50 cents. Simulcasting Director Maureen Flynn said, “Considering the average size of our Pick-3 pools, we anticipate the Pick-5 wager will take off and build [large] jackpot pools.” Monticello races in the daytime and was recently added to our H2W list of tracks.

Three horses driven at Pompano by David Ingraham on Jan. 27 topped the win prices of most horses in the Florida track’s recent meet. On the program, Ingraham scored in races three, seven and nine with huge pay offs. In Race 3 he won driving the Randy Bickmore-trained Rocinante ($86.40) as the favorite dueled early with the second favorite (the favorite finished third and the latter broke in the stretch). In Race 7 his winner was trainer Robert Dutilly’s Tug River Dylan ($86.20), beating the favorite that rode the outside most of the mile (finishing fourth) and the second choice that dueled with the top choice (finishing second). His biggest price was in Race 9 when he won with the Howard Klohr-conditioned Wesleys Fortune ($130.80), who took advantage of the favorite being eliminated at the start from breaking and a second-choice going wide but unable to catch the clear sailing winner. 

Lou Guida, celebrated owner of champion standardbreds, died on Jan. 30. He was 82. Mr. Guida owned all or part of 21 horses that each won at least a million dollars. They included Niatross, arguably one of the most durable, fastest and strong male pacers of all time and his trotter, Mack Lobell was an international star. Read all about Mr. Guida by clicking here.

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 ~