Glamour-Boy Pacers At The Meadows, Girls At Mohawk

A dozen Breeders Crown (e) eligible soph-colt pacers are spread over three Pennsylvania Sires Stakes (PASS) divisions with others in their division at the Meadows on Friday, Aug. 28. The purses are $61,000-plus each.

The first split has seven aboard and three from Ron Burke’s barn. One of them, Yankee Bounty (e), is yet to see a win in 13 tries this season, while Burke’s other of three, Lyons Again (e) is three for nine.

Burke’s PV Coming Home is the top earner here but Rise Up Now’s seven for 12 wins and penultimate earnings have the edge. We’ll support Rise Up Now, as the Burke brigade is soft. Lyons Again is a good exotic partner.

Round two’s bettors should favor the Burke-Yannick Gingras team with Lyons Levi Lewis (e) and the another of the three Burke students, My Hero Ron. Also from the Burke barn is Rufo (e). This is an even bunch and due to the Burke presence, you could eagerly support Tomy Terror for the price. He is in the right spot and with the right crowd for an upset.

The third PASS has a full field of eight and Wakizashi Hanover leaves from the far right. Burke has two here and Jimmy Takter brings in Blood Brother (e) from a Pocono win. To the left of “Wakizashi” is our pal, Lost For Words (e), who has been mighty competitive but unable to knock out some of his big foes, settling for second or third. We’ll take him here, as he will, once again, offer a better price than his chances. He is a purse-magnet, so to speak, having eight in-the-money finishes in only nine starts.

Also Friday, two $91,000-plus elims of the Casual Breeze bring together glamour-girl soph trotters at Mohawk to start the big weekend of elims in Canada (see main blog).

Aside from Smokinmombo, from the Hambletonian Oaks Final, the other six in elm one are unfamiliar for those of us following the North America stakes scene. Even in the trainer column we find mostly Canadian-based conditioners. Jimmy Takter is the exception and his filly, Lilu Hanover (e) comes from his second tier of sophs and must be ready to make some money at this level. With much to gain heading for the Crown elims, the other two in this field that should be considered for exotic plays are Juanitas Fury (e) and Elegant Serenity (e).

A sextet of Crown-eligible fillies, most familiar from U.S. action, makes up the full field of eight in the second split.

Lock Down Lindy (e) is back racing for big bucks after a bad break took him out of his last effort. It was a surprise after she mowed down her “Oaks” elim competition impressively. We need to ignore the jump and look at her as a major threa there and perhaps at a good chunk of change, since Takter’s Speak To Me (e) and Danielle Hall (e) are looking to advance to the rich final, also. The latter is maturing after a hot frosh season and Crown-bound if she behaves from here on in.

Follow major BC hopefuls on their road to the Breeders Crown at Woodbine at the Breeders Crown Countdown blog and the TwinSpires harness blog weekly, with archived reports on the results at the Hambletonian Society web site.