Harness Racing: Hambo elims with Adios drive action

Harness betting opportunities increase as mid-season presents traditional stakes along with a hoard of overnights at many tracks. Be sure your TwinSpires account is locked and loaded for the next few weeks.

Always eclectic and to the point is our never-ending TwinSpires H2W (horses-to-watch list). With ceaseless arrogance it continues suggesting how to enhance your exotic combinations and fair-priced win, place and show finishes.

HIT IT & SPLIT IT

Thursday / July 29
Hoosier

On Thursdays at TwinSpires through Aug. 5, the early Pick 4 at Hoosier Park is a $2,000 Hit It And Split It exclusive deal. Click for details: https://www.twinspires.com/bet/offers/details

This Thursday we offer candidates for your early Pick 4 tickets covering races 3-6.
Race 3: Thunder Country; Jaxson R Browne
Race 4: Shady Memories
Race 5: Star Of Oz; Every Plan Counts
Race 6: Go With Joe

GREEN GUYS

Friday / July 30
Meadowlands

Two $20k elims decide the Peter Haughton Final for frosh-colt trotters.

Race 4
King of the North, Ray Schnittker’s colt, has three wins from three starts and is making his sire, Walner, look super. Temporal Hanover, also by Walner, is handled by Marcus Melander. On gait, they are a toss up, so where is there any value in a field of seven? Pit the new sire against a productive trotting sire proven through the years and bet Global Pandemic. Ron Burke’s Cantab Hall colt speeds up a bit (not unheard of as a green colt) and the price is right.

Race 6
Oddly enough, the same two sires are represented in the second division. Again, we’ll take the percentages on Cantab Hall’s Fast As The Wind over Walner’s Laws Of Motion. Danger looms, however, from a colt by Nuncio, the perennial chaser of Father Patrick, named Letsdoit S for Marcus Melander. He's in his second race after winning his first and that spells competition.

GREEN GALS

Friday / July 30
Meadowlands

One $20k elim features all 10 frosh-colt trotters dropped in the box for the Jim Doherty Memorial Final next week.

Race 9
The filly frosh crop is Walner-loaded with four, while Muscle Hill, Father Patrick and Chapter Seven sired two each. Tough calls. Right now these gals are just about as good as one another and no one knows how quickly each one will float to fame or mediocrity. As long as we’re focusing on breeding, let’s take a shot with Mon Cheval. Her sire is Father Patrick and her dam is Shake It Cerry, a genuine speedster who, like Father Patrick, was ruined by a break in her highest profile race here at the Meadowlands.

HELLO ADIOS

Saturday / July 31
The Meadows

In our opinion, over the last two decades, the Adios Pace has become a peculiar event. Once a major component of the soph-pacing stakes schedule, it has settled for being a minor stop in the division’s road to glory. There is no historic reason why its status has faded but for the fact that it has not attracted more of the division’s top tier and often presents pacers experiencing mid-season splashes of success. Included on this list of misfits (‘90s through ‘00s) are unremarkable winners Ricci Rennie Time, Higher Power, Andrel, Miles McCool, Cactus Creek and Alsace Hanover (to name a few).

This season, welcome to the final an obscure trio—Water Sports Teen, Mysweetboymax and Natameri, each eligible by the nature of the race’s peculiarity to win the Race for the Orchids. Water Sports Teen went to Jennifer Bongiorno’s barn to win three straight, the most recent an Adios elim; Mysweetboymax failed against the best of the division in the Messenger; and Natameri has picked up some checks trying to climb the class ladder.

The big guns are still Abuckabett Hanover and Southwind Gendry, the former returning from a couple of tough finishes and the latter a consistent performer. “Gendry” lost wind in a fruitless duel with Natameri in one Adios elim, both made the final but surrendered to “Abuckabett.” Gendry should again offer odds better than his chances like he did winning the MP elim at 10-1. As a third or fourth choice, that is good money pacing after good money in an event that could end as peculiar as its entries.

GLAMOUR GUYS

The 2021 Hambletonian elims feature eight glamour-boy colts in each division at $50k per division. We’ve written a personal odds line for fair-priced plays, as we did with the Meadowlands Pace Final, which was successful, altered only by the winner’s disqualification. We endorse any one matching our price demands.

Saturday / July 31
Meadowlands

Race 6
Elim 1
Dancinginthedark M (5-2) – The now colt, the fast-with-more-in-the-tank colt, the Melander colt has everything going for him to near peak in the next two weeks.
Sonofamisery (7-2) – Melander’s other fit-and-ready steady gaited and timed to strike big for this weekend and next.
Delayed Hanover (9-2) – Ake Svanstedt’s faith in sire Southwind Frank, this one’s sire, is a measure of respect for the two-move-just-lost 2016 Hambletonian place horse.
Ambassador Hanover (6-1) Ake’s seriously developed colt could win picking up pieces should the heat take the wind out of the Melander sails.

Race 10
Elim 2
Johan Palema (5-2) – His conditioner at the Meadowlands two weeks ago was easy, so he has speed, rest and the luck of the “Palema” on his side (see 1992 Hambletonian history).
Venerate (7-2) – When he is on step he is strong but maybe not as strong as Palema.
Really Fast (5-1) – He has not lived up to his name in the ring with the previous two but should make the final and get to be in the show.

GLAMOUR GIRLS

Saturday / July 31
Meadowlands

The Hambletonian Oaks for the glamour-girl fillies offers two elims at $35k each.

Race 5
Elim 1
While the crowd adores Bella Bellini, we feel she will wind up an underlay while post 8 will turn away a bunch of bettors from Tony Alagna’s Beltassima. She missed the board only once in six tries, won thrice and looks every bit as competitive as her rivals, making post 8 moot for her to win and good for her supporters trusting in an overlay.

Race 9
Elim 2
Another 10 fillies with similar attributes make this elim tight, unless Melander’s Iteration is at her best. The most interesting filly here in our opinion is Swift Swanda. The Indiana-bred has earned a whopping amount from four out of five wins at three and at two she was better than any west of New Jersey in the sires stakes at Hoosier. Fans may not give her the time of day but she could be even better than these with minor improvement

H2W LIST

Meadowlands
7/30/21, Double Account R11; Whichwaytothebeach R11

Meadows
7/29/21, +Sabrina R1; Ohio Z Tam R7

Monticello
7/29/21, My Last Chance R4; Run Around John R7; +Concur R8

Northfield
7/31/21, Diamondtequilashot R11; +Play To The Crowd R14

Philly
7/29/21, +Big Oil R9

Plainridge
7/30/21, +Kyrie Deo R4; Gertrude Hanover R6

Pocono
7/31/21, +Dream Of Luck R4

Running Aces
7/29/21, Brians Magic Girl R2; Oneida Blue Chip R4; Outlawintriguedbyu R9

Scioto
7/30/21, RJZ First Lady R7

Vernon
7/30/21, Boys Turn R1; Dreamlands Art R2
7/31/21, Im A Chloe R4