Meadows, Mohawk, Feature Eligible Stars And Upstarts

Mid-week action for an historic stake takes place Wednesday, Sept. 16 at the Meadows, as it presents the $170,000 Nadia Lobell for soph-filly pacers. Nine go to the gate, six that are Breeders Crown eligible (e).

Both of Joe Holloway’s femmes are chargers. Bettor Be Steppin (e), however, likes to win a lot more than Divine Caroline (e), and that is why “Steppin” should go off the favorite.

Of course Ron Burke’s Sassa Hanover (e) leaving from the rail will also get a lot of support. All of this means that The Show Returns (e)l will once again be ignored, which is just the situation that makes her the spoiler. She has done her best when ignored and is in another spot to race far better than her odds will suggest. Therefore, we suggest the upset scenario with The Show Returns.

Mohawk’s next super program is Saturday, Sept. 19 and it includes the next chapter in the 2015 glamour-boy trot division, which of course, features its star, Hambletonian-champion Pinkman (e). The event is the rich Canadian Trotting Classic, with a purse of $700,000.

Pinkman put away his competition easily in the elim, where he made bettors realize he was not going in the wrong direction after a few mishaps, including a break at Pocono and a defeat and disqualification in the Yonkers Trot. Those were incidents more than setbacks because the brilliant gelding trotter floats over his competition at so many levels.

Takter’s three Pinkman companions will look for checks, too, as French Laundry (e) and Uncle Lasse (e) leave from Pinkman’s left on the gate and The Bank (e) leaves from the far outside. From post 4 Pinkman cannot be denied in this field, which appears softer than the Hambletonian Final.

Barring any incidents, Pinkman will be all out and should be seen as a key horse in exotics. However, for any reasonable return on exotics, we are going to have to dismiss second and third public choices. That doesn’t leave us with much except for The Bank. Of Takter’s quartet, The Bank is the one most usually ignored and from post 10 he most certainly won’t be attractive to bettors. But he is far more dangerous than the other three outsiders, Iron, Don’t Rush and Muscle Up The Goal. No other Takter combo will be worth much.  

Two-year-old filly trotters go straight to the final on that same Mohawk card in the $410,000 Peaceful Way. There are four daughters of Kadabra in the 10-filly field; his gals are always tough. But our eyes are on Celebrity Eventsy (e), the single filly from the sire Manofmanymissions. He was erratic but very fast and though he has not produced proof being a good sire for this division, we may have found one in this gal, trained by Stefan Lind. The crowd will be going with the Takter duo, High Heels (e) and All The Time (e) and the four Kadabra gals will get Canadian dollars, no doubt, so Celebrity Eventsy’s price will be delightful.

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.