Pick-4 Leg Winner Tops At $16; Fraser Delivers $13 Score; Place Prices Top Winner Prices With Exacta Additions

Our overnight features presented a few wins this week. Unfortunately, since we suggest horses to play so far in advance, it sometimes costs us in toteboard clicks and our contenders turn out to be public choices of some sort.

Such was the case with Friday, Dec. 18’s Meadowlands winning choice, Purity ($6.40, $5.00, $3.80). Then, on Saturday at Pompano we scored with Dr Ds Jodine ($8.60, $6.60, $6.00).

The Pick 4 on Dec. 17 had the biggest winner of the week in its second leg, which was taken by Mischievous Jesse ($16.60, $6.40, $5.20). One of the two horses we gave out in the first leg, the obvious one, gave us two for two in the Pick-4’s start. We won with Rolling Thunder ($4.80, $2.20, $2.20). Our other choice wound up third—Become Legendary ($2.60). In leg three we were second with Turtle Gone Wild ($7.40, $4.20) and in the final leg we were third with Sand Fortune ($4.60). We hope our two winners helped you with a ticket that paid $893.75 for 50 cents.

This week’s other contenders in our features that were losers (with comments, not excuses) are as follows:
Ha Tung (7-1) finished a strong fourth to the public choice at Northfield.
Mister Bs Way (13-1) broke and was out of it, finishing eighth to a 3-1 shot at the Meadows.
Benjaminbanneker (3-1) got a tough trip to finish sixth at 3-1 at the Meadowlands.
Whichwayrightrleft (21-1) broke stride and was eliminated at Pompano.
Any horse that did not win will show up on next week’s H2W.

The H2W (horses-to-watch) list (with picks leftover to follow until our next blog) continued to produce fine mutuels and exotics. Check them out below and check out our usual blog this Thursday, Christmas Eve. We will cover the following weekend and all the leftovers from last Thursday’s blog and move into 2016 with our special New Year’s Eve/Day blog, listing our successes from the past year and our TwinSpires Harness Horse of the Year.

H2W LIST RESULTS

The H2W results list across-the-board prices. Also, exactas listed are included when a H2W horse finishes second 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). The note “ok” determines that prices published are correct even when a show price exceeds a place price or any or all of the prices are the same. This week, there were 61 active horses (an 11-percent win hit rate and a 39-percent in-the-money hit rate).

Please note that some H2W results reflect win, place, show and exotic results occurring by press time but some horses race after the blog is posted (we list them the following week) It is up to you to follow horses that have not performed before this weekly review is posted.

Winners

Four Diamonds, $13.10, $4.30, $3.00, Fraser
Lumiere, $8.70, $5.10, $3.40, Monticello
Four Socks, $5.60, $2.80, $2.20, Pompano
Magic Number, $4.80, $2.60, $2.20, Fraser
Zeitgeist, $3.60, $2.80, $2.20, Pompano
Not Before Eight, $2.60, $2.20, $2.10, Meadowlands
Counterstrike, $2.30, $2.10, n/s, Northlands

Seconds

Up Up And Out, $14.20, $9.00 (Exacta $78.40), Meadowlands
Firm It Up, $11.20, $7.20, Meadows
Rocket Art, $9.60, $5.80 (Exacta $40.90), Flamboro
Keyed Entry, $7.30, $4.10, Fraser
Wizard Of Art, $6.90, $2.90 (Exacta $37.00), Monticello
Big City Jewel, $5.80, $4.00, Woodbine
Moon Is On Fire, $4.40, $3.20 (Exacta $7.80), Cal Expo
Richlyn Yogi, $4.00, $2.40 (Exacta $8.70), Charlottestown
Lisplaced, $3.00, $3.00 ok, Fraser
Buddy Wesier, $2.30, Fraser
Caviar Court, $2.30, $2.10, Monticello
Topcornerterror, $2.30, $2.30 ok (Exacta $7.60), Flamboro
Timely Finesse, $2.10, $2.10 ok, Charlottestown

Thirds

Big Wheel, $5.00, Dayton
Smiling Major, $3.20, Cal Expo
Mattadors Rose, $2.80, Charlottestown
Mateo M, $2.60, Meadows

News & Notes

It was no surprise and almost unanimously voted that Wiggle It Jiggleit is harness racing’s Horse of the Year for 2015. “Wiggle” is a three-year-old gelding and no stranger to the features analyzed through the season on TwinSpires harness blogs. Each month of 2015, Wiggle showed up to win more and pay less. From January to November he recorded wins, with April the sole exception. He recorded 22 wins in 26 starts, earning him $2.18 million. 

One of the recent additions to the H2W is Northlands Park in Edmonton, Alberta. Since we began covering harness racing on line more than a decade ago, we have followed action at Northlands and sadly watched it decline in business. Recently, Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson told Trot Insider there is a “new vision” for Northlands. He said he believes live horse racing may not be part of Northland’ future. Talks continue on taking the 160 acres of the track and making it the home of the National Hockey League’s Edmonton Oilers franchise. People involved in the project said, “horse racing looks like it’s on the way out,” and that they “don’t see a big future for continuing subsidy of that activity.” It’s still up in the air, though, and Horse Racing Alberta is working with the government “on various long-term strategic initiatives” to save the sport. We will report on any developments as they happen.

Back in the U.S., new hope is looming for the survival of Balmoral and Maywood parks in Illinois. According to the Illinois Harness Horseman's Association, Maywood and Balmoral were granted licenses to operate their OTBs and their intertrack facility in 2016. But the auction for the tracks’ assets is not finished. Three bids were made with just one meet the qualifying criteria, that one for Balmoral’s property. A court allowed negotiations with the bidder and time to find any other interested buyers to stimulate further bidding. A new auction date has been extended until Monday, Dec. 28.

Other division winners among pacers were Divine Caroline (soph filly), Boston Red Rocks (frosh colt), Pure Country (frosh filly), State Treasurer (older male) and Venus Delight (mare).

There were no surprises in the trotting awards, with Trotter of the Year going to Pinkman (soph colt). Other winners in the trotting slots were Mission Brief (soph filly), Broadway Donna (frosh filly), Southwind Frank (frosh colt), JL Cruze (older male) and Bee A Magician (mare).

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 ~