Score With Melmerby Beach, Highest ‘Levy’ Winner At $27; Pocono Place Horse Pays $83; Other Double-Digit Winners, Exotics Abound

Topping the features this week, we supported the best paying winner of the five “Levy” divisions at Yonkers on March 26. We scored with Melmerby Beach ($27.00, $6.60, $3.20) in division two. The other four Levy divisions were won by the public choices. We were sixth with Let’s Drink On It (50-1); fourth with Santa Fe Beachboy (7-1); fifth with PH Supercam (8-1); and sixth with Roland N Rock (53-1). It was a Levy second-letg win-bet profit that was not available anywhere else but at our TwinSpires harness blog.

A headline event came from the horses-to-watch list (H2W) with a Pocono Downs’ place horse, Dibando, paying the single highest price for win, place or show so far this season. Dibando ($83.60, $13.00) rocked the tote board finishing a clear length behind a 16-1 shot. Again, to our knowledge, Dibando appeared as a contender only on our exclusive H2W list. His place finish contributed to an exacta worth over a grand and a trifecta worth over five grand.

Friday, March 25, at Yonkers, we failed in all three Marchmaker divisions. Venus Delight was fourth to the public’s second choice, while our second choice contender finished second; that was Request For Parole ($6.00, $3.60). We were fifth with Sandbetweenurtoes (7-1) to the public’s second choice in division two; and fifth with Delightful Dragon (31-1) who lost to the public’s third choice.

Both series continue next weekend.

Also Friday, our stab at the Miami Valley Pick 4 resulted in two wins. In leg one we had Jetting Around ($10.60, $4.20, $3.00), with Sallee Ride ($3.00) third. In leg three we had Tinder ($3.20, $2.80, $2.20), with Team Zordin ($3.60) third. In leg two Cenaltafirecracker was eighth as the favorite while Ginger Spice N ($3.80) was third and Gran Gabriel scratched. In leg four Game Of Dreamers (5-2) was ninth while Paige Moon Dancer ($4.00) was third and Addys Way scratched. The Pick 4 paid $61.05 for three-of-four winners.

Our Thursday, March 24 contenders at Saratoga were unproductive, each losing to the public choices. In Race 8, Psyched (29-1) finished second and My Friend Charlie (19-1) finished sixth. In Race 11, Under The Stars (6-1) came home seventh. These horses will appear in next Thursday’s H2W list as repeaters.

There were no mid-week Tweets this week but Twinspires Twitter members should keep alert for special Wednesday evening picks from @FrankCotolo –retweeted by @twinspires for a track or tracks active that evening. 
 
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 a cold 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 66 active horses (a 17-percent win hit rate and a 36-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

Lucky Jet, $25.80, $19.60, $16.40, Miami
Magglio, $23.20, $12.00, $7.60, Meadowlands
Need You So Bad, $22.60, $7.50, $7.50, Fraser
Moonlight Spice, $13.10, $7.00, $4.00, Fraser
Southwind Voltage, $8.00, $5.00, $2.80, Meadows
My Camillina, $6.20, $2.60, $2.10, Fraser
Tajmealover, $5.80, $2.80, $2.10 (*Exacta $26.30), Century
Coin Vault, $3.70, $2.80, $2.10, Fraser
Mr Big Load, $2.60, $2.10, $2.10, Freehold

Seconds

Dibando, $83.60, $13.00, Pocono
Lizard King, $11.60, $8.40 (Exacta $8.70), Century
Umygeorgia Hanover, $8.20, $8.80, Northfield
Jet Hot Stuff, $5.10, $2.70 (*Exacta $26.30), Century
Scarlett V, $4.80, $2.60, Fraser
The Dominate One, $4.30, $4.20 (*Exacta $23.60), Buffalo
Veal Marsala, $4.00, $2.80 (Exacta $15.60), Scarborough
Cowboys Dirtyboots, $3.70, Century
Elzane, $2.80, $3.00 ok, Northville

Thirds

Lyons Levi Lewis, $5.40, Flamboro
Avantage, $4.80 (*Triple $50.00), Buffalo
Justcallmeronald, $4.80, Woodbine
Lady Ping, $4.70, Woodbine
Catch The Wave, $2.80, Buffalo
Whipmeintoshape, $2.80, Scarborough

News & Notes

As expected, Southwind Frank leads the eligible list for the 91^st Hambletonian on Aug. 6 at the Meadowlands, according to an official update from the Hambletonian Society. As of this writing there are 84 paid up for the 2016 edition of the classic sophomore trot. Ron Burke trains “Frank,” last year’s champion frosh trotter. Jimmy Takter, winning trainer of the 2015 Hambo with Pinkman, has 10 on the eligible list for the big dance. They include Lagerfield and two Takter calls “sleepers,” Bar Hopping and Love Matters.

In an article by top harness-journalist Dave Briggs, driver Ron Pierce says that he is enjoying his rehabilitation from neck and back surgery that he may not return to the sulky when the doctors give him the go-ahead. Pierce said he might buy a sailboat and cruise the seven seas. Ron has been sharing outdoors adventure with his brother Artie. Ron said he and Artie might go mountain climbing in Alaska this year. For the entire story, download Harness Racing Update.

As you might have noticed on our H2W list this past Thursday, Maine’s 2016 harness racing season is underway again as Scarborough Downs opened for its 66th year. The track is going on a two-day-a-week schedule, racing Saturday and Sunday, with post time at 1:30 p.m. (Eastern) on both days. More than 200 horses have or will be qualifying to take part in the new season, which is, a sharp contrast to the weather plagued 2015 harness meet.

Poised to begin its 23^rd season of harness racing, Hoosier Park announced a daily post time of 5:45 p.m. It will follow a Friday and Saturday schedule the opening week, the first program on April 1 (no fooling) and a Thursday, Friday, Saturday schedule the second week. Then the schedule turns to a Tuesday-through-Saturday week throughout the remainder of 160-day season that goes through Nov. 12.

Kawartha Downs in Ontario has announced it will open its 2016 season of harness racing on May 28. The harness programs will continue every Saturday night until Oct. 1. The only exception will be Sept. 17, when the track hosts a NASCAR event.

Harness racing continues in Illinois on Friday, May 6 and Saturday, May 7,  Kentucky Derby weekend at Hawthorne Race Course. The following week, Hawthorne will move to a four-day-a-week schedule with racing on a Thursday-through-Sunday schedule. First-race post time each night during the summer meet will be 7:20 p.m. (Central). The track will feature the Have Em Ready To Roll late-closing series and the Illinoi-Conceived-And-Foaled two-year-old stakes program (equivalent to sires stakes in other states).

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 ~