The Yonkers Trot and Meadowlands Pace eliminations arei n the book. Rather than reinventing the wheel, these USTA reports will recap the outcome of the Yonkers Trot and Meadowlands Pace eliminations. Here is the replay of the Yonkers Trot final and the three Meadowlands eliminations.
As for the Meadowlands Pace eliminations, they show once again that the three year old pacing division is wide open. Rock N Roll Heaven will certainly be the favorite next week after his eye opening victory in the first elimination; winning in 1:47.3, but as we have seen already this year, these three year olds are having a hard time asserting their domination over their peers.
Rockin Image won the second heat in a more pedestrian 1:48.4. Of course, being in the weakest of the three divisions, thre is no reason to have expected a blistering finish this week.
OK Commander scored an upset in the third division defeating Sportswriter in going wire to wire in a 1:57.4 mile. OK Commander had certainly stepped up after being unimpressive in his American starts thus far. We will see next week if this was a question of no one taking OK Commander seriously enough or if it is a case of him peaking in time for the big event. While Sportswriter finished fourth this week, he did qualify for the final.
Of all the horses who have qualified for the final, Sportswriter had the worst trip of all ten. Provided he does not draw poorly, he will be my early pick for next week's final.
Readers of this blog for any length of time know my feelings regarding the unwanted horse problem. If you listen to some of the more vocal groups opposing horse racing, you would think everyone who participates in horse racing are heartless and don’t care the horses once their racing career is over. Of course, that is not true; there are a countless number of horsemen who take care, not only their own horses, but horses that ever raced for them. One such individual is Standardbred trainer Anouk Busch, who in addition to being responsible for her own racing stable, runs Horse Rescue United (HRU), a group which rescues horses primarily from auction where they most likely will be heading to slaughter in Mexico or Canada. While Anouk attempts to rescue standardbreds, she will rescue horses of other breeds as well.
Earlier this year, Horse Rescue was involved with saving some standardbred broodmares that ended up in a New Jersey kill lot. She recently rescued “Trolley”, a thirteen year old quarter horse broodmare which was found with a sock super-glued in a hole in her head. Once Trolley finishes her thirty day quarantine period, she is scheduled to be operated on by famed horse surgeon, Dr. Patty Hogan. For more information about Trolley and Horse Rescue United, you can read this story or check out HRU on Facebook or their website. Of course, there are other horse rescue groups out there; some are listed in the lower left hand side of this blog.
At the recently concluded Historic Track meet, there was a Hall of Fame Trot raced. Dave Palone, who was elected to the Hall of Fame, agreed to have a camera hooked up to his sulky. Take a look at a race from a different view.
No comments:
Post a Comment