by Bill Ellis

The first of three racing days at the Franklin County Fair in Malone, New York, featured New York-Vermont Colt Stakes racing action.

The 2-year-old trotters saw a highly contested race between Harold Smith with Sweet Scotch, a daughter of King Conch, and Todd Lapages’ Canadian Frontier, a son of Dr Ronerail. The first dash went to Sweet Scotch, who withstood a driver’s objection to record her fifth win in seven starts as she established a new lifetime mark for herself of 2:12. The second dash saw Todd Lapage, who owns, trains and drives Canadian Frontier, trot to a new lifetime best and a new track record for 2-year-old trotters, covering the ‘good’ track in a time of 2:08.

The 2-year-old pacers all had to take a backseat to MJ Sissy as the daughter of Kassa Branca went wire-to-wire in both dashes. In the first dash, she won handily in 2:13.3, and the second dash saw driver Harold Smith win his third race of the day, with a lifetime best equaling mile for MJ Sissy in 2:10.3.

Breezy Knoll Peggy was dominating in the 3-year-old trotting division. This daughter of Smooth Talking Guy brought smiles to the local connections of owner Helena Archer, trainer Shirley Williamson and driver Larry Lapage. The first dash was won in a time of 2:09.4 and the second stopped the timer in 2:10.1.

The 3-year-old colt pacers saw emotional, double dish victories for Shawn Warner with Delivered Rules. The son of Sealed N Delivered was in the middle of the pack in both dashes, just waiting to pounce on all contenders. The first dash was won in a time of 2:09.1 and the second was won in an eye-catching 2:04.4. For driver Shawn Warner, the victories were marred by the loss of Howard Wyman. Wyman was not only a relative of Warner, but was an inspirational racing fan to the 32-year-old Malone native.

The non-winners of $25,000 lifetime double dash contest saw Leki Hanover and Andy Gardner win in a wire-to-wire performance in 2:04.1. The second dash pace-setting tactic for Leki Hanover was foiled by a pocket sitting DVC Watchmescootby as Robbie Gale made a winning stretch drive move in a best time of the day of 2:03.3.

Action resumes on Thursday (August 9) at 1:00 p.m. with New York County Fair racing.