Cortland, OH — A fine group of Home Talent Colt Stakes 2- and 3-year-old colts and fillies competed in a split 16 race card on Monday (July 6) at Cortland, Ohio, starting at 12:30 p.m. Although the scenic Trumbull County half-mile oval in the northeast corner of Ohio had lay dormant for close to a year there were some pretty impressive miles by the young trotters and pacers.

In the HTCS $3,952 first division, Susan Offenberger’s pacer Cruzin Susan made her initial appearance on a racetrack a winning one as the Eric Nesselroad-trained 2-year-old filly by Well Said (a $7,000 yearling purchase at the Ohio Selected Jug Sale) driven by driver Brady Clemens bested the Kurt Sugg teamed Racingdownadream by a neck in 2:05.3.

The HTCS 2-year-old pacing filly third division was grabbed by the Cory Deyermand-conditioned/Kurt Sugg driven Forever Missy as the McArdle miss posted her first lifetime win in 2:02.4 with a final panel of :29.2 as she drew away from the field by 10 lengths.

The afternoon’s finale saw Kurt Sugg, last year’s winningest driver on the Ohio Fair circuit, earn his fourth victory on the day when he got the seat on Big Dog Racing’s Don’t Ask Logan and piloted the Pamela Young-trained McArdle 5-year-old to a gutsy come from behind triumph by 1-1/4 lengths over Blue Spanx and Keith Kash Jr. The time for the mile was 1:59.4.

The evening’s 5:30 p.m. program of HTCS colts and geldings was highlighted by more close finishes.

Keith Kash Jr. behind the Matt Rowe-owned/Mark Rowe-trained 3-year-old Bigrisk gelding Risky Million was all in as he kept Big Bad Whamo and Daren Harvey hanging out to dry as the pair went eye-to-eye, nose-to-nose with some pretty torrid fractions and would draw off by 10-1/4 lengths to take the win in 2:04.1.

The entire afternoon of racing was broadcast live on the Ohio Harness Horsemen’s Association Facebook page as well as on YouTube. Due to the COVID situation OHHA has stepped up and is presenting 72 different race day events of HTCS, OFRC, OCRA, and SVCC home-grown Ohio fair racing live for the Summer for the enjoyment of harness racing fans throughout Ohio, North America, and the world.