Nichols, NY — Amateur clubs from across America gathered at Tioga Downs on Sunday (Sept. 8) for a three race series enabling scholarship awards in the amount of $6,000 to be distributed during the festivities.
Southern Tier Amateur Club President Jeff Schaefer rounded up other clubs, including the Meadowlands Amateur Driving Club and the Great Lakes Amateur Drivers Association along with Jeff Gural and added memorial events in honoring trainer Paul Bernardo, farrier Randall Ring, farrier Leon Cable, Hall of Fame Communicator Dave Brower and Ethan Parker.
The scholarship winners were Nikki Stark, presented by Tioga Strong, Ryan Stark, presented by the STAC, Liliana Regan, presented by GLADA, Logan Allen, presented by the United States Harness Drivers Club, Maggie Copp, presented by the MADC and Lily Sickler, presented by Jackie and Seth Parker.
On the racetrack, amateur driver Neil Glasser won the kickoff event while Steve Oldford captured the other two events.
Glasser took the opening event by overcoming the nine post to score a 16-1 upset with his own Thndrfrmthethron N (Auckland Reactor N) in 1:57, carving up numbers of :28.3, :58.1 and 1:26.1 along the way to score by 3-3/4 lengths and rewarding his faithful with a $35.40 mutuel. Ponderance was second for Scott Woogen while pilot Billy Muggleston was next with Odds On Unicorn.
It was a milestone win for Glasser — his 100th career driving win.
Mike Watson trains the winner, who scored his fourth success of the year in 30 starts. The 10-year-old gelding now has seasonal earnings of $33,258, vaulting his lifetime bounty to $188,888 here in North America after his arrival in 2020.
Oldford stepped up to the plate in the next STAC event and closed quickest of all with the 9-year-old gelding Meadowbranch Ricky (Muscle Massive) to win in 1:58.1, his margin a half-length over Raceme, who cut the mile for Alan Schwartz with Manuka third for Robert Krivelin.
The winner is trained by Mike Deters, who co-owns with Joel Warner and John Manning and paid $3.60 to his multitude of faithful. Meadowbranch Ricky now has a 2-5-5 scorecard in 29 starts, good for $25,480 this semester and $436,036 lifetime.
A few races later, it was the Oldford show all over again as he piloted the 9-year-old gelding Burn Notice (Cayenne Turbo) to a photo finish win by a head, nailing the pacesetting Midnight Dreams, handled by Joseph Skowyra, on the wire. Muggleston was again third with his charge Pax Hanover.
It was the third success of the season for the winner, who now has $21,200 in 2024 bounty and $185,317 career-wise. He paid $4.20 to win with the winner trained by Deters for owners Warner and Manning.
Oldford, whose career dates back to the late 1970s, has been to the winner’s circle 208 times and just recently went over $1 million in earnings.
After the event, Oldford commented, “You know, it’s great to drive the winners once in a while but the overriding factor in this entire day was the fact that we were able to assist young students who appreciate the help in the form of our scholarships. That supersedes everything!
“There are some many thanks to go around, beginning with Jeff Gural who put his blessing on this day…everyone from the four amateur clubs that participated to the racing secretary, Rob Pennington, who put them on the card.
“The hospitality was outstanding and it was an honor to participate.”
Trainer Deters echoed Oldford’s comments, saying, “Steve drove my horses absolutely perfectly. I gave him a couple of hints on how they race best and he drove them both perfectly…couldn’t have been better.
“You know, I have always been a proponent of amateur races and the good they do for our sport and this day put a stamp on that!”
In summing up the festivities, Jeff Schaefer said, “The day was memorable and couldn’t have been done without the help of a great team — especially Randy Taft of the Southern Tier Harness Horseman’s Association and Jamie Daley, who does incredible work on behalf of our horsemen here. The STHHA provided all of the blankets and the STAC took care of the trophies.
“It was a day that put the sport of harness racing in the winner’s circle up here and did so much good for our community.”