Meadville, PA – The Pennsylvania fair circuit came to the Crawford County Fairgrounds in west-central Pennsylvania for a “two-day” program Saturday and Sunday, and seeing as this was the longtime base of legendary Keystone horseman Walter “Boots” Dunn, it seemed nice to see the name “Dunn” associated with the fastest mile ever at the oval.
But this Dunn is Richard Dunn, from way the other side of the state in Honesdale. Dunn is the trainer and co-owner, with MBC Stables LLC, of the Sweet Lou gelding Sweet Parlay, who won the 2024 championship in this division, but he hasn’t raced much at the fairs this year. However, the situation he chose for his first fair win of 2025 was certainly an opportune one. Despite being parked at every call, Sweet Parlay and driver Chris Shaw got home by 3-1/2 lengths in 1:57.4, shaving a tick off the all-time Meadville standard set by Midway Island in 2017.
Bettor Not (Captain Crunch), despite being among those trailing Sweet Parlay, nonetheless ensured himself of the divisional points championship and the cooler in stable colors, as he has too much of a margin with just one more fair stop to go, at Dayton this coming weekend. Also among the vanquished was Fasting, who has the fastest fair mile in 2025, a 1:54.4 at Gratz.
If not for the track record, the headline horse probably would have been Lionheart Hanover, a Greenshoe gelding who won for the 13th time on the twice-around circuit, the top figure among all fair racers. Lionheart Hanover, owned by driver Tony and trainer Linda Schadel and the fastest fair trotter at 1:58.2, was the points and championship winner in 2024, and with this year’s points title assured, he approaches his championship looking to be the first trotter and first male to do the “points-championship” double, as the only horse to do so in the PaFSS 27-year history was pacing filly Bettor Strait N Out in 2021-2022, who happened to be handled by Tony and Linda Schadel. (As always, we note that the Harness Bureau of the Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission is the final authority of the fair statistics, and any numbers here, calculated “on the fly,” should be checked with them.)
Lionheart Hanover’s stablemate, the pacing filly Milagro, also a 2024 champion and who tied the all-time fair mark for her division at 1:55.2 earlier, was looking for her own 13th win at the fairs, but she was defeated by Dont Touch My T (trainer-driver Aaron Johnston) at Meadville. Meanwhile, Milagro’s trotting counterpart, the International Moni miss Tally The Tab, upped her win total to 12 for the fair campaign with a victory, her 10th in a row in the PaFSS, for trainer-driver Todd Schadel, co-owner with wife Christine. Both of these fillies are their division’s point champion.
The blanket-winners for highest point accumulations are now settled after Sunday’s sophomore action at Meadville, but bragging rights for both freshman filly groups are still up for grabs.
Perhaps the most interesting of the “uncertain” groups is the filly trotters, where the Father Patrick-Tymal Lux miss Pa Patricia went top of the group after her eighth fair win, tying her for the overall lead among freshmen, and sixth in a row for driver Chris Shaw, trainer Ashley Brown, and owners Sandy Petersen and Alexa Shaw. But Belle’s Victory still has a mathematical chance to take the top spot at Dayton. And what about Snow Queen Hanover, another who tied her group’s all-time all-fair mark of 2:00.1 earlier – she has three wins and a second in four starts, but even with a win at Dayton she would still have eight division mates who have accumulated more of the needed points to go in her championship.
The 2-year-old pacing fillies show Vegas Queen taking over the lead from Beachy’s Mistress (another eight-time winner), but the margin is only 24 points, and 35 points are awarded for a win. But whoever emerges with the crown at Dayton will surely go into the championship having an eye on the Stay Hungry-Keepofftheflowers late bloomer Dancin Camille, who now has five wins in a row after a Meadville triumph for driver Chris Shaw, trainer Brian Indof, and owner Frank Indof.
Party Rock Hanover assured himself of the points championship with a third at Dayton, but that division has another late bloomer in Papi Hour (Papi Rob Hanover-Candlelight Dinner), who was by far the fastest freshman winner at Meadville with a 2:01 victory for driver Dave Brickell, trainer Neil Balcerak, and owner George Prushnok. Papi Hour is 4-3-1-0 at the fairs, and you need five fair starts to guarantee your championship spot if accumulating enough points, but if he can win at Dayton, he would go up to fourth in the divisional rankings.
That leaves the trotting colts, where R T Wonder Colt has grabbed the glory with 13 1-2 finishes in 15 starts so far, but the horse of the moment is Nose Jammer, an International Moni-By A Nose Hanover gelding who is the third eight-time freshman PaFSS winner, with the last seven in a row for Todd and Christine Schadel after his Meadville success.
Todd Schadel widened his seasonal lead atop the horsemen’s standings in both the driving and training categories while also winning the Meadville crowns with seven winners in each of the two categories. Aaron Johnston was second in both Meadville rankings with four winners.
The last fair stop of the 2025 campaign comes in the form of a two-day event at the Dayton Fair (post time 1 p.m. both days), from which the races will be livestreamed (see https://pafairsracing.org for further information). While most of the divisional point champions have been decided, there will be plenty of action as horses fight for spots among the top eight in their divisional standings, which would allow them to go on to their $25,000 Fair Championship at Pocono on Monday, Oct. 13.