from the PA Fair Harness Horsemen’s Association

York, PA — The fastest winner during the two-day harness meet at the York (PA) Interstate Fair, the 3-year-old pacing filly Vorst, has only a slim chance of racing in her $25,000 Fair Sire Stakes championship event, despite setting two track records during her current three-race win streak at the fairs.

The winner of the other division, held on the meet’s closing day of Tuesday (Sept. 13) was Healthy Gain and she has even less of a chance, despite being undefeated at the fairs.

Both came late to the fair dance.

Seth Dowling photo

Vorst was a winner in 1:58.4 at York.

The Four Starzzz Shark filly Vorst, owned by James Springer, showed a 24-3-9-6 lifetime tally when trainer Dirk Simpson, longtime star on the Illinois fair circuit, decided to put her in the Keystone twicearound stakes. After a debut second to fair queen Unbeamlieveable, Vorst has caught fire, setting track records at Indiana and Stoneboro before her 1:58.4 victory at York, in which she and driver Eric Neal cut fractions of :27.4, :56.4, and 1:27.3 — bottoming out pocket sitter Unbeamlieveable, who finished fourth, the first time she has been worse than second at the fairs in her two-year career (25-21-4-0 before Tuesday).

With the powerful victory, Vorst now has 130 points in the Fair Sire Stakes qualification point system (35-25-15-10-8-5-4-2), but even if she wins out at Gratz and Bloomsburg and gets to 200 points, there are already six fillies with more points than her, another with 195, an eighth with 178, and three more with 150-plus points. So she may need powerful performances, and either faltering or defections from rivals, to get to The Meadows and her championship on Oct. 8.

Healthy Gain lived up to her name in the other division. It’s not often that you see a horse ahead by a half-length at the three-quarters and 24-1/2 lengths in front at the finish, with nary a foe breaking, as the Western Ideal miss won in 2:00.4, last quarter :29.3 for driver Shawn Johnston and trainer Gary Johnston, the latter co-owner with Tracy Chropek.

Healthy Gain was 0-for-8 for 2016 when first trying the fairs at Clearfield, and with a victory there followed by a triumph at Indiana and now York, the filly is three-for-three on the cotton candy circuit. But a look at Vorst’s point situation shows that Healthy Gain’s championship hopes are in even more dire straits.

On the pacing colt side, Star Of Terror and Dragon Strikes, who both lost six-race win streaks in their Sunrise Showdown at the Stoneboro Corral on Labor Day, both bounced back with victories. Star Of Terror won in 2:00.3-:28.1, his ninth fair triumph, for driver Chris Shaw, trainer/brother Jason and Fortunate One LLC, while Dragon Strikes got home first in 2:02.1 for trainer Mike Gillock and owner Bob Key. For driver Brady Brown it was his fourth sulky success of the brunch (10:30 a.m. first post) session.

Brown and trainer Bill Daugherty Jr. combined for the two highlight sophomore trotters. The gelding Rail Kat was a 2:03.2 winner to run his fair record in 2016 to 8-7-0-1 and the filly Waterview Hanover, who won her championship last season, got home first in 2:02.3.

The freshmen raced on Monday and the redoubtable Camera Lady did it again. She’s now 14 for 14 at the Pennsylvania fairs, extended some by tough foe Gemalous, but still home first in 2:03.4-:30 for trainer/driver Dave Brickell, also co-owner with Mitchell York. Add in a pari-mutuel triumph and Camera Lady has now posed for a winner’s circle picture 15 times which ties her with the older mare Velocity Vespa as the winningest pacer in all of North America this year, and only two behind the overall leader, the veteran trotter Mama Made Me Blue (who, ironically, has a current 14-race win streak on his fair circuit in Iowa).

Most any other fair year the 2-year-old pacing gelding Artists Ruffles, with a 10-9-1-0 fair scorecard and a seven-race winning streak after a 2:01.1 triumph, would be the talk of the circuit, but his trainer/driver Roger Hammer is glad to let others have the glory as long as he gets his money — which he got more of when his Marvalous Artist pacer won the Sires second division in 2:02.

The Bedford PA Sports Hall of Fame sweep of the event was then completed by Friendly’s Scooter and trainer/driver Sam Beegle in 2:02.4.

Among the freshman trotters, the five other divisions of Sire Stakes for colts and fillies all went faster, but a lot of the buzz was still generated by Lovebeinglucky, who had a five length lead at the half, then made a break before the three-quarters and was eight lengths off the leader at that call, yet still rallied and won by seven lengths for trainer/driver Rick Beinhauer. The filly has a 6-5-1-0 fair mark and this is her first fair victory in which she did not set a divisional track record, making her No. 1 in that category in PA.

The penultimate stop on the PA fair circuit is at Gratz this Sunday and Monday. The season then wraps up at Bloomsburg the following week, with Sire Stakes on Tuesday and Wednesday and the Bloomsburg Stakes on Thursday.