from the Pennsylvania Fair Harness Horsemen’s Association

Wattsburg, PA — As they have been for much of the summer on the state fair circuit, the fillies, especially the trotting fillies, provided the majority of the notable achievements during the two-day meet Tuesday (Aug. 28) and Wednesday (Aug. 29) at the Erie County Fairgrounds in this northwest Pennsylvania town.

Seth Dowling photo

Worldly Hanover lowered the Wattsburg track record for 3-year-old trotting fillies to 2:04.4.

An alteration in the Wattsburg record books was needed on Wednesday, 3-year-old day, after the Donato Hanover filly Worldly Hanover ran her fair record to two-for-two after trotting a 2:04.4 mile, lowering the 2014 mark established by Static Electricity from 2:05.2. Harold Brocklehurst trains and drove the talented miss for Double R Farms, David Obley, and Richard Williams, and to give some perspective on the quality of her clocking, Worldly Hanover went as fast as the “A” pacing filly division did, when the Ponder filly Amusing Dragon won for driver Aaron Johnston, trainer Gary Johnston, and owner Dr. William Solomon.

One of the oldest military strategies in the books is “divide and conquer,” and that’s just what Roger Hammer did in the 3-year-old pacing colt ranks. He sent his Cirrus De Vie out at Indiana Tuesday and finished second to the streaking Venier Hanover, then came to Wattsburg on Wednesday and won with his other high-class sophomore colt, Marvalous Falcon, posting the meet’s fastest time, 2:01.4, in winning for breeder-owner-trainer-driver Hammer.

During Tuesday’s racing for 2-year-olds, the fillies went faster than the colts on both the pace and the trot.

On the pace, the Well Said–Treat Me Good filly Sure R Lookin Good ran her fair record to 4-3-1-0 with a 2:03.3 triumph for driver Eric Neal, trainer Robert Krenitsky Jr., and owner Julie Krenitsky. The colt pace went in 2:04.3.

On the diagonally-gaited side, Eric Neal came right back with the Muscle Massive–Missing Dough filly Touch Of Dough, taking 2:09 to run her recent tally to four wins in her last five races for trainer Randal Neal and the Neal Racing Stables. The freshman colt heats did not produce a mile faster than that.

The meet awards for leading driver and trainer were settled in a manner that may be unique in harness annals. Going into the last two heats on Wednesday, Eric Neal had four victories and Aaron Johnston had two and in both of the end-card heats, a horse Aaron was listed on was scratched. But since he was listed on both horses in the first, scheduled to be a two-horse contest, Johnston kept the drive behind walkover Urban Resort.

Then, going into the last race, with the drivers score Eric Neal 4–Aaron Johnston 3 and the trainers’ score Gary Johnston 3-Cory Kreiser 2, another two-horse field was cut in half by scratches — with Gary Johnston’s trainee scratched, and Aaron picking up the drive on the remaining entrant, Flying Monkey, trained by Cory Kreiser. After that walkover, Eric Neal and Aaron Johnston ended up with four winning drives, and Cory Kreiser and Gary Johnston wound up with three winning pupils.

Not missing a beat, the Pennsylvania fair circuit will be in action on Thursday and Friday at Stoneboro, with first post at 11 a.m. The street address in the PA Fair Harness Guide is in error; plug your GPS with Mercer Road in Stoneboro to get where you need to.