by M. Kelly Young, executive assistant, the Harness Horse Breeders of New York State

MONTICELLO, N.Y.—Rocco Manzi missed his 3-year-old pacing filly’s last race, her first win of the year and the second of her career, while he was camping alongside Lake Ontario over the Fourth of July weekend. But there won’t be any Great Lakes between the owner and Monticello Raceway when American Village takes to the track on Thursday, July 14. She will race in one of four divisions of the $118,452 New York Sire Stakes.

Saddled with the outside post seven for the second time in as many Sire Stakes starts, American Village will again take on early division standout Perfectly Sealed, who is rated the morning line 5-2 favorite from post two. The pair met previously on July 4 in a State Fair division at Goshen Historic Track when Manzi’s filly surprised the crowd with a late surge to win by a neck over Perfectly Sealed.

“Brian (driver Brian Allen) said she was very good in that race,” said Manzi, who owns a taxicab business in Syracuse. “A lot of people told me she looked good there.”

American Village, a daughter of Village Jove, won one Sire Stakes last season and pocketed nearly $15,000.

“She was a nice filly last year, but she got sick and so she missed a few races,” explained Manzi. “She came back well and she was good in the Sire Stakes at Buffalo (July 19). Coming around the last turn she was following the right horse, the favorite, but she broke and scattered the field.”

American Beauty finished fourth in that event, but Manzi hopes she has better luck this week in the fifth race. “We’ll probably have to leave out of there,” he anticipated. “She is a good-gaited filly and she can leave or come from behind.”

Also on the card, the Kassa Branca filly New Bristol Josie will attempt to score her fourth win in a row. Since scoring at her home track, Buffalo Raceway, on June 8, the filly owned by John Sixt and trainer Judy Blaun has not tasted defeated. She will start from post one as the 5-2 morning line favorite in race eight.

New York Sire Stakes will be races one, five, six and eight on the 13-race card. Post time is 1:10 p.m.