from the PA Fair Harness Horsemen’s Association

Stoneboro, PA — The 2016 Pennsylvania Fair harness racing circuit started the last leg of its western campaign for the summer on Thursday (Sept. 1) in this town in the northwest portion of the state, and the theme of the day, devoted to 2-year-old racing, was sweeping, less in the sense of cleaning than of cleaning up the purses for a few stables, and one filly in particular.

Seth Dowling photo

Camera Lady paced to victory in 2:04 to keep her undefeated in 13 starts across the state at its fairgrounds.

The Dragon Again filly Camera Lady showed she’s not superstitious as she paced to victory in 2:04, last quarter :30, to keep her undefeated in 13 starts across the state at its fairgrounds. The victory was her 14th overall in 15 career starts, as she took her mark of 1:58.1 in her second start in an overnight at The Meadows, the track at which she had her only loss, trying the big girls in the state’s Sire Stakes, and was race-timed in 1:56.3 in her fourth career trip to the gate.

After that, she’s posted 11 consecutive victories along the fair circuit, setting a track record at Hughesville and establishing herself as the PA fairs’ season leader with a 2:00.3 at Bedford. This 14th victory puts her only one win off the lead out of the entirety of North American harness horses, with two veterans at 15 — pacing mare Velocity Vespa and the trotting gelding Mama Made Me Blue. And for being a fair horse with less than three months of racing under her girth, she’s already bankrolled $32,143 for her owners, Mitchell York and trainer/driver Dave Brickell.

Brickell and co-owner York had even more reason to smile when Camera Lady’s compatriot Cajun Moonlite took the other division of the freshman filly pace for a stable sweep. This victory was only the second for the daughter of Moon Beam, but she’s hit the board 11 times in 16 starts, with 15 check efforts totaling $14,685, and it was her second win in three starts, suggesting her stock is on the rise.

The King Of The Pennsylvania Fairs, trainer/driver Roger Hammer, had a sweep — of sorts — of the two Sire Stake events for pacing colts. His Real Artist gelding Artists Ruffles, still the fastest horse of the Keystone fair season with his 1:57 win at Bedford, took his ninth win of his initial campaign with a 2:04.4 triumph in one division for owners Hammer and Vicki Fair.

They are also the owners of the Delmarvalous gelding Marvalous Artist, who dead-heated for win in 2:06 in the other division with the Yankee Cruiser colt Air Quotes Hanover, owned, trained and driven by Aaron Johnston.

Hammer also won with his Broadway Hall gelding Toolbox Tuesday, he of the three track record performances on the fair circuit, to post a training/driving triple, tops for the day in the former category and tying in the latter stats with circuit leader Chris Shaw, who drove one winner for his brother Jason and two more for the McMullen stable.

The second day of the two-card stand at Stoneboro will take place Monday, with an informally agreed-upon edict of no yawning despite that card’s 8:30 a.m. start. Helping that restriction will be the eagerly-awaited showdown in the 3-year-old pacing colt ranks, with Star Of Terror and Dragon Strikes both putting six-race winning streaks on the line in the second event of the morning after being rained out at Wattsburg on Wednesday. After that card, the circuit swings east for its final three stops at York, Gratz, and Bloomsburg, leading up to the $200,000 Pennsylvania Fair Sire Stakes Championship Night at The Meadows on Saturday (Oct. 8).