by M. Kelly Young, executive director, Harness Horse Breeders of New York

Vernon, NY — The closing of the championships at Wimbledon this past weekend were not the only scheduled lawn tennis battle. On Tuesday (July 10) at Vernon Downs, the connections of 3-year-old trotter Conway Court would like to prove that the colt’s dam, Lawn Tennis, can still produce a great performer.

From 11 foals of racing age, Lawn Tennis’ most successful was 1997 foal Credit Winner, who earned $1.5 million on the track and has become one of the leading national trotting sires while standing in New York. With $70,000 in career earnings, Conway Court is now the richest foal of Lawn Tennis outside of his older half-brother. Conway Court is a son of Conway Hall, another leading national sire standing in New York.

Conway Court will be one of 48 colts competing in six divisions of the $154,614 New York Sires Stakes for sophomore trotters on Tuesday. Already he is perfect in winning both of the first two preliminary legs of the Sires Stakes, something only two of his peers have done as well.

Paolo Rosanelli and John Siena, both of Middletown, N.Y., purchased Conway Court at the Harrisburg yearling sale last November for $30,000.

“It was a good deal, considering he is a half-brother to Credit Winner,” said Rosanelli, the owner of a company that manufactures machinery for the printing industry. “I picked him out. I watched the yearling video and the way he was moving, I thought it was fantastic. He trotted very wide in the back, my father always taught me to look for that. He is exactly the same color as Credit Winner, but not quite as big.”

Rosanelli grew up and trained horses with his father outside of Naples, Italy. He moved to the U.S. at age 21 and has owned harness horses here ever since. He and Siena, who owns a bakery in Middletown, have been racing partners for a decade and as Rosanelli put it, are “finally earning back some of our money.”

Last season as a 2-year-old, Conway Court made only three starts and had some problems breaking stride. On the advice of Hall of Fame trainer Ray Remmen, the owners decided to turn the horse out to mature and hopefully outgrow his problems. The horse was transferred from another trainer to Remmen’s care and stabled at his Meadowlands base throughout the winter.

“I had horses in the past with Ray and the thing I like about him is that he’s honest. If a horse is good, he tells you, but if he is not, he let’s you know that up front too,” confided Rosanelli.

Conway Court is staked to several events outside New York and made his first attempt against Grand Circuit competition in the Dickerson Cup at the Meadowlands on June 29. He finished third, timed in 1:55.1, to Donato Hanover, the current favorite to win the Hambletonian.

“That race gave us a lot of confidence,” admitted Rosanelli. “And we didn’t know how fast he could go, he had never really been pushed until then. We were happy that he put in a 1:55.1 mile like that. We were very pleased with him.”

Conway Court will start from post three in the sixth race Tuesday and has been installed as the 3-1 second choice in the morning line. Rival Aisling was given the 2-1 nod. He will be driven by Jim Morrill, Jr., currently sitting on the top of the New York Sires Stakes drivers list, and is trained by Bob Bencal for Little E LLC.

Based on Aisling’s 1:55.3 qualifier last time out, Rosanelli considers that colt the main competition in his division.

“My horse, he can leave or he can close, but of the two he is better at really coming on late,” the owner described of Conway Court. “He’s not a very big horse, but he does have a lot of speed. He’s a trotter, so he has a lot of muscle behind, like he should. And he’s a friendly horse, he likes to cuddle with you and he has a great attitude.”

Post time for the 12-race card is 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday. New York Sires Stakes will go off as races two, four, six, eight, nine and ten.