Washington, PA — Tuesday (June 10) morning qualifiers at Hollywood Casino at The Meadows provided horsemen a glimpse of future locals as well as national stars of harness racing.
Trainer Tim Twaddle’s 16 freshman starters were second to Ron Burke’s 19 starters, but his five victories gave him top honors for the day, and victories weren’t the only thing Twaddle was looking for today.
“Ideally, from the owners down, we want to win, but at this stage, a good experience and developing good manners is the main goal,” Twaddle explained between qualifiers.
One of Twaddle and regular driver Anthony MacDonald’s victories was Tactical Landing filly Jailbird Jog. What made the 2:00.3, three-length romp even more impressive was the fact she was three lengths off an opening quarter of :34. On the day Twaddle sent out 10 trotters and six pacers, with all 16 successfully qualified.
Larger stables were not alone in showing off young talent; two smaller operations are setting themselves up nicely for the summer 2-year-old stakes season.
Mitchell York has developed a reputation for buying moderately priced yearlings and turning them into sire stakes contenders. Thai Hanover and Quill Gordon seem headed in the right direction in keeping that reputation. York explained afterwards that Thai Hanover has “shown talent and ability from the beginning,” and Quill Gordon is “pretty green and will need to race on a helmet for a start or two.” Both colts are scheduled to qualify once more before making their pari-mutuel debuts.
Spoon Fed, owned and bred locally by Jan and Doug Snyder, made the most of her debut with a 1:57.3 victory. The Stay Hungry filly, trained by Doug Snyder, made a few uncertain steps past the half that driver Mike Wilder described as “talking her over some tire tracks she was looking at,” and that, “Other than that, she is a very nice, very fast filly.”
Racing at Hollywood Casino at The Meadows resumes Wednesday (June 11) with a 12-race card, post time is 12:45 p.m.