Bedford, PA – The Pennsylvania Fair Circuit came back to this borough in southwest Pennsylvania for a Two-Day Fair Sire Stakes meet on Tuesday (Aug. 4) and Wednesday (Aug. 5), which in its way was up there with those two sub-1:50f miles by freshmen at Pocono on Monday. Let’s go right to the racing.
The fair 2-year-olds raced on Tuesday, and the Fordham Road – RT Gloria De Dios gelding RT Road To Glory zipped around the fairgrounds oval in 2:01 for the red-hot combo of driver Eric Neal, trainer Tom Loughery Jr., and Brocious Racing Stable Inc.
The clocking was the fastest of the year by the fair trotting freshmen, and it equaled the Bedford group standard set by Super Fellow (the present writer was at Bedford for that mile, 36 years ago) and Toolbox Tuesday (2016). (Toolbox Tuesday’s driver, 80 years young Roger Hammer, added another line to his amazing 60-year career by becoming another kind of driver Tuesday – he was the emergency fill-in starting gate driver, in his hometown!)
Dragon Flame (Papi Rob Hanover – Dragon Lady Art) had a 2:00 mile to miss the freshman pacing filly mark by only two ticks, and later that day her stablemate in the Todd Schadel barn, the gelding Lucas Hanover (Stay Hungry – Latte Lady) became the only fair competitor to get to five victories over the twicearounds in 2026. Steve Schoeffel, also winning at a high rate, had four wins as both a driver and a trainer.
And Wednesday’s card for three-year-olds topped that! The speed of the average mile for the day was 1:59.3! There were seven sub-2:00 miles on the day, three by trotters and two in the “B” divisions!
The Captain Crunch gelding Commander Crunch had tied the all-age track record (and posted the PA fair season’s fastest mile) of 1:55.2 during the first Bedford stop, and on Wednesday he went and paced another 1:55.2 mile for 20-year-old driver Jesse Barnard and trainer Jeff Indof, the latter co-owner with Misty Winkler. That gave him a second line in the local record book, with his two 1:55.2s tying with the male Captaincountrystar and the female Tiamogonedancen.
Barnard also took the other “A” division for the group with Always B Hula (1:57.2), and even the “B” section contributed to the speed with Numbers posting a 1:58.1 win. The boys’ filly counterpart Don’t Be Late was the other magic mile pacer with a 1:59.2 triumph in the day’s opener.
Three 2:00 miles in one day is a good day at almost every fair anywhere; three trotters breaking the magic number is quite an accomplishment.
Leading the diamondgaited horses was the Captain Corey gelding Mister Beiler, winning in 1:58.2 to miss the all-age trot mark by a fifth (the filly Loveyoubunches) and equaling the Bedford record for sophomore trotting males, first set by Open Bar in 2023. The Beiler And Beiler Stables’ swiftee was the highlight of the day for driver Wayne Long (four wins) and trainer Joyce Lineweaver (three).The other division for males saw the Greenshoe gelding Tymal Kryptonite keep his fair record spotless after four starts with a 1:59.3 win for Team Schoeffel.
Going into the last race on Wednesday, the average time for the card was fractionally under 1:59.4, but the getaway event was a filly trot “B” event, which to many seemed to threaten the hopes for a sub-2:00 or even 2:00 “day.” But coming through was Team Schoeffel’s Pixie Stardust, who won by nine lengths in 1:59.3 (a fair season’s record) and preserving the historic sub-2:00 average.
That victory also gave Schoeffel the meet drivers crown with six wins, one more than Todd Schadel; Schadel and Schoeffel tied for trainers honors by sending out six winning charges.
After catching its breath for a couple of days, the fair circuit heads 253 miles northeast to Honesdale, PA and the Honesdale two-day meet on Saturday (Aug. 8) and Sunday (Aug. 9) at noon; the circuit will stay there for the fair meet on Wednesday (Aug. 12) at 3 p.m. and Thursday (Aug. 13) at noon. The fields for the first meet will be drawn Thursday (Aug. 6) per standard procedure, and the first meet is scheduled for livestreaming (https://pafairsracing.org/); audio has been occasionally spotty at some fairs, but there is closed-captioning.