from the PA Fair Harness Horsemen’s Association

Stoneboro, PA — Though Monday’s (Sept. 5) second day of the harness meet at the Stoneboro Fair had its races for 3-year-olds start at 8:30 a.m., there was still plenty of early excitement in the northwest Pennsylvania town as fans and horsemen alike looked forward to the long-awaited match-up in race two between pacing colts Star Of Terror and Dragon Strikes, both undefeated in their last six starts and likely to put up a fast time in their battle.

Everybody got their early fast mile, except it came in race three instead of race two.

Seth Dowling photo

Lucky Cruiser was a 2:03.1 winner on Monday.

The two streaking horses, Dragon Strikes (driver Steve Schoeffel) from the rail, Star Of Terror (Chris Shaw) from the outside post four, went at it cutthroat style in the first quarter, with Star Of Terror finally making the top after a :28.1 quarter. And Star Of Terror just kept on rolling, reaching the half in :56.3, with Dragon Strikes in behind drafting. The battle was definitely on.

But then on the third turn, all expectations went out the window as everything changed.

Approaching the five-eighths, Dragon Strikes had been exhausted by his early efforts and began backing up. Lucky Cruiser (Brady Brown), who had been sitting behind the two rampaging warriors early, went around him and re-tucked in the pocket behind Star Of Terror, who also started to show wear and tear, hitting the three-quarters in 1:29 — still outstanding for a fair, but a :32.2 third quarter.

Brown kept Lucky Cruiser in behind the pacesetter around the turn and moved out headstretch, and Lucky Cruiser proved to have the most late, winning by just less than two lengths over Star Of Terror, with the final time after the exhausting early tempo 2:03.1.

But no matter the circumstances, it was Lucky Cruiser’s day, with Brown handling the Yankee Cruiser gelding for owner/trainer Don Lark Jr. in his second fair win in five starts. Star Of Terror and Dragon Strikes (who finished fourth) will return another day.

Now that fast mile we talked about, just one race after the colt pace showdown, did keep a streak alive. The Four Starzzz Shark filly Vorst set her second track record in as many starts, winning at Stoneboro for driver Eric Neal in 1:58.2, a pretty amazing clocking when you consider the next-fastest mile of the day was 2:03.

Trainer Dirk Simpson, who handles the filly for owner James Springer, is of course a veteran of the Illinois fair circuit, and his foray into the Pennsylvania twice-arounds is yielding nice dividends, as Vorst’s Stoneboro mark goes alongside the track record she rang up at Indiana last week.

However, Vorst faces a different problem in terms of winning her $25,000 Fair Championship as she might not have enough points to get in. Besides her two track records, Vorst has started only one other time at the fairs, finishing second to the steady Unbeamlieveable, and even if she would win out at the circuit’s final three stops at York, Gratz and Bloomsburg, her points total would still put her behind the figure achieved by five other fillies already and then after those five there are still seven other fillies with more current points than Vorst.

Speaking of Unbeamlievable, at least she was able to keep a win streak going for Team Shaw, the brothers Jason, the trainer, and Chris, the driver, after they lost one streak with Star Of Terror and another, a seven-race skein in the Quaker States, with Silver Sting. Unbeamlieveable was victorious on Monday; in fact, she was the second-fastest horse of the day with that 2:03 final time.

The daughter of Moon Beam, winningest 2-year-old pacing filly in North America last year, now has taken three straight races and her fair record is 11-8-3-0 for owner Mason Shaw, Jason Shaw’s 4-year-old son.

All three Shaws are also the sponsoring team behind the Four Starzzz Shark gelding Prince Penrod, who won the other division of the colt pace in 2:03.2.

On the trotting side, daily honors would go to trainer/driver Rick Beinhauer, who guided two horses he owns with his wife Regina to their fifth wins on the fair circuit: the Explosive Matter gelding Major Matter, fastest trot winner of the day in 2:03.3, and the SJ’s Caviar filly Atoastandcaviar.