from the PA Fair Harness Horsemen’s Association

Dayton, PA — Another day on the Pennsylvania fair circuit, another track record. On Thursday (Aug. 18) it was the freshman Delmarvalous pacing gelding Marvalous Artist lowering the divisional mark at the Dayton Fair in Armstrong County to 2:00.2.

And it was another trip behind the starting gate for the Dragon Again filly Camera Lady and another victory; she’s now undefeated after 10 fair stops, and she has a clear lead among all North American freshmen with 11 visits to Victory Lane.

Ryan Zidek photo

Marvalous Artist lowered the divisional mark at the Dayton Fair to 2:00.2.

Marvalous Artist and his story is as good as any distillation of the effect that Roger Hammer has had on the Pennsylvania county fair circuit. His 2:00.2 mile here Thursday knocked two-fifths of a second off the old Dayton mark of Western Café, who also was trained and driven by Hammer, and who set the old record in the fifth race on Aug. 16, 2002.

You know who won the sixth race that day in 2002? R N Artist, the dam of Marvalous Artist, and Western Café’s stablemate in the Hammer shedrow. R N Artist would go on to win her 3-year-old Fair championship the next season, and with five fair triumphs already this year Marvalous Artist has to be one of the favorites for his championship on Oct. 8, as only one other freshman pacing colt has five fair wins this year. That would be Artists Ruffles.

But even Hammer so far hasn’t found a way to derail Camera Lady, who after a win in 2:04.4 with a last quarter of :28.1 is now 10-for-10 at the fairs. She has posed for the winner’s circle camera 11 times in her still-brief career, two more times than North America’s next-winningest freshman, the pacing colt Bigtime So N So, three times more than the next pacing filly, Prettyfaceuglyways, and four up on the top trotter, the filly Cinderellas Dress. It hasn’t been hard for “Smilin” Dave Brickell, the filly’s trainer/driver and co-owner with Mitchell York, to live up to his nickname this summer.

On the freshman trotting side, of note was the Crazed gelding Crazy Clyde, who has now strung together five straight victories at the fairs after his 2:06.3 win here for driver Brady Brown and trainer Jason Bresnahan, the latter co-owner with Marilyn Bresnahan and Clyde Bresnahan.

It should also be noted that both divisions of fillies went faster: Prayers Do Matter (2:06.1) and Brauti Hanover (2:06). The latter filly was driven by Steve Schoeffel, second at the meet with five driving victories, two behind Chris Shaw. Chris’ brother Jason was top conditioner with six harnessed charges coming back with a win.

The circuit, already two-thirds over (13 out of 20 stops completed), now pulls into Meadville and the Crawford County Fair for racing on Monday and Tuesday — its first session ‘After Boots,’ the legendary and irreplaceable Walter “Boots” Dunn, who passed away earlier this year after making Meadville and the Pennsylvania fair circuit in general a much better place to be since anybody — even Roger Hammer — can remember.