from the PA Fair Harness Horsemen’s Assn. Publicity Dept.

Meadville, PA — Racing at the Crawford County Fair in Meadville, Pa., this week, the local freshmen got both of their days of racing in; they haven’t missed a race yet in 2014. But the 3-year-old trotters were washed out on Wednesday, the third time that the sophomores have missed part or the entirety of their action, some 27 races in all so far. The 3-year-old pacers, though, did get to race on Thursday, so the week “batted” 75 percent.

The sophomores that did get to work, the pacers, made the most of their opportunity, with the fastest Sire Stakes mile of the week, 2:01.1, going to the Well Said gelding Wellsaidanddone, conditioned by Mike Gillock for owner Harry Locke.

Wellsaidanddone’s driver Brady Brown has come into his own this summer, the 21-year-old already having won 19 races at the fairs, good for fourth place in the current standings.

Driver Chris Shaw, the circuit leader, took two of the three divisions of the 3-year-old filly pace event, the fastest being the Four Starzzz Shark miss Allstar Morning, home in 2:02 for trainer Gerald Lee Jr. and owners Kristen and Ethan Spahn.

This division thus had two youthful winning owners in 13-year-old Ethan and the redoubtable 2-year-old Mason Shaw, whose La Fiesta also triumphed for Team Shaw.

Both of the Meadville divisional track records this past week came on the trot — remarkable considering there was only one day devoted to trotters, Monday. The freshman Muscle Massive gelding Police Navidad set that division’s race record with a 2:06.2 victory in the very first race of the meet for trainer/driver Steve Schoeffel and owners Kathy and Virginia Schoeffel, Lander Stables LLC, and James Reuther.

A quirk in the Meadville books also lists the freshman trotting male Penn Monie Mosie in this category with a 2:05.1 mile, achieved in a qualifier.

The other track trot mark came on Tuesday in the FFA event, with driver Brady Brown again prominent as he hustled the Pegasus Spur gelding Wild Ride to a 2:03 victory to rewrite the line for older trotting males. Wild Ride beat by one-fifth the former mark of S J Better Days.

In the FFA pace, Rockabella posted the fastest overall mile of the week for owner/trainer/driver Roger Hammer, with the 2:00.1 time only a fifth shy of Vesuvio Grande’s local mark for the older pacing male set.

Tuesday’s pacing freshman contests saw three frequent winners for Team Shaw again in Victory Lane, with the Western Terror filly Tropical Terror now the winningest 2-year-old in North America by two after her 11th victory, this one in 2:04.4. On the colt side, Marshmallow Pulse (at 2:01.4 the fastest division winner) and Nippy both crossed the wire first for the ninth time, putting them among joint leaders for most triumphs by a freshman male in 2014.

Next on the PA fair schedule are stops on Tuesday and Wednesday at both Indiana and Wattsburg, with freshmen set for Tuesday and sophomores ready to go Wednesday in both settings.