Monticello, NY — On Monday (July 22), the 3-year-old pacing colts took center stage at Monticello Raceway in New York Sire Stakes Action with two heats and four $20,000 dashes of the Excelsior Stakes.
This highly competitive group lived up to their reputation and hype and paced two of the fastest miles all season at the Mighty M with Howlenthehills just missing the track record by a tick and Boston Rocks scoring a nine-length romp.
Howlenthehills started from the rail for Matt Kakaley and went off as the heavy 1-9 betting favorite in his $57,000 five-horse heat.
Texas Holden (Mark MacDonald) left from post five and tried for the lead but was rebuffed by Howlenthehills coming out of the first turn. Once on top Howlenthehills dictated the pace and clicked the opening panel in :28. The pack was in straight alignment at the half in :57.1. Going down the backstretch he started to open a two-length gap at the next station in 1:25.
Turning for home Howlenthehills was in cruise control and won by six in 1:52.1. He had plenty of pace still in the tank as the mile was one tick off of the track record.
Sporting an ultra-impressive resume this season the Crawford Farms bred son of American Ideal–Arielle Lynn notched his seventh win on the year in eight starts for trainer Travis Alexander. He is owned by Symmetry Stables.
Boston Rocks controlled his destiny in a straightforward manner in his $58,100 division and went wire-to-wire, opening up on his opponents at every station, and at the end he won by nine lengths in 1:52.3. Vandiemen Bluechip (Braxten Boyd) finished second with Taranaki (Michael Merton) garnering the show position.
Jason Bartlett drove the son of Boston Red Rocks-Scirocco Sarah for trainer Michael Deters. It was his second Sire Stakes victory of the year, fourth win on the year, and the win pushed his yearly earnings to $111,595 for owners Rick Berks and Peter Blood.
In Excelsior Action, Seen Here scored in 1:55.3 after a pocket trip for his fourth Excelsior win with Scott Zeron in the bike. Bruce’s VO N Coke (Jim Taggart Jr.) went wire-to-wire in 1:54.2 for trainer John Berger. The 17-1 Dealers Turn (Zeron) scored in 1:54.3 for his first seasonal win for trainer Tom Fanning. Printville (Zeron) lowered his mark to 1:54.2 for owner Purple Haze Stables and trainer George Ducharme.
American Ideal was the leading sire with three winning sons and Huntsville had two.