After giving way under late pressure last week, Mark Howard’s Sheer Terror found his way back to the winner’s enclosure after wiring six rivals in Monday’s (Oct. 13) $12,000 Open Pace at Rosecroft Raceway.

Benson Merrill currently sits at the top of the trainer standings at Bangor Raceway, his 24 seasonal wins outpacing both the Valerie Grondin and Autym Sowers rosters who have earned 19 top placings each. But every so often, the 35-year-old conditioner feels the need to have someone else check up his horses as they leave the paddock while he dons his maroon and white colors to join the everyday sulky-sitters behind the starting gate.

The Greenshoe gelding Lionheart Hanover became only the second Pennsylvania Fair Sire Stakes horse, and the first male and first trotter, to complete the “grand slam” (in announcer Jim Beviglia’s phrase), winning his regular-season points title and his Championship race at both two and three, with his victory in one of eight $25,000 Pennsylvania Fair Sire Stakes Championships over a “sloppy” track on a dank day (Oct. 13) at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania.