The first leg of the Ohio Triple Crown gets underway Thursday (July 31) with three $56,000 divisions of freshman colt trotters and three $55,500 divisions of freshman filly trotters in the Ohio State Fair Stakes at Eldorado Scioto Downs.

The top three horses in the Hambletonian Society/Breeders Crown poll remained unchanged in the Week 7 edition of the rankings released Wednesday, but the gap between the trio was reduced to a mere eight points.

Meet Gil Short, a key figure in the development, launch and early operation of Colonial Downs Racetrack in New Kent (VA), who is back in the area building another equine facility — though this one isn’t geared to accommodate hundreds of horses and thousands of fans.

After winning a total of five races at Batavia Downs last Saturday (July 26), the second-leading dash winning driver in North America, Jason Bartlett, will be back to sit behind two of the fastest second-year side-wheelers on record this year to compete in the New York Sire Stakes for 3-year-old colt and gelding pacers in split sets for a total of $114,900 in purses.

The Tuesday night (July 29) harness racing program at Running Aces featured eight divisions of Minnesota-sired freshman trotters and pacers.

Any breeder would tell you that getting a foal from the ground to the winner’s circle on Hambletonian Day is nothing short of a miracle. With that fact in mind, Crawford Farms has plenty to be grateful for.

At 9-years-old, the Swedish trotter Don Fanucci Zet is still on top as was demonstrated on Tuesday evening (July 29) at the Jägersro track in Malmö, where he won the Hugo Aabergs Memorial with ease in 1:51.4f – even though he had to trot three wide in two turns.