Racing Roundup: Ladyfield wins Harrington feature
September 2, 2009,from Harness Publicists across North America
Tuesday’s (September 1) edition of Racing Roundup features results stories from Harrington Raceway, Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs, Plainridge Racecourse, Saratoga Gaming and Raceway and Monticello Raceway. Ladyfield wins Harrington feature Harrington, DE — Joyce, Kathleen and Linda Sue Keeler’s Ladyfield ($6.40, Tony Morgan) returned to the winner’s circle Tuesday with a 1:54.4 triumph in the $25,000 Mares Open Pace at Harrington Raceway. Fotowon photo Ladyfield and Tony Morgan were 1:54.4 winners in the Mares Open. Trained by Victor Keeler II, the 6-year-old Armbro Cadet mare seized control towards the quarter-mile and never looked back in her one length win over Don’ttellmewhattodo and Hopefull N. Don’ttellmewhattodo had won the previous two installments. Ladyfield has banked more than $105,000 in 2009 and $430,000 in her talented career. She is the current track record holder for older pacing mares. — Matt Sparacino Nicole’s Promise beats the boys in Open Handicap Trot at Pocono Wilkes-Barre, PA — For the second time in the past four Open Handicap Trot races at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs it was Nicole’s Promise beating the boys. In the $28,750 Open Handicap Trot on Tuesday night, Nicole’s Promise, a 6-year-old trotting mare trained by John Marshall and driven by Tom Jackson, just nipped Grain Of Truth (Ray Schnittker) at the wire. Time of the mile was 1:55.2. Schnittker left quickly from the six post and stayed on top the entire race before finishing second with Summertime Yankee (Andrew McCarthy) third in the race. Nicole’s Promise also won from the five hole in Open Handicap Trot company on August 4. Gift Kronos, the eight horse in the field and the race favorite with Daniel Dube in the bike, went on an early break after leaving the gate, leaving Ray Schnittker and Grain Of Truth to take the lead in the race. Explosive Matter, the 8-5 morning line favorite who was assigned the nine hole, was scratched sick from the race. The win with Nicole’s Promise was Jackson’s third of the evening. George Napolitano, Jr., who collected five wins this past Saturday afternoon at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs, also had three wins through the first 10 races of the 16-race card Tuesday evening. — John Zimich Campbell and Hardy post triples at Plainridge Marlborough, MA — Drew Campbell and Jim Hardy kept up their winning ways with three trips each to the winner’s circle on Tuesday at Plainridge Racecourse. Campbell and Hardy have enjoyed stellar seaons thus far as the harness racing season enters fall. Both are driving champions with Hardy bagging four titles at Plainridge and Campbell leading all New England drivers with 276 wins last year. Tuesday was more of the same as Hardy drove both ends of the early daily double and also won the nightcap. Campbell finished the day with a driving triple, two seconds and a third. Hardy, who has had much success at Rockingham with his trotter Slim Down, has now won over 100 races this year and sports a UDR of .330 and a glittering .422 in the training ranks. Campbell, Scarborough, Maine’s leading driver and fan favorite is on his way to another New England dash title. His 232 trips to victory lane and .405 rating are eye openers. His mark in the training ranks is in the .380 range. Both horsemen will be among 16 who will receive Achiever awards at the 31st Hall of Fame awards dinner-program of the New England chapter of U.S. harness writers this Sunday at Plainridge. — Jack Ginnetti Riverofglory finds the winner’s circle again Saratoga Springs, NY — No stranger to the Saratoga winner’s circle, Riverofglory made the familiar trek there once again on Tuesday night. Dave Oxford photo Riverofglory won her 57th career race on Tuesday at Saratoga. The hard hitting mare was named Trotter of the Year at Saratoga back in 2003, making her a very rare mare to win that honor at the Spa. Now in her 12-year-old campaign, Riverofglory is still enjoying success at Saratoga though a few notches below where she was dominant in ‘03. On Tuesday, the Guy Roemer trainee came from nearly ten lengths back to win, outclosing the field in a :58.4 final half. Kim Crawford was at the lines as the King Conch mare recorded her fourth victory of this season, while moving ever closer to the $400,000 mark in career earnings. Riverofglory got by the race’s favorite, Alpine Dauntless (Frank Coppola, Jr.), in the stretch. Alpine Dauntless came up second best in the evening’s ninth race. — Mike Sardella Pair of ladies enjoy success at Monticello Monticello, NY — A new force has emerged on the backstretch at Monticello Raceway. Two women are tearing up the racetrack. Well not literally, but trainer Lisa Krom and owner Elisha Lafreniere are certainly making their presence known. Together they have accounted for 30 wins this season at Monticello Raceway. On the warm and sunny afternoon of September 1, the Krom-Lafreniere connection added two more triumphs to their totals and for Krom it marked her 29th and 30th training victory, which now ranks her eighth on the local trainer leaderboard. Leaving the driving to the top local catch-drivers on Tuesday, Krom had slated Billy Parker, Jr. to drive both her horses but with Parker’s absence that afternoon she called on the services of Jimmy Marohn and the Mighty Mite responded by guiding two of the Krom-Lafreniere connection pacers to victory. They scored with Bilmar Rustler in the sixth and with Cloudy Heights N in the 12th, the latter scoring his 11th victory at the meeting. Lafreniere’s Bilmar Rustler notched his third consecutive triumph and fifth in his last six starts when Marohn guided the 4-year-old Rustler Hanover gelding to a 1-1/4 length, 1:55.3 score over Coastal Highway and Bruce Aldrich, Jr. in the afternoon’s pacing co-feature. And being unfamiliar with Cloudy Heights N, too, made no difference to Marohn as he sent the 8-year-old In The Pocket gelding to the lead from post position six and they rambled on the front-end to a one length triumph in a time of 1:57.1 over Commander In Chief and Kyle DiBenedetto in a $10,000 claiming event. With his 11th seasonal victory Cloudy Heights N became the winningest horse on the grounds and for Krom this season marked a turnaround in her career. Krom’s only drive this year was at Goshen Historic Track where she finished second in an all-lady drivers’ race. However, her training record compared to last season is certainly an eye-opener. Last season horses trained by Krom had just one second in nine starts but this year she sports 30 wins, 11 seconds and 11 thirds in 103 starts, good for a .388 universal training average. Besides owning her own stock Lafreniere is a part-time driver and sometimes trainer herself. Her dad, Walter, a winner of over 1,000 races lifetime, was among the leading drivers here at the Mighty M back in the early 1990s. — John Manzi
