Racing Roundup: Tetrick’s fifth win lights up Still Electric in $32,000 Open
March 4, 2009,from Harness Publicists across North America
Tuesday’s (March 3) edition of Racing Roundup features results stories from Dover Downs, The Meadows, Pompano Park, Monticello Raceway, and the NAADA Trotting Series.
Tetrick’s fifth win lights up Still Electric in $32,000 Open
Dover, DE — For the third time in her last four starts, Still Electric won the $32,000 Mares Open Pace impressively on Tuesday at Dover Downs, giving Tim Tetrick his fifth win of the day.
Fotowon photo
Still Electric held off Pacific Philly by a neck in the Dover feature.
It didn’t take Tetrick long after leaving from post eight to get to the front with Still Electric in the top distaff race of the week. On the backstretch, Eric Goodell drove last week’s winner, Chloes Silver Star, up on the outside to challenge. The pair raced as a team around the final turn and into the stretch where Still Electric pulled away with Pacific Philly and Eddie Davis, Jr. closing to take second. Chloes Silver Star held on for third.
Still Electric broke just before the start last week and then gallantly rallied to finish third, beaten only a length. The Mr Electric-Still Terrific 5-year-old had won her two previous starts. She now has five wins in seven starts this year, earning $67,117 in purses for Howard Taylor, Jerry Silva and Tom Lazzaro. It was Terick’s fifth win on the card and the second for owner Taylor.
In reversal form, in the $21,000 Mares pace, Goodell and Blissful Maddie held the lead on the backstretch with Tetrick and Erma La Em prompting the pace on the outside all the way to the finish line in 1:53. The victory was the third for driver Goodell and trainer Josh Green and second for owner Larry Baron. Dream-A-While closed strongly for Daryl Bier but had to settle for third.
Brandon Givens drove Hopefull N right to the lead, with Yada Yada Yada A, driven by Roger Plante, second from the start and that’s the way the $25,000 Mares Jr. Open finished. Playus A Happytune and Bob Kinsey, Jr. was the show horse. Hopefull N is a Totally Ruthless-Maiden’s Blush 8-year-old owned by Preston Walls, Chad Tate and Steve Daugherty. It was her first victory in 2009.
Hall of Fame driver Ron Pierce was thrown from his sulky in the second race. Taken to a nearby hospital, he was checked and released, complaining only of a sore neck. The racing accident happened when the Pierce-driven She’s Real Wild apparently choked in the race and then went down. Pierce did not return to drive the rest of the night.
— Marv Bachrad
Dancing With Fire takes $31,100 Meadows Series Final
Meadow Lands, PA — Dancing With Fire unleashed a powerful first-over move that carried him to victory in the $31,100 final of the Opening Bell series for 3- and 4-year-old pacing colts and geldings on Tuesday at The Meadows.
Chris Gooden photo
Dancing With Fire was a 1:53.2 winner in the Opening Bell final.
An unhurried fifth at the half, Dancing With Fire responded to Mike Wilder’s urging and blew past the leaders in a :28.2 third panel. He prevailed in 1:53.2, 2-1/2 lengths better than a rallying Monster Dragon. Special Character was third.
A 4-year-old son of The Panderosa-Firelight Dancer, Dancing With Fire came within a nose of sweeping the four Opening Bell legs. Trainer Norm Parker said recent equipment changes have made the horse more consistent.
“Everybody who’s driven him said he doesn’t quit, he never gets tired,” Parker said. “He might not be the fastest horse in the world, but he gives you everything he’s got, and he loves to keep going.
“We found a couple little things to try differently. We let his hopples out a little bit. That freed him and made him a different horse. He had issues with his knees all along, and he just got sounder.”
Parker said Dancing With Fire is eligible for several upcoming series, including one at the Meadowlands, but that his immediate schedule is uncertain. His series win Tuesday marked the second by a Bob Key homebred in as many days, as Key’s Foggy Lane K, a 4-year-old trotter, captured Monday’s $31,400 Big TARP final.
In the $25,000 Preferred Trot, Four Starz Speed made a decisive quarter-pole move for Dave Palone and scored handily in 1:55.2, fastest mile this year by a 4-year-old gelding on a five-eighths-mile track. It was the 12th win in 17 career starts for the son of Conway Hall-Lotstoliveupto and lowered his lifetime mark a full second. Lolique was four lengths back in second, with Prism K a closing third. Ron Burke trains Four Starz Speed for Sylvia Burke, Howard Taylor, Weaver Bruscemi LLC and JJK Stables.
Palone drove seven winners on the 14-race card.
— Evan Pattak
U All BB is pocket-rocket at Isle Pompano Park
Pompano Beach, FL — Fred Monteleone’s U All BB ($14.80) was the pocket-rocket at the Isle Pompano Park on Tuesday, using perfect cover in capturing the $16,000 Mares Open Handicap Pace.
Lap Time Photo – Skip Smith
U All BB and driver Bruce Ranger won the $16,000 Mares Open Handicap Pace at the Isle Pompano Park.
Pasta Lavista and driver Dan Clements went right to the lead at the start of the third race feature with U All BB and driver Bruce Ranger grabbing the two-hole dream trip. Pasta Lavista led the field to the opening quarter in :28.2 and the half-mile in :57.1 before the action started to heat up.
The race favorite and Pompano Park’s all-time fastest mare, Esmeralda Semalu and driver Joe Pavia, Jr., started up first-over as the field entered the backstretch and started to advance on the leaders by the three-quarters in 1:25.2. But it was then that Ranger made his move out of the pocket with U All BB and got the jump on Esmeralda Semalu.
As they started down the stretch, Pasta Lavista began to fade as U All BB took command and then held off a late charge by Chapsboots N Spurs (Wally Hennessey) to win by three-quarters of a length in 1:54.2. Esmeralda Semalu was third.
It was the first win in three starts this year for U All BB, a 5-year-old mare by Allamerican Ingot. She is trained by Bruce Ranger for the Fred Monteleone Stable.
— Steve Wolf
Southbound Trucker wins again at Monticello
Monticello, NY — For the fifth time in just six seasonal starts, the 6-year-old Sharky Spur gelding Southbound Trucker led his competition to the finish line in the weekly winners over pacing feature on Tuesday at Monticello Raceway.
This week trainer Art Stamatien handed the reins to Greg Merton and Southbound Trucker just kept on truckin’ and scored an easy two length victory over the best pacers on the grounds. The horse’s clocking of 1:57.1 was very good considering that the temperature was hovering around 12 degrees and the winds were gusting up to 25 miles per hour.
After starting from the pole position and getting away in third place at the quarter pole, Merton was content to stay there until the field headed for the half, at which point he angled Southbound Trucker to the outside. By the time they rounded the clubhouse turn for the second time Southbound Trucker was on the lead. And from there the field couldn’t catch him and thus they couldn’t beat him as the pacer cruised to another easy triumph.
Blueridge D’Bang, with Billy Parker, Jr. at the controls, tried to follow Southbound Trucker’s moves but they were unable to close any gaps, but still had enough in the tank to finish second. Bill Onthehill A took home the show dough for driver Jordan Stratton.
“This was the first time I sat behind Southbound Trucker and let me tell you he is at the top of his game right now. He’s a pleasure to drive and you can drive him with two fingers,” driver Greg Merton said, meaning that the horse is so easy to handle.
Southbound Trucker is owned by the trainer’s brother, George Stamatien. Sent off as the prohibitive favorite the pacer paid just $2.50 for win.
— John Manzi
Ehrenberg, Williams win in NAADA Series
Monticello, NY — The first leg of the North American Amateur Drivers Association’s Trotting Series to benefit the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation was presented on Tuesday evening at Yonkers Raceway.
Two trots went to post prior to the first race on the betting card and when the races became official Dave Ehrenberg II and Tom Williams each drove a winner.
Ehrenberg won the first $6,000 event with Bruce Lauer’s veteran 12-year-old Angel Alan with a come-from-behind triumph in a time of 2:04.2. Peter Gerry finished second with North Country Fair while Alan Schwartz took home the show dough with Iroquouindianmagic, despite going off-stride at the start.
The second $6,000 split went to Joseph Hess’ Fox River Lucky in a 2:02.1 clocking. Last year’s Amateur Driver of the Year, Tom Williams, was at the controls and steered the winner to a three length triumph over Valcyon Days, in rein to Anthony Verruso. Mike Lopez got Lady Merlot up to finish third, some nine lengths behind the winner.
The NAADA Trotting Series is comprised of four preliminary legs and a final and the competing drivers are donating their percentages to the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation. The drivers earning the most points in the preliminaries, via the European Point System, will become eligible for the $12,000 final which is slated on April 7 at Yonkers Raceway. The two-track series continues next Wednesday, March 11, at Monticello Raceway.
— John Manzi