by harness publicists across North America

Thursday’s (Oct. 28) edition of Racing Roundup features a result stories from Harrington Raceway, Vernon Downs and Cal-Expo.

Wolfenden, Crissman, Sniper Hall earn closing night honors at Harrington

Harrington, DE — Harrington Raceway’s 64th season came to a close Thursday night as a variety of season-ending honors were awarded.

Fotowon photo

Ross Wolfenden (233 wins) took the 2010 driving title at Harrington Raceway.

For the first time since 2006, Harrington had a leading driver not named Tony Morgan as Ross Wolfenden (233 wins) took the 2010 title, with a comfortable lead over Morgan (185), while Jim Morand and Victor Kirby finished tied for third. It was the first ever driving title for Wolfenden, who’s been second on several occasions. Wolfenden has won more than 4,600 races in his career and won five on closing night, including the last race on the program, fittingly with a horse trained by Harrington’s leading trainer, Tim Crissman.

Crissman earned his second straight training title at Harrington, finishing the meet with 72 wins. Brothers Wayne (56) and Les Givens (46) rounded out the top three. It was Crissman’s second straight title at Delaware’s half-mile racetrack.

Foulk Stables and Lauren Allen’s Sniper Hall was honored as the horse of the meet by the Delaware Valley Chapter of the United States Harness Writers’ Association. The 7-year-old Blissfull Hall ridgling won $88,000 in 17 starts at Harrington in 2010, including 7 wins. He is trained by co-owner Allen.

— Matt Sparacino

Vernon Downs
Keep It Fair used a head bob in the final stride to earn a slim victory in Thursday night’s $12,000 featured 10th race at Vernon Downs. Sixth (and last) at the three-quarter-mile mark, Keep It Fair ($22.40) staged a late rally in the homestretch that eventually gained her a head victory over All Spirit in the week’s top Miracle Mile contest for female pacers. Diva Delight, last week’s winner in this class, finished third. Thursday’s 1:53.1 career-best performance resulted in the fifth season’s score and the eighth lifetime win for the bay daughter of Art Major-Direct Service, who increased her lifetime earnings to $111,325. Driver Jimmy Whittemore owns the 4-year-old mare, while his father, Dennis, does the conditioning. Whittemore, the track’s defending driving champ, collected three tallies during Thursday’s 12-race card to increase his win total to 114 after 82 programs.

Cal-Expo
Claiming pacers were in the spotlight at Cal-Expo on Thursday night, in which Chomp N Stomp was a game winner. Leaving from post four in the field of six, the 5-year-old got the lead an eighth of a mile after the start, then pushed the pace until yielding for the pocket 3-16ths of a mile past the start into a :28 opening quarter. No longer in the pocket at the half-mile pole (:58) as a result of second-quarter movement by others, driver Luke Plano and his charge found themselves fourth with a half-mile to go. Moving first-over to the midway point of the final turn and starting to gain at the three-quarter pole, timed in 1:26, Plano and his charge were still 3-3/4 lengths back off a fast third quarter. Quickly picking up Leadmeastray to the seven-eighths pole, Chomp N Stomp forged his way to the lead to mid-stretch, but now had to deal with a surging Western Hurricane (James Kennedy). Owned by Osmin Carrera and trained by Dario Solares, the gelding held on to win ($6.60) by a head in 1:55, a seasonal best. Western Hurricane closed nicely to be second and Alias Jones (Ralph Silvestri III) finished another 1-1/4 lengths farther back in third.