by Dustin Ross, regional racing operations manager, Tioga Downs

Nichols, NY — The Rags To Riches fields have been drawn and 42 horses and their connections will begin their quest through the month of June to attempt to be crowned champion on Sunday, June 29, in the $100,000 (est.) final at Tioga Downs. All of the horses have raced in a $10,000 claiming event or less in the past few months and will battle on Sunday, June 8, with the hope of being one of the 36 that move on to next week’s second leg.

Last year’s champion Rummy will return to Nichols, New York to defend his crown, but he has only raced four times since winning last year’s Rags To Riches championship on June 17. He will once again be campaigned from the Paul Szalay, Jr. stable for owners Frank and Lisa Matassa, and will leave from post position seven in the first division.

In the second division, Mike Palone trainee Drive By will venture northeast from the Meadows to throw his hat in the ring at the chance of a nice payday. The 7-year-old Artiscape son was claimed by Charles Schrader on April 8 and has won three of four since then and established a new lifetime mark of 1:52.4 on May 17. His last start was a winning one in a $20,000 claimer at the Meadows on June 2 with Mike’s brother Dave in the sulky.

In the fifth and final division of the Rags To Riches series, slated as race number 11, Western Tsunami will have to face-off with Devonshire Hanover. Western Tsunami has been battling with the Open pacers at Tioga and Vernon over the past three weeks and will leave from post position seven on Sunday for trainer Tracy Brainard. However, leaving the gate with front-end specialist Devonshire Hanover inside will be far from a walk in the park.

Last week Devonshire Hanover and Howard Parker cut through fractions of :27.3, :55.4, and 1:23.3 before coasting home to stop the timer in 1:53.2, winning by more than three lengths.

Also in the picture for the fifth division is Actionuke, who was just claimed for $20,000 at Hoosier Park by the powerful Virgil Morgan, Jr. stable for owner Kenneth Sommer.

The Rags To Riches tournament is based off of the NCAA tournament bracket and the field will be narrowed down to 36 after the first leg, 18 after the second leg, and the third leg will decide which nine will have the honor of racing for $100,000 (est.) on Sunday, June 29.

Tioga Downs kicks off its weekend of live harness racing action on Friday, June 6, at 6:50 p.m. and will be hosting promotions all day Saturday for the running of the Belmont Stakes as Big Brown looks for the elusive Triple Crown. For more information on all of the events Tioga has to offer, visit www.tiogadowns.com or call 1-888-WIN-TIOGA.