by Ken Weingartner, Harness Racing Communications

Ken Weingartner

Freehold, NJ — The connections of 3-year-old female pacer Cinamony figured if they were going to take a shot with their filly, it would be in the James M. Lynch Memorial.

So this weekend, they’re taking their shot.

Cinamony, who was lightly staked because of throat surgery at age 2 in February 2013, was supplemented to the Lynch Memorial for $15,000. On Saturday night, she races in the third of three eliminations at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs, where she needs to finish among the top three to advance to the $300,000 final on June 28.

Chris Gooden photo

Cinamony enters the Lynch with lifetime earnings of $99,483.

“We had to do the throat surgery early on and we were kind of on the fence about her, so we didn’t stake her to a lot other than the (Pennsylvania) Sire Stakes,” trainer Alexander Rice Jr. said. “Once we did the throat surgery, she turned into the best one we had. We’ve been really happy with her.

“We thought that if we were going to take a shot, it was going to be with this race. There would have been a big gap between her starts otherwise, and we thought that financially supplementing here made the most sense. There’s also a consolation, so there’s two chances to race.”

Cinamony will start from post No. 1 with driver Corey Callahan and is 8-1 on the morning line. Her Lynch elimination includes Fan Hanover winner Uffizi Hanover, who is the 2-1 favorite, and Lismore Pace winner Tyra, who is the 3-1 second choice.

Owned by Mike Horn and Alexander Rice Sr., Cinamony was purchased for $3,500 at the 2012 Standardbred Horse Sale. The daughter of stallion Art Official and mare Armbro Cinnamon — whose family includes the likes of stakes-winners Mattaroni, Armbro Bombay, Mattropolis, and Pretty Discreet — has won five of 18 races and $99,483.

“She was from the first crop of Art Official and we liked the dam’s side,” Rice said. “We had her marked in the catalog and I thought she looked pretty good. I don’t know why she brought only $3,500. She was a long-legged filly and a little fat, but she didn’t look bad. She might have been small compared to some of the Art Officials we looked at, but she was really about medium sized.”

Cinamony finished third in her career debut, a division of the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes, two lengths behind Tyra and three-quarters of a length behind eventual sire stakes champion Southwind Silence.

The remainder of the summer was a struggle. Cinamony was winless until October, when she finally started to put her speed to good use. She won three of her final six starts of the year and failed to hit the board only once.

“We knew she was fast, but she was a real handful last year,” Rice said. “She had a start in the sire stakes at The Meadows where she came first over, and after that she was just a loose horse. We had to do a whole lot of work, a lot of equipment changes, to make her more manageable. We had to teach her to race again and how to sit in a hole. She’s been very good this year.”

Cinamony won a division of the Pennsylvania Sires Stakes in May at The Meadows. She enters her Lynch Memorial elimination off a fourth-place finish in a division of the sire stakes on June 12 at Harrah’s Philadelphia.

The favorite in the first Lynch Memorial elimination is New Jersey Sire Stakes champion Act Now, at 5-2 on the morning line, followed by 7-2 Gallie Bythe Beach. The favorite in the second division is stakes-winner Gettingreadytoroll, at 5-2, followed by 3-1 Fancy Desire.

Fancy Desire also is a supplemental entry, as is Sayitall BB in the first elimination.