by Ken Weingartner, Harness Racing Communications

Freehold, NJ — In Focus is the morning line favorite to win Sunday’s (September 7) $150,000 Pennsylvania Sires Stakes final for 3-year-old trotters at Harrah’s Chester, where last season’s 2-year-old champ will be missing from action.

Lear Jetta, the sport’s fastest small-track trotter at 2 and the third quickest this season, is out for the remainder of the year with a tendon injury. The colt, who last competed on July 7 in a division of the Reynolds Stakes at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs, was 5-for-5 this year and has won 16 of 18 career starts. His lifetime purses earnings are $469,410.

Fotowon photo

Lear Jetta has won 16 of 18 races lifetime and earned $469,410.

“He got cast in the stall,” trainer Bobby Myers said. “He was never sore, but he had a little tiny bump come up on the outside of each tendon. I was suspicious and had an ultrasound done, and on the left (front) one it came up like an eight percent tear. I said, ‘whoa.’ I didn’t want to take any chances. We decided to shut down.

“He’s his own worst enemy,” Myers added. “He feels so doggone good and he rolls and gets cast. I’ve got him in a great big stall; it’s just one of those things.”

Lear Jetta, owned by 92-year-old Jim McAuliffe of Florida, won last year’s Matron Stakes and Pennsylvania Sire Stakes championship. He was third in the Breeders Crown. His 1:55.3 win in the PASS final, taken around the five-eighths oval at Chester, was the fastest by a 2-year-old trotter on a track less than seven-eighths or a mile. This year, he had a mark of 1:54.1.

“He’s got plenty of money to go for as a 4-year-old,” Myers said, adding with a laugh, “I figured people won’t forget his name.”