by Mike Bozich, track announcer, Hazel Park

Hazel Park, MI — The 8-year-old gelding Yukon Cornelius re-wrote the history books on Saturday (August 4) at Hazel Park Raceway when he stopped the timer in 1:50.3 in Hazel’s featured Invitational Pace. The former record of 1:51 was set by Bob McIntosh’s war horse Ponder just one short year ago.

It has been a year of speed at Hazel Park Raceway. This is already the fourth track record that has been broken and or tied at the suburban Detroit oval so far in 2007. A few weeks back, Renaissance Woman tied the track record for 4-year-old pacing mares at 1:53.1, while Johnny Made Her broke the track record for older mare pacers, blazing along in 1:52.1. The Paul Kennedy-trained trotting mare Yankee Monaco just recently broke the track record for older trotting mares, tripping the beam in 1:55.4, and was just two-fifths off of the overall track record for trotters, which is currently held by White Collar Crime (1:55.2).

With 2-1/2 months of live racing still left at Hazel Park, it is almost certain that the history books will be re-written once again. Hazel Park races live five nights a week, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday with a post time of 7:25 p.m.