By
Carol Hodes for the SBOANJ
MANALAPAN, NJ – June 30, 2015
-- Two-year-old New Jersey-sired trotters and pacers step into the spotlight on
Friday night, July 3, 2015 at the Meadowlands.
Fifty are entered to go
postward in six New Jersey Sire Stakes races on the card, most of them making
their pari-mutuel debuts.
Twelve trotting colts and
geldings have been split into two $20,000 divisions, carded as the second and
fourth races. Each features a trainee from the Ron Burke trainee:
Southwind Frank in the second and Southwind Flash in the fourth. Both are
coming off of victories in qualifiers at Gaitway Farms on June 22.
Southwind Frank, a son of
Muscle Hill out of the mare Flawless Lindy, won in 1:55.3 over a track labeled
“good.”
“He was very good and he was
very good in his first qualifier [finishing second],” Burke said. “He’s funny.
He was a horrible colt all the way until 2:30, but he’s just gotten better and
better. The faster you go, the better he gets. He couldn’t trot in three
minutes to save his life. He was horrible gaited and didn’t have a great
attitude. But every time we trained him he got a little better and then at like
2:30 it clicked.
“He’s been a completely
different horse since then. Either we were doing a very bad job at first or
we’re doing a great job now,” Burke told Harness Racing Communications.
“Horses learn at their own rates. You can push them all you want; some of them
are going to do it quick, some you’re going to have to wait on.”
Southwind Frank was purchased
as a yearling for $100,000 at the Lexington Selected Sale, which was to the
colt’s benefit.
“He was a $100,000 baby so we
didn’t just cut him loose,” Burke said. “I thought I had to give him a chance,
and I kept making stakes payments, and worried I was throwing just good money
after bad, but for once it worked out.”
Southwind Flash, a son of
Muscle Hill-Friendly Amigo, won his qualifier in 1:58.4.
“He’s a real horse, too, I
think,” Burke said. “He’s just got to mind his manners. Today [June 22], he was
good. He let somebody go, he came back; he had multiple moves. He did
everything you’re looking for in a horse.”
A field of eight pacing
fillies vying in the $25,000 first race while 10 pacing colts and geldings will
face off for $25,000 in the fifth race. All are offspring of the late
Rocknroll Hanover, except LL Jackpot who is by Philos Hanover
The largest response came from
trotting fillies with two 10-horse $20,000 divisions – the sixth and ninth
races. All are daughters of Muscle Hill or his sire, Muscles Yankee.
After two weeks of preliminary
legs, the finalists will meet in $100,000 championships on July 17, 2015.
--Quotes & Photos courtesy
of Ken Weingartner, Harness Racing Communications
