By Ray Cotolo, for The Red Mile
LEXINGTON, KY-- The $289,000 Bluegrass stakes
for two-year-old colt and gelding trotters, going on Thursday, Oct. 1, was
split into four divisions when 25 horses dropped into the box.
The first of three $72,000 divisions goes as the
third race on the program. Julie Miller-trained Milligan's School headlines the
six-horse field off a 1:57.2 qualifier at Harrah's Philadelphia. Owned by Stroy
Inc., the son of Yankee Glide has three wins to his credit, including an
elimination of the Peter Haughton Memorial at the Meadowlands and a division of
the Tompkins-Geers at Tioga Downs. Jimmy Takter's Earn And Burn is also a major
contender, with his resumé consisting of $65,551 in earnings, a second in a
Peter Haughton Memorial elimination, and a third in the Peter Haughton final.
Earn And Burn is owned by Christina Takter, John and Jim Fielding, and Brixton
Medical Ab.
Kindergarten series star Hollywood Highway leads
the second split, entering off of wins in both prelims of the series held at
Lexington. Trained by Staffan Lind, the Muscle Massive colt has hit the board
in three of four starts, with $14,000 banked. Jimmy Takter sends a Kindergarten
contender in Honor Above All, who has hit the board in the Kindergarten
preliminaries but is still seeking his maiden win. He's owned by Order By
Stables.
Winner of the $351,000 Pennsylvania Sires
Stakes, Jimmy Takter's Lagerfeld highlights the third division, owned by
Christina Takter, John and Jim Fielding, and Herb Liverman. He has entered the
winners' circle twice this season in seven starts, with the other occasion
being in a $36,030 sires stakes division. Another state-bred star will line up
on the gate with Kanthaka. Third in the $225,000 Ohio Sires Stakes, the Triumphant
Caviar colt won six legs of the Ohio Sires Stakes leading into the final,
accumulating $135,054 this season. He was more recently fourth in a $35,061
division of the Ohio Breeders Championship. He's owned by trainer Christopher
Beaver in partnership with Wilbur Stoll Lang.
The final round goes for $73,000 and features a
septet of trotters. It also features the return of Jimmy Takter-trainee Bar
Hopping, who enters off a 1:57 qualifier at The Red Mile. Owned by Christina
Takter, Hattfield Stables, Marvin Katz, and Al Libfeld, he has one win this
season, coming in a preliminary of the New Jersey Sires Stakes at the
Meadowlands. He makes his first pari-mutuel start since scratching sick from a
division of the Reynolds in late August. He was fourth in the Peter Haughton
Memorial after finishing second in an elimination for the Peter Haughton and in
the $100,000 New Jersey Sires Stakes final. He'll be competing against
improving trotters Celebrity Pilatus, who enters off a fourth in a $50,000
division of the Standardbred at Delaware, Ohio, and Ake Svanstedt's Dupree, who
finished third in the Pennsylvania Sires Stakes final.
The quartet of Bluegrass stakes holds the
spotlight for Thursday's program, which consists of 10 races and kicks off at
7:00pm.
