Nichols, NY - The Graduate
Series makes a stop at Tioga Downs on Sunday (June 11) for the third and
last preliminary leg leading up to the $250,000e finals on July 8 at
The Meadowlands.
Eleven trotters were declared
and split into two short fields carded as races three and five, each
division for a purse of $50,000.
The enigmatic Trolley fell just
short of taking last week's second leg at Mohawk, losing a tight photo to
Dayson in 1:52.3 and comes into Sunday's third race as the logical
choice among the field of five. Trolley doesn't race often, having
made only ten starts at two and three but when he's good
he's very good. He successfully battled the best of his crop last
season despite a pre mature end to his campaign, counting a second in last
year's Beal final as his career highlight to date. Erv Miller trains the son of
Donato Hanover for Paymaq Racing, Leland Mathias, Greg Gillis and Louis
Willinger while Marcus Miller is the driver.
Division two fields six
and serves as the seasonal debut of the 2016 Triple Crown winning
Trotter of the Year, Marion Marauder. After a storybook three-year-old season,
he has had a pair of Mohawk qualifiers to prepare for trainer Paula Wellwood
and will be reunited with driver Scott Zeron on Sunday. Marion
Marauder won 10 of his 15 starts last year while earning nearly $1.5
million for his owners the grandma & grandson duo of Jean Wellwood and
Devin Keeling.
Ten pacers declared for the single
division $75,000 Graduate leg (race 7) and quite a formidable group it is. Dr J
Hanover (Doug McNair) just last week paced the fastest mile in the long
history of Canadian harness racing with his 1:46.4 win in the second Graduate
leg at Mohawk and has drawn post two on Sunday. Tony Alagna trains Dr J for
Brad Grant, Robert LeBlanc, Steve Wienick and Irwin Samelman.
Posted just to his inside is Boston
Red Rocks (Tim Tetrick) who did a lot of the work in the record mile
and finished second, beaten only a length at the end. Sintra (Jody
Jamieson) has won divisions of both Graduate legs and possess a
wicked lick when called upon. Jimmy Takter sends out the dynamic Lyon's
Snyder (Mark MacDonald) while all Check Six (Yannick Gingras) does is win
money.
It's a stellar start
to the Grand Circuit season at Tioga Downs and the racing starts at 1:00
p.m. on Sunday.
