by john manzi
On
Sunday evening,( July 2nd,) at the Hall of Fame Banquet on the lawn
of the Harness Racing Museum “Hurricane Hannah” Miller was
presented with the Hall of Fame Amateur Driver’s Award for the second
consecutive season. Then the next day, she went out and won two amateur driving
contests over the famed double oval at Historic Track.
“Both horses were very good today,” Hannah said via email. “I didn't really get the trip I wanted with Pine Tab in race seven but it ended up working out.
“When we rounded the first
turn in that one I was able to get a hole (along the pylons) but I didn't want
to get locked in so I chose to move him early. We didn’t clear Joe Pennacchio
and Current Crisis until midway up the backstretch but once Pine Tab made
the front he felt strong and went on to a two-length victory.”
After finishing back in
Hidden Identity’s last two starts Hannah decided to change her strategy and
send the veteran trotter to the lead where he seems to race his best. On June 1st
,in a Billings Trot at Monticello Raceway, she put the grand old campaigner on
the front-end and he went wire to wire to and scored an easy victory.
“
“In Hidden’s race today I
was able to get him out of the gate good and get him to the front where he does
his best work. We had a late challenge around the final turn but when I pulled
the (ear) plugs we trotted away from LandonFitz (Dave Yarock) and were an easy
three-length winner,” Miller said, and then added “It was a great day overall
and I was lucky to have my family with me.”
In the first Billings
Trotting division Bobby “Hot Rod Chevie” Ciavardini won his first race since
1990 when he guided Baltimor AS to a 2:02.1 victory over Pocket Passer
and driver Tony “the Capo” Verruso.
After starting from the pole
position Ciavardini took early command and then yielded to Pocket Passer
and allowed him to cut the fractions.
After rebuffing challenges,
Verruso and his charge led the way until the top of the stretch where
Ciavardini, who traveled along in the catbirds seat moved Baltimor AS out for
the stretch run and they trotted away to a three-length triumph over Pocket
Passer.
Ciavadini had been a racing
participant back in the 1980’s but switched careers and returned to the
racing venues recently after retiring from the construction business.