Nichols NY
– Tioga Downs will be the focus of the harness racing universe on the afternoon
of Sunday, August 20 featuring the $163,000 Roll With Joe FFA Grand Circuit
stake and the $521,950 Empire Breeders Classic (EBC) pacing finals.
While the older pacing
ranks aren't what they were a year ago when Always B Miki and Wiggle It
Jiggleit threw down virtually every week all across North America, what we do
have in the Roll With Joe (race nine) is a very competitive, even field of nine
accomplished veterans.
Shamballa (Scott Zeron)
held his own against the best last year including an upset of the
aforementioned pair in a stirring 1:47.1 edition of last year’s US Pacing
Championship and his second place finish in the fastest mile ever last fall at
The Red Mile. Shamballa has raced but a handful of times without success in
2017 and his last start was two months ago but he qualified back fast at Tioga
last Friday. Rick Zeron trains and owns Shamballa with Cool Cat Racing, HA
Taylor and Brad Grant.
The top money winner in
the race, both career-wise and seasonally, is the iron tough All Bets Off. Over
the $2.5 million mark lifetime, he has faced and beaten the best in major
stakes from age two right through his present campaign now at six and never
goes a bad one. By the way, guess who was third in that fastest mile ever
mentioned above? That's right, All Bets Off was. Matt Kakaley has been aboard
for virtually every one of those two and a half million dollars for trainer Ron
Burke and partners Weaver Bruscemi, Frank Baldachino and Panhellnic Corp.
Last year’s Roll With
Joe winner Rockeyed Optomist (Jason Bartlett) returns to defend his title. He’s
seeking his first big one of the season for trainer Steve Elliott and owners
Anthony Perretti, Ginny Berkner, A&B Stable and Joe Bataglia.
Nine of the Empire
State’s finest sophomore pacing colts will battle for $263,100 in a very
contentious seventh race. The three elimination winners drew shoulder to
shoulder from the rail out; In A Single Bound (Billy Dobson), Heaven’s Gait
(David Miller) and Art Scene (Scott Zeron).
While the first two
didn’t take much imagination to handicap as logical contenders in their
respective eliminations Art Scene did as the lightly raced son of American
Ideal was winning for only the second time at odds of more than 15-1. Art Scene
had been chasing NYSS types around the smaller ovals before he tipped his hand
a bit with a sneaky good effort in the Cane Pace on Hambletonian Day at The
Meadowlands. In last week’s win, he prevailed after a long uncovered move on
division leader Funknwaffles to win by a neck.
Tony Alagna trains Art
Scene for his own interests as Alagna Racing along with partners Brittany
Farms, In The Gym Partners and American Art Stable.
EBC fillies go for
$257,850 in the eighth where elimination winners Tequila Monday (Brian Sears)
and Clear Idea (Mark MacDonald) drew post one and two.
While one would have to
consider them as the best fillies in the program this season and while Tequila
Monday went a second faster in her elimination split, Clear Idea has prevailed
in both of their most recent meetings. Last week’s win was the ninth of the
year for Clear Idea and her seasonal earnings stand at $188,113 for trainer
Blake MacIntosh who owns the American Ideal lass with Hutt Racing Stable.
A pair of $30,000 EBC consolation
races for those who didn't quite make it to the final is also on the Sunday
card.
The third of four
preliminary legs of the Miss Versatility series (race five) for mature trotting
gals rolls into Tioga and Swedish import Pasithea Face S is here to face five
rivals following her impressive win in the Dr. John Steele Memorial at The
Meadowlands. The Nichols faithful will get their chance to see this potential
new star live and in person thanks to this series and owner Courant Inc and
trainer Jimmy Takter bringing her in for the race. Tim Tetrick is the driver.
The Tompkins-Geers
stakes for 2-year-olds were scheduled for August 20 but the only event that had
enough entries to race on the card is the $53,700 filly trot. The others were
canceled.
More information and the
complete list of entries may be found at the Tioga website.
Post time on Sunday is
1:00 p.m.
