In spite of a five- week layoff the beat goes on for Diamond
Tiara. On the sunny afternoon of May 27 at Monticello Raceway the 7 year old
pacing mare notched her 12th seasonal victory with a gate to wire
performance in 1:58.1 which has once more placed her atop the North American
leaderboard in races won this year.
Jimmy Taggart Jr. was again in the sulky for trainer Mike
Watson as the daughter of McArdle notched her ninth consecutive victory.
Surprisingly disregarded by the betting public even with
eight wins in a row coming into the contest she was sent off at odds of over
7-2 paid $9.40 for win.
Perhaps the fear of being scratched sick in her last two
attempts to race here and with only a qualifying event on May 15 at Pocono
Downs since she last started on April 21, could have explained the reluctance
but Diamond Tiara was again herself and sped to the lead and never had an
anxious moment en route to victory. Zeke Parker and Givemybest Hanover, even
with a perfect two-hole journey, couldn’t get by Diamond Tiara in the deep
stretch and they had to settle for second money. Theron Seelster finished third
for Austin Siegelman.
“This was a tougher bunch this week”, Jimmy Taggart Jr said
of his mare’s competition today. “We got away cheap and she was her old self
today in spite of her layoff.”
Diamond Tiara is owned by Philip Schultz of Michigan and it was
the fourth winning drive on the 10-race card for Taggart.
Maybe something even more astonishing happened on the
Tuesday card when a pair of dead-heats developed between the first four horses
under the wire in the seventh race. There was a dead-heat for win and a
dead-heat for show and many believe that the double dead-heats are a harness
racing first. But there’s one thing for sure, it is something that never
happened in the 55 years of racing here at the Mighty M.
Early Morning and driver Peter (PJ) Lutman III were on the
lead and when Jimmy Marohn, Jr made a quarter pole move with Latin Lyric,
Lutman never yielded and Latin Lyric was on the limb the rest of the way.
The fast early fractions were responsible for a tight field
going into the final turn and when the field straightened for home horses were
coming from everywhere and only 1/5th-of- a -second separated the
winner from the sixth pace finisher.
As one would expect there was an extended time before the
numbers were posted and when it was all sorted out there was the dead-heat for
win between Early Morning and a hard-charging Midnight Mass with Jimmy
Taggart, Jr. aboard.
But the photo still had to be inspected and when the judges
declared the race official Bettorthanicecream (Austin Siegelman) and Check My
Pulse with Jimy Devaux aboard, were tied for the show spot, just noses behind
the first two finishers. And Latin Lyric and KZ Bezz (Mike Merton) were right
there too, just a nose or two back of the leaders.
The double dead- heats spurred multiple payoffs in the
exactas, trifectas and superfectas which are too numerous to mention.
