There was no shortage of excitement in harness racing last night as many of the sport's biggest stars, including Lucky Jim, were in action at the Big M and elsewhere across the continent.
That's why it might be easy for people to overlook the accomplishment of the 3-year-old Angus Hall gelding named Hail Yeah. He did something that the rest of them didn't do---he won two heats yesterday.
Except that they were two different races and not a single races scheduled to go two heats. (Don't have many of those any more.)
Hail Yeah might have had an unfair advantage in his first race of the day because the 3-year-old was entered in a race at Greenville, Ohio that was classified as being for 2-year-olds and 3-year-old maidens or non-winners of $2,000 life.Perhaps that's what explains his 7-3/4 length romp in 2:07. Driver Stacy Beckley tipped him three-wide down the backstretch the second time and he ran off and hid from his rivals.
That was the fourth race of the Greenville program and if you checked the entries on the tenth race, you saw the name Hail Yeah once again. This time he was entered in a non-winners of $1,500 conditioned trot and the competition was tougher, but Hail Yeah sat a pocket trip and got up to win by a nose in 2:05.
These were the first two wins of his life for Hail Yeah and he reduced his record from 2:07 to 2:05 in a little more than an hour. The purse in each event was $600.
Maybe now he's looking for a three-heat race.
A Robert Smith article
A Robert Smith article recently talked about fair racing and many of the fairs still go two heats. I remember well places like Forest, Exeter and even tiny Teesewater holding two heat racing. It's the spirit of the competitors, both equine and human that make stories such as Hail Yeah so intriguing
Great story! Love to see
Great story! Love to see people who want to RACE these racehorses and not leave em in the barn 350 days a year!