A quartet of early closing events to take place during the 2010 meet at Chester Racetrack have attracted an astounding 346 nominations, including a quartet of Dan Patch Award winners and numerous other standouts

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Lucky Chucky, Fancy Filly, and Sportswriter — Dan Patch Award winners as two-year-olds in 2009 — lead the nominations in their respective events on the Super Stakes Sunday card, to be held on August 22.

Lucky Chucky, winner of last year’s Valley Victory along with eight other races as a two-year-old, looks to continue his good fortune at Chester, as he leads 95 early nominations for the $500,000 Colonial Trot. Breeders Crown and Pennsylvania Sire Stakes winner Pilgrims Taj is among the nominations as well, along with another standout from last year in Holiday Road, the winner of last year’s Peter Haughton Memorial at the Meadowlands.

Fancy Filly had a run of major two-year-old stakes last year, including victories the Three Diamonds and the Breeders Crown, and she headlines a group of 100 nominated for the $350,000 Valley Forge. The George Teague trainee won 10 of 12 races in her freshman campaign, and she’s joined on the nomination list by Breeders Crown runner-up Put On A Show and Pennsylvania Sire Stakes champion Dancinwiththestarz.

Sportswriter took top honours in the two-year-old pacing colt division, winning seven of eight starts. His only defeat came to All Speed Hanover in the Breeders Crown, and both of these talented pacers are among the 105 nominated for the $500,000 Battle of the Brandywine. They’re joined by One More Laugh, who was victorious in the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes final along with the Governor’s Cup, sharing a 1:49.2 record with Sportswriter as the fastest two-year-old pacer in history regardless of track size.

The $500,000 Ben Franklin for free-for-all pacers — Chester's signature event — attracted 46 nominations, including Dan Patch Award winner Won the West. Trainer Ron Burke has also nominated Atochia and McCedes, along with Battle of Lake Erie winner Foiled Again, while George Teague has nominated 2008 Battle of the Brandywine winner Badlands Nitro, Chasin Racin, Mr Wiggles, and 2007 Meadowlands Pace winner Southwind Lynx. New Zealand champion Auckland Reactor also has been nominated for the Ben Franklin as a possible stop in his 2010 North American campaign. The fourth edition of the Franklin is scheduled for July 18.

The Betsy Ross for pacing mares (July 4) and the Maxie Lee Memorial for free-for-all trotters (July 25) remain on the stakes schedule, but they will be contested as invitational events rather than early closing events.

For full nomination lists, click here.

(Chester Racetrack)