Eliminations will be held a week from Saturday for the $1.5 million Hambletonian on August 7 at the Meadowlands Racetrack. The race is the second jewel in the

Trotting Triple Crown, following the Yonkers Trot and prior to the Kentucky Futurity, and is the world’s most prestigious event for three-year-old trotters.

Last weekend, a number of Hambletonian hopefuls were in action in three divisions of the Stanley Dancer Memorial at the Meadowlands. Hes A Demon, Muscle Massive and Holiday Road came away with wins.

Other major races leading to the Hambletonian have been won by On The Tab (Yonkers Trot), Sing Jesse Sing (Goodtimes), and Flex The Muscle (Dexter Cup), but Sing Jesse Sing is not eligible to the Hambletonian. Holiday Road also won the Historic-Dickerson Cup while Muscle Massive won the New Jersey Sire Stakes championship. Jetblue Volo won a Tompkins-Geers stakes and Baximum won a Reynolds division.

Here’s a rundown on some of the hopefuls:

Holiday Road -- The 2009 Peter Haughton Memorial winner is two-for-two this year, with $105,450 in earnings. His 1:52.4 win in the Dickerson, where he beat Muscle Massive by a half-length, is the fastest time for a three-year-old male trotter this season. The trainer-driver team of Greg Peck and Brian Sears won last year’s Hambletonian with Muscle Hill.

“I was real happy with the way he raced,” driver Brian Sears said after Holiday Road’s 1:54 win in the Dancer last weekend. “Two weeks ago he put out a big effort his first time back and [Saturday] he was pretty much in hand. I feel confident going into the Hambletonian eliminations. That’s just the way you want him. We think we have a really good horse. We’d be disappointed if we don’t win it, probably. We look to be really competitive.”

Muscle Massive -- Jimmy Takter’s colt has won three of six races this year and earned $202,165. He ranks fourth among three-year-old male trotters in seasonal earnings.
“We didn’t want to race him too tough with the Hambletonian coming up, but he wound up racing tough anyway,” driver Ron Pierce said after Muscle Massive beat Temple Of Doom by one length in their 1:53.4. Dancer division. “I feel very confident. There are some very nice colts out there, but I’m on Jimmy Takter’s team, and I feel real good about that.”

Hes A Demon -- The Canadian invader stepped into stakes company for the first time and posted his fourth victory in six starts this year by winning the fastest Dancer division (1:53.1) by a neck over Cassis. Hes A Demon was winless in three races last year for trainer Jeff Gillis and driver Jody Jamieson, who are among the colt’s owners.

“At the start of the year we just wanted to start slowly and make a steady progression every start,” Gillis said. “Confidence is a big thing with him and he’s matured nicely. He’s got a lot of raw ability; it’s just a matter of harnessing it. We’re going to aim for the Hambletonian elims and hopefully keep him on the right track."

Lucky Chucky -- Last season’s Dan Patch Award winner as best two-year-old male trotter is zero-for-two this year, but was second to Holiday Road in their Dancer division, closing with a :27.2 final quarter-mile. Last year, Lucky Chucky won nine of 12 races and earned $672,634. The trainer-driver combo of Chuck Sylvester and John Campbell teamed up with Hambletonian winners Muscles Yankee in 1998 and Mack Lobell in 1987.

“He’s very good; we were very happy with the race,” said Sylvester, who has won the Hambletonian four times, one shy of the training record shared by Bill Haughton, Stanley Dancer and Ben White. “We’re excited and we’re ready. John said he had a lot of trot by the wire and that was the main thing. We should have something left in the tank. If everything goes as planned, next Saturday we should be ready to go.”

On The Tab -- The colt’s half-length win in 1:58.4 over Take My Picture in the Yonkers Trot on July 10 was his first win of the season and snapped a streak of four second-place finishes. On The Tab has a total of six second-place efforts among eight races this year and has earned $374,101, which leads all three-year-old trotters. He is another Takter trainee.

“He wasn’t an expensive horse [$30,000], but he always showed me something,” Takter said.

Cassis and Flex The Muscle -- Two horses from the stable of Ray Schnittker, who won the 2008 Hambletonian with Deweycheatumnhowe. Cassis has won seven of nine races this year and been no worse than second while posting earnings of $195,763. He smashed the track record at Goshen Historic Track on July 2, finishing in 1:55.4.

“I’ve got a shot at the Hambletonian with him,” Schnittker said earlier this year. “He’s great gaited and real manageable to drive. He can do it from the front end, or from behind. He’s just a good horse.”

Flex The Muscle has won two of eight races this season and earned $153,404. He was second to Muscle Massive in the New Jersey Sire Stakes championship and was fourth in his Dancer division, also won by Muscle Massive.

Pilgrims Chuckie -- The second-fastest three-year-old male trotter to date, with a 1:53 win at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs in a leg of the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes. The time equaled the world record for three-year-old trotters on a five-eighths-mile oval. The colt is trained by Scott Andrews and co-owned by Sylvester. He has one win and five on-the-board finishes in seven starts this year, earning $95,404 in the process.

“As a two-year-old, Pilgrims Chuckie was just an immature colt,” Andrews said recently. “We were banking on him being a nice three-year-old, and here we are. He made a few breaks early on, but that was just inexperience. He was just a big, growthy colt [at two] and he’s finally grown into himself. He trained down super all winter long. In fact, I raced him with trotting hopples last year, and took them off. He’s just matured into a classy individual who handles himself very well.”

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This story courtesy of Harness Racing Communications, a division of the U.S. Trotting Association. For more information, visit www.ustrotting.com.