On Thursday, July 11, the horses and horsepeople to be racing at the Lycoming County Fair in this northcentral Pennsylvania borough for the most part had two kinds of luck – not-so-good, and then bad.

The two-year-old program set for Wednesday afternoon was raced, but the early clockings led to the revelation that the track had been “shortened” fractionally during some off-season work, and thus it was decided to disallow all of the winning times, with a plan to correct the situation before Thursday’s three-year-old card.

Except that then it rained and rained some more, soaking the fairgrounds half-miler and making it unraceable, so in safety’s interest the Thursday card was cancelled.

What good luck there was to be had at Hughesville went to a familiar name: “T. Schadel.” This time there were two of them, as Todd Schadel trained and drove three winners, the same figures achieved by his brother Tony, with the latter’s horses making their first fair appearances of the year. Todd started the program driving the winners of the first three races and sulky-sweeping the “A” filly pace, including posting a second fair victory with his barn’s Sweet Ride Hanover and then catch-driving D Applesrsweet for trainer/owner Steve Wetzel. 

Next was Tony’s turn, as he won two of the three heats for trotting colts with Lionheart Hanover and Baby Tao, while Todd won the other section with pupil Born Silly, his second straight at the fairs. Tony would add a third training/driving success with the trotting filly Classy Cocktail, while Todd also brought home a filly trotter he conditions, Casablanca Hanover. 

Many other horsemen had top days with their babies. Driver Eric Neal checked home first on three occasions. Wayne Long drove the horse PHR, with whom he had just gotten his 1000th win at Meadville, and that baby won again for trainer/owner/ former NFLer Oscar Johnson Jr. despite stepping up from the “B” to the “A” ranks.

Todd Schadel has jumped out to the early lead in both driving (18 wins) and training (17), but many others have had a strong start to their fair campaigns. Aaron Johnston (12), Eric Neal (10) and Shawn Johnston and Wayne Long (tied at seven) rank among the top five pilots, while in second-place among trainers is Zan “Pete” Kaiser, who has been the King Of the “B” Sire Stakes with six victories, with a four-way tie for third behind him, just one back, among Aaron Johnston, Shawn Johnston, Tom Loughry Jr., and Steve Schoeffel.

The Pennsylvania Fair Circuit hopes to leave the rain behind it as it travels to Clearfield, the only four-day stand on the circuit. Racing is scheduled for Sunday, Monday and Wednesday at 1 p.m. and for Tuesday at a special post time of 5:30 p.m.

(Pennsylvania Fair Harness Horsemen’s Association, Meadows Standardbred Owners Association, and Pennsylvania Harness Horsemen’s Association)