The male pacer Ante Up Hanover and the female trotter Little Town Road, both 2023 Pennsylvania Fair Sire Stakes Championship race winners, were the speed stars during the meeting on Sunday (Sept. 15) and Monday (Sept. 16) at Gratz in eastcentral Pennsylvania, the next-to-last stop on the circuit this year (they go at Bloomsburg on Friday and Saturday at 11 a.m.).

Many eligibles (eight for each of the eight stakes divisions) for this year’s Championships, $25,000 for each group to be held on Friday, October 11 at The Meadows, were solidified, as was some of the jockeying for the blanket in the stable colours that is awarded to the leading pointwinner per division (only “A” races count in these standings) at the Fair Banquet, to be held January 2025 in Bedford PA. 

The Betting Line gelding Ante Up Hanover, with eight wins and a second in nine starts this year and last year’s Champion, checks many of those boxes. During Monday’s three-year-old racing, he went a mile in 1:55.4, fastest mile of the year at the PA fairs, and it was his fifth magic mile over the twicearounds this season, tying him for the top for trainer-driver Todd Schadel, co-owner with his wife Christine.

 The one thing it didn’t do, ironically, was get him a division blanket – and that will go to his stablemate, and fellow Betting Line gelding, Twiggs Pub, who handed “Ante Up” his own fair defeat of the year and who has accumulated more points by racing at more fairs with great success. Cody Schadel drove Twiggs Pub to a second behind Ante Up Hanover, and he shares ownership in the horse with his parents.

Tying Ante Up Hanover at five 2:00 victories was another stablemate (and yet another offspring of Betting Line, and another 2023 Champion), the filly Showboat Hanover, who clinched her blanket with a 1:58.3 win in a close photo with Gingertree Carilin for the Schadels, co-owners with Caitlin Solt.

 Little Town Road (Fordham Road), yet another 2023 Champion maintaining fine form at three, rewrote the Gratz record for sophomore trotting fillies with a win in 1:59.1 (Better Than Betsel scored in 1:59.2 last year). Brady Brown, a five-time winner on the day, guided the winner from the outside post for owner/trainer/driver Roger Hammer.  She didn’t clinch her blanket, though, as Loveyoubunches, eight for nine at the fairs and with the all-time divisional fair record of 1:58.1, was also victorious and kept her mathematical chances alive.

Five trotting colts have a chance to win their cooler at Bloomsburg; Monday’s race winners were Bird And Grenade, undefeated in five outings on the circuit, in 2:00.4, and Cyclone Ben, his sixth straight victory at the fairs, in 2:03.2, completing a Brady Brown-driven / Steve Schoeffel-trained divisional double. 

On Sunday, three more blanket winners competed, although male pacer Wheelhouse Hanover, a nine-time winner on the circuit, was left behind for the second time by Sweet Parlay, the horse to win a race against “Wheelhouse” this year, in a 2:00 mile. The other cut in this division went a tick faster to Bettor Not. 

Two horses for the team of trainer-driver Tony Schadel and co-owner/wife Linda raced to their ninth victories (top figure on the circuit). The Cantab Hall filly Classy Cocktail, the only horse to have entered Gratz (which was celebrating its 150th year as a fair) having assured herself of the point title, won the fastest of her division’s heats in 2:02.2.

A race earlier, the Greenshoe gelding Lionheart Hanover visited Victory Lane for the ninth time during the fairs after a 2:03.1 score, in the process making sure he’ll be nice and warm this winter as he trains back for more accomplishments at three. 

Trainer/driver Aaron Johnson doubled in the freshman pacing filly ranks; the faster winner, Dont Touch My T in 1:59.2, has seven wins and a second in eight starts, but even that enviable record won’t generate her a blanket.

That race will come down to Sweet Ride Hanover, the current leader who may go back to the “A” level after getting a useful race at Gratz against “B” horses, and Its Written (9-7-2-0 vs. the “A”s at the fairs), who completed the Aaron Johnston double in 1:59.4 and still can catch the leader with some racing fortune.

Amazingly, only five drivers won during all 24 of the Gratz races over the two days: Brady Brown and Todd Schadel had six victories, while Aaron Johnston, Eric Neal, and Tony Schadel each recorded four triumphs.

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