On a night where Indiana’s brightest harness racing stars were out in full force, Wiggle It Jiggleit was the brightest of them all as he paced to a 1:49.3 victory in the $75,000 Indiana Sires Stakes Final for three-year-old pacing colts on Saturday, May 30 at Hoosier Park Racing & Casino over a sloppy rated track.
Mother Nature was uncooperative as Hoosier Park played host to the first round of $75,000 Indiana Sires Stakes Finals for the three-year-old competitors on Saturday’s 14-race card.
The rain didn’t seem to inconvenience Wiggle It Jiggleit as he posted his 10th consecutive win and second consecutive Hoosier Park victory to remain undefeated in his career.
Leaving from post seven in a talented group of 10, Wiggle It Jiggleit was sent away from the gate firing by driver Montrell Teague to grab the lead through the opening panel in :26. As heavy rain continued to fall, the rest of the field sorted out early position with Rockin Ron and Rick Plano grabbing a pocket seat behind the overwhelming favourite.
Wiggle It Jiggleit continued to dictate fractions of :54.2 and 1:21.1 before ever feeling a threat from the rest of the field. Freaky Feet Pete and Trace Tetrick were the first to pose a threat as they were unable to find a spot along the rail and pressed on to the front after being parked for the much of the mile.
Freaky Feet Pete would finally find the rail as he was able to tuck in behind the leader rounding the final turn, but would have his work cut out for him with Wiggle It Jiggleit inching away with every stride. With Freaky Feet Pete now on his back, Teague asked Wiggle It Jiggleit for more and the colt responded with a :28 final quarter to coast home a winner by a length. Freaky Feet Pete turned in his own impressive performance to grind out a second-place finish after a very taxing mile. Harfo Hanover and Tony Hall rounded out the trifecta.
"The weather didn’t bother me; you’ve got to race in all kinds of weather,” owner George Teague Jr. noted in the winner’s circle. “Good horses you don’t have to make excuses for and we didn’t have to for him tonight, he was able to overcome it.
“He’s had two great races now and did everything we wanted him to,” he continued. “Now, he can go on to those other races and hopefully earn some respect against the other horses. He seems to travel well and be easy on himself so we’ll head to the North America Cup and see how it goes up there."
Wiggle It Jiggleit has been assessed as the 12-1 fourth choice in the Trot Magazine's Pepsi North America Cup Spring Book rankings.
Trained by Clyde Francis, the Mr Wiggles-Mozzi Hanover gelding pushed his career earnings to $142,242 with the victory.
The action-paced night opened with the first $75,000 final for three-year-old trotting fillies and Churita looked every bit the part of a 1-2 favourite as she overcame the outside post nine to score in 1:55.
Driven by regular pilot Trace Tetrick, Churita dictated fractions of :28.1, :57.3, and 1:26 before cruising to a five-length victory. The 1:55 victory was a new lifetime mark for the daughter of Airzoom Lindy-Stonebridge Volare and her second consecutive victory in 2015.
Trained by Matt Rheinheimer and owned by Jackie Porter, Churita has now won 10 of 12 lifetime outings and has amassed $310,725 lifetime.
Fresh off a decisive win in the Indiana Sires Stakes elimination last week, Nora Rockwell and Jason Dillander turned in a gate-to-wire performance to take home top honours in the $75,000 Indiana Sires Stakes Final for three-year-old pacing fillies. Scoring in a lifetime-best of 1:52.2, Nora Rockwell outlasted all challenges from the rest of the field to score her third victory of the season.
“She has matured quite a bit from last year and tonight she was all business,” owner and trainer Marlin Fry noted after the win. “She is doing now what I thought she might always be capable of. Jason [Dillander] has done a great job with her.”
Nora Rockwell is a homebred daughter of Palone Ranger-Norma Rockwell. She has now won seven of 22 lifetime outings while earning $81,072.
While the stakes action switched gears, the weather did not. Rain continued to fall on the Hoosier Park surface, but Homicide Hunter and John Delong seemed unbothered as they scored a decisive victory in the $75,000 Indiana Sires Stakes Final for three-year-old trotting colts. The 1:55.1 was a lifetime-best performance and the second consecutive win from two seasonal outings for the Curt Grummel trainee.
Uninvolved in the early stages of the race, Homicide Hunter was able to avoid traffic trouble and early breakers to put away all challengers in the final eighth of the mile. Using a :27 final quarter, Homicide Hunter held off the heavily favoured Bluebird Reverend and Rick Farrington late in the lane to win by four lengths.
“It wasn’t exactly how I thought the race would play out, but the trip worked out for us,” Delong noted after the race. “We made a couple of adjustments after last week and tonight he was awesome. He’s a perfect gentleman to drive and he does everything you ask of him. He really raced great tonight.”
Homicide Hunter sent his career earnings over the $100,000 mark with the victory. Owned by Dr. Patrick Graham, the son of Mr Cantab-Evening Prayer has now won five of 12 lifetime starts.
Each of the four stakes winners from tonight’s program have now earned points for the $200,000 Indiana Sires Stakes Super Finals. The 2015 Indiana Sires Stakes season will culminate with the top 10 horses from each of the previous $75,000 finals returning to compete in a $200,000 Super Final on October 10 at Hoosier Park.
Live racing will continue at Hoosier Park Racing & Casino on Tuesday, June 2 with a 14-race card.
(With files from Hoosier Park)
I was in Anderson and watched
I was in Anderson and watched this colt race. They postponed the race by about 20 minutes because of rain and lightning.Anderson received 3.3 inches of rain on Saturday, most between 6 P.M and post time for this race. The track crew did a master full job keeping the track safe and in the best shape possible due to the circumstances. This colt is nothing short of impressive. He will be heard of in all the big races this summer I'm sure of it. Hats off to the Teague team and in my opinion to Montrell. For a young guy with limited driving experience he doesn't appear to be intimidated at all. He races the horse how he needs to be raced each time. Good luck to all involved with this animal for the remainder of the year. He is the real deal.