The Tuesday, June 10 morning qualifiers at Hollywood Casino at The Meadows provided horsemen a glimpse of future locals as well as national stars of harness racing.
Trainer Tim Twaddle’s 14 freshman starters were second to Ron Burke’s 19 starters, but his four victories gave him top honours for the day, and victories weren’t the only thing Twaddle was looking for today.
“Ideally, from the owners down, we want to win, but at this stage a good experience and developing good manners is the main goal,“ Twaddle explained between qualifiers.
One of Twaddle and regular driver Anthony MacDonald’s victories was the Tactical Landing filly, Jailbird Jog. After sitting fourth through a quarter of :34, MacDonald moved Jailbird Jog to the top, leading through middle-half fractions of 1:04.3 and 1:32.2 before cruising in 2:00.3.
Larger stables were not alone in showing off young talent; two smaller operations are setting themselves up nicely for two-year-old summer stakes season.
Mitchell York has developed a reputation for buying moderately priced yearlings and turning them into Sire Stakes contenders. York explained afterwards that Thai Hanover has "shown talent and ability from the beginning" after the son of Stay Hungry's 1:58.4 score.
Spoon Fed, owned and bred locally by Jan and Doug Snyder, made the most of her debut with a 1:57.3, :27.3 last quarter victory. The Stay Hungry filly, trained by Doug Snyder, made a few uncertain steps past the half that driver Mike Wilder described as “talking her over some tire tracks she was looking at, other than that she is a very nice, very fast filly."
Racing at The Meadows resumes on Wednesday, June 11 with a 12-race card at 12:45 p.m.
(With files from the MSOA)