The 2021 Pennsylvania Fair Circuit got underway with a roar at the Big Butler Fair in Butler, Pa., as the all-age track trotting record of 2:03, set by Dauphin Hanover 27 years ago, was reduced to 2:01.1.
First to lay waste to the record books on Wednesday (June 30), when the three-year-olds raced, was Killer Instinct, who won his Sire Stakes division for driver Brian Zendt, trainer Bob Rougeaux III, and the partnership of Brocious Racing Stable Inc. and Lone Wolf Stable. The Southwind Frank gelding won nine times as a two-year-old, set a divisional track record at Bloomsburg, and recently went wire-to-wire at The Meadows in 1:55.3.
If Killer Instinct at least looked he had some credentials for a fast mile, one of the more unlikely candidates on paper was Who Made Who, a maiden daughter of Creatine who had two second-place finishes and an equal number of breaks in her seven lifetime starts. But she went the mile of her life against some tough opponents to also freeze the timer in 2:01.1. Steve Schoeffel got Who Made Who to break her maiden in a major way for trainer Ashley Brown and fellow owners Chris and Alexa Shaw.
The sophomore pacers produced no records, but both a colt and a filly came within two-fifths of a second of doing so. Last year’s Fair Championship winner, Tiamogonedancin, fresh off a 1:56 mile at The Meadows and timed in 1:51.3 in a Stallion Series race three weeks before that, traveled the Butler oval in 2:00.3, just missing the mark of Crew Sock Hanover, who is also the all-age record holder, set in 2019. The same team who was behind Crew Sock Hanover, owner-driver Dave Brickell and owner-trainer Mitchell York, are also in charge of Tiamogonedancin.
Mitchell and York came right back in the colt pace with Seth Hanover, an Artspeak gelding who won in 2:00.4, just shy of the local mark for male sophomores set by Star Of Terror in 2016 and equaled by Cirrus De Vie in 2018.
Two-year-olds opened the fair season on Tuesday (June 29), and the first race on the circuit this year resulted in the fastest freshman mile — 2:05.1 — from Truthful Meaning, a gelded son of A Rocknroll Dance and Lenore Karidian, who won for driver Cory Kreiser, trainer Robert Barnard, and owner Christian Apel.
Brady Brown and Steve Schoeffel led all drivers at Butler with three victories; Schoeffel also tied for the top in the trainers' derby with two, along with Roger Hammer, Bob Rougeaux III and Mitchell York.
The Fair Circuit is in action again right away on July 1 and 2 with a two-day Sire Stakes meet at the modern training centre at Silver Springs Ranch, about a half hour away from Pocono. First post on Thursday and Friday will be 4 p.m.
(MSOA/PHHA/PFHHA)