A very busy week on the Pennsylvania fair harness racing circuit came to a conclusion with two days of racing at the Crawford County Fair in Meadville, Pennsylvania. The races generated great interest, including at least two people at Pocono’s Sun Stakes Saturday spotted watching the Meadville action via live streaming.
Also attracting a great deal of attention is the International Moni-Arrowstar two-year-old trotting colt Action Shot, who trotted in 2:04, a time surpassing the 2:05.2 track race record of Benezia in 2019 and one of the more unusual lines in the PA fair books, a 2:05.1 victory in a qualifying race by Penn Monie Mosie in 2006. On Saturday, two-year-old day, Action Shot was pressed to the maximum by HS Winchester, a non-winner at the fairs, with Action Shot getting the decision by a nose and adding this mark (which also was faster than any three-year-old trotted during the meet) to the 2:02 all-age track record of Vivid Photo he tied at Honesdale. Todd Schadel trains and drives the colt for himself, wife Christine, and Rick and Regina Beinhauer.
The freshmen are having a field day with the local track records at the PA fairs – of the 13 records set so far this year, 11 of them have come from the two-year-olds, including two of the three all-age track records.
The quickest freshman overall was Lou On The Beach, a Sweet Lou-Rockn On The Beach colt who tacked a :28.3 last quarter on the end of a 2:01.3 mile for driver Mike Wilder, trainer Dan Altmeyer, and the partnership of Diamond Club Racing and David Wills.
In Sunday’s racing for three-year-olds, the Betting Line gelding Aladdin Hanover, who was already the fastest horse of the 2022 local fair season with his 1:56.3 all-age record mile at Hughesville, started things off with the fastest Meadville mile, 2:00.1, for driver Jack Killeen, trainer Jason Shaw, and owner/trainer’s son Mason Shaw.
Driver Aaron Johnston won both “A” divisions of the three-year-old colt trot in 2:05: with Bigly, undefeated in four fair races and a Stallion Series pari-mutuel winner whom he trains for owners Jennifer Johnston and Brian Taylor, and with Father Son, the 2021 Fair Championship winner, a Father Patrick gelding trained by Bill Daugherty Jr. and owned by Susan Daugherty and developing announcer Dylan Daugherty.
This double gave Johnston four wins on Sunday and five overall at Meadville to earn the drivers championship, two ahead of Eric Neal. On the training side, Johnston, Todd Schadel and Mitchell York each harnessed three wins to tie at the top of that column.
The PA Circuit next goes to the Indiana County Fair (the birthplace of actor Jimmy Stewart) for racing on Thursday and Friday, with the races both days starting at 2 p.m.
(Pennsylvania Fair Harness Horsemen’s Association, Meadows Standardbred Owners Association and Pennsylvania Harness Horsemen’s Association)