On Tuesday, September 2, Monticello Raceway will host the New York Sire Stakes’ County Fair Circuit finals, which will feature eight $10,000 races for two and three-year-olds of both sexes and gaits.
Harold ‘Joe’ Smith and Doug Ackley are among the trainer/drivers who are stalwarts on the NYSS County Fair circuit. Year in and year out, these very talented horsemen develop colts and fillies that are standouts in their divisions.
And this year is no exception.
Ackley, 70, developed three that will be racing on the card, and he’ll be in the driver’s seat behind each of them. Of the three, J A TO, a freshman trotting colt by Big Apple Deli, has most impressive credentials, with eight wins in nine county fair starts and nearly $11,000 in purse money. His fastest victory was clocked in 2:07.
Ackley’s Amma Crazed, a two-year-old daughter of Crazed that he drives regularly, has three wins and has been on the board in all 11 of her starts. She bankrolled nearly $11,000 for Ackley, who co-owns the filly with Tyra Joanne Ackley.
Over the years, Ackley, from Gowanda, NY, has earned nearly $2 million racing at the New York fairs and has won 793 races, rarely driving over 100 times a season.
At 80 years of age, Harold ‘Joe’ Smith, from Malone, NY, is having one of his best years in the sulky with 26 wins in 67 starts with a UDR of .580. In his career, Smith has driven 953 winners and his mounts — mostly his own — have earned $1.24 million.
He qualified four youngsters for the finals, with his own Stirling Cadet, the favourite to win the three-year-old colt and gelding trot. The altered son of Conway Hall has 10 wins and seven seconds from 19 starts and has banked purses of $32,380 this year with a 1:58.3 record taken at Saratoga Raceway.
And Smith’s Olivias Z Tam, a sophomore Bettors Delight pacing filly, has seven wins, four seconds and $16,343 in 19 seasonal outings. Although Smith did all the driving at the fairs, he’ll hand the lines in the $10,000 finals to Jimmy Devaux.
There will be no live racing at Monticello on Labour Day (Monday, September 1), but on Tuesday, September 2 the NYSS County Fair Finals will be joined by six overnight events on the 14-race card that will kick off with a 12:50 p.m. first-race post time.
(With files from Monticello)