The first jewel of the Pacing Triple Crown was contested earlier this afternoon at Freehold Raceway, with One More Laugh front-stepping his way to a track record performance
in the 56th edition of the Cane Pace.
One More Laugh and driver Tim Tetrick pocketed Delmarvalous (Brian Sears) mid-way up the backstretch before sprinting by the quarter pole in :26.2 in the $300,000 affair. Tetrick grabbed a bit of a breather on the way to the half, which flashed up in :54.4, but he quickly came under pressure from Im Gorgeous (Andy Miller).
Im Gorgeous only applied mild pressure to the leader up the backstretch, but Rockin Image was drafting on cover from second over. One More Laugh had Im Gorgeous put away at the three-quarter pole in 1:23 before being confronted by Rockin Image heading into the final turn.
Rockin Image was out-sprinted by the mid-way point of the final turn, and that sent him scrambling back down the rail. One More Laugh used a :27.4 final quarter kick to propel himself into Freehold’s track record book. Rockin Image held for the runner-up prize, and Urgent Action (David Miller).
One More Laugh’s 1:50.3 performance shaved one-fifth of a second off the former mark of 1:50.4 set in last week’s elimination by Im Gorgeous.
“I wasn’t going to let anybody go if I could help it at all,” said Tetrick afterwards. “I wanted to be in charge and control. I had the best horse and I wanted everybody to chase me, and I wanted to set my fractions and let them catch me if they could. I got a nice middle half and when I called on him he just excelled and that was a pretty good mile on this track today.”
“I don’t like heat racing, but he’ll be ok,” said co-owner/trainer Ray Schnittker, when quizzed about an upcoming trip to the Delaware County Fairgrounds for the Little Brown Jug – the second jewel of the Pacing Triple Crown. “He’s in everything basically and we’re going to keep going. He’s a gelding, so hopefully he’s got four or five more years of good racing in him.”
The three-year-old son of Mcardle-Fancy Creek Funny, who is owned by breeder Matthias Meinzinger, trainer Schnittker and Jerry Silva of Long Beach, NY, now boasts a 5-4-0 record from 11 trips postward this season after putting together a 9-2-0 rookie record from just 12 assignments. The $150,000 payday bumped the pacer’s 2010 earnings to $1,074,864, while his overall bankroll soared to $1,669,170 with the win.